Invite a demon

Ritsuko Inami's mother

There was only one superstition that scared the mother of the Chinese literature scholar. It is that if you do not cover a mirror, you call in "a demon." Is it because she is torn into two in front of the mirror or making up is in the middle of making a dangerous transition to another herself? Then, people who put on their makeup calmly in public may know the scarier fact that their real selves are already the product of makeup. From "The Enjoyable World Of Chinese Literature."

October 1,  2017

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun