The meaning of 'mushi' in Mushishi

There is a special meaning to the word mushi 虫 / 蟲 in Japanese, the nuances of which are lost in its English translation as 'insect' or 'bug'. Here is an excerpt from an article called 'Mushi ga ii (虫がいい)' in Nihongo Omote to Ura 日本語 表と裏 written by Morimoto Tetsurou 森本哲郎 -

そ うした心の不思議を日本人は「虫」として思い描いた。心というものは、自分が欲し、自分が考え、自分が感じる、そういうものである。にもかかわらず、心が 自分の思いどおりにならない場合がしばしばある。ということは、心の中に、もうひとつのべつの心があるにちがいない。日本人はその「ふたつの魂」のひとつ を「虫」と呼んだのである。そして、人間にとって、より根源的なのはこの虫のほうだと考えた。なぜなら、人間が意識を失って、息も絶え絶えになったとき、 日本人はその状態を「虫の息」というではないか。「虫の息」とは体内の虫だけがかろうじて息をしているさまである。つまり、最後まで人間の生をささえてい るのは「虫」なのだ。この意味で日本人の考える「虫」とはフロイトのリビドーに近い。

My translation of the above:

The Japanese characterize such mysteries of the heart as mushi. The heart is what one desires, what one thinks and what one feels. Nevertheless, there are times when the heart does not work the way one would like it to. In other words, there is another heart within one's heart. The Japanese call that 'second soul' mushi. It is believed that, of the two, mushi is by far closer to the depth of one's being. The reason for it is that when one loses consciousness and when one's breathing weakens, the Japanese call that condition 'the breath of mushi'. 'The breath of mushi' means that only the mushi within one's body is left to do the breathing. In other words, mushi is the last thing that supports one's life. In that sense, the Japanese concept of mushi is close to Freud's libido.

Morimoto also provides examples of Japanese idioms that further illustrate the Japanese concept of mushi. For example, 'mushi's notification 虫の知らせ' means a gut feeling for something inauspicious. 

That is what I had in the back of my mind when I watched Mushishi 蟲師 the anime. Mushi in that context are said to be closer to the souce of life than any other lifeforms on earth. They are something between life and death, and between 'things' and 'living beings' (courtesy of Wikipedia Japan).   

A very neat metaphor is mushi, is it not? 

Comments

[Nick]

Oooh... Thanks for this! I'm currently slowly going through this series and loving every minute. This helps with understanding something that I knew was on the tip of the translators tongue in the fansubs, but they couldn't expand on.

[Wabisabi]

Thank you, Nick. It was just a point that is begging to be voiced since I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere so far.

I just noticed that there are typos in my translation. -__- Unfortunately, Typepad is giving me these server timeouts again and I can't post anything or fix something in an existing post. -__-

[Jordan S.]

Don't watch the animation, read the comic. Though the former adds a little something in the animation of the mushi, it takes away the single thing which most made it worth reading for me – Urushibara Yuki's line work. Also, Ginko looks really different in the animation; he's nowhere near as cute.

[Wabisabi]

Well, I have watched the anime already, so the deed is done. I will try to find time to read the manga though.

I think the main character of the whole of Mushishi is really the mountains and not Ginko, but that's just me.

[Wholeman]

Freud's libido would be more of the unthinking sex drive, whereas I believe you mean the Id, or the essential being.

[Wabisabi]

I didn't choose the word 'libido' or 'Id' - I was just translating the word 'libido (リビドー)' straight from the Japanese text, you see.