In this installment of a series, Donald Richie recalls a poignant post-war moment with Nobel Prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata
It was 1947 and the Sumida River, silver in the winter sun, glistened beneath us. Yasunari Kawabata and I were on the roof of the Asakusa subway terminal tower, looking out over downtown Tokyo, still in ruins, still showing the conflagration of two years earlier, the burned concrete black against the lemon yellow of new wood.
Whenever I think of Donald Richie’s early life in Tokyo, somehow the very first image that always springs to mind is of his rooftop conversation with Yasunari Kawabata.
It was a chilly morning in the early spring of 1947. Richie, the tall 23-year-old American GI journalist, dwarfed the frail Japanese novelist, who was older and far wiser, at more than twice his age. They stood high above Asakusa, gazing out over the ruins of a city that the older of the two knew intimately and the younger was just beginning to love.
Parents have long used “time-outs” as a technique to stop unacceptable behavior; however, time-outs are not just an effective punishment. They also give children an opportunity to calm down and gain self-control.
タイムアウト(今いる場所から強制的に退去させ、別の場所で一定 時間過ごさせること)」は、子供の容認できない行動をやめさせる ために以前から用いられている手法です。単なる“お仕置き”で はなく、気持ちを落ち着かせ自制心を養うチャンスを子供に与えるという 効果があります。
