The Sound of Silence (Patreon)

First, thank you all for replying to that last post 🫶🙏 .  大好きです〜 

I have ten more chapters to listen through and take notes on today, but before I dive into that, I wanted to write something here because I have quite a few ideas of things I want to share and talk about and I really look forward to these posts.Several weeks ago, I was writing to David about the abundance of onomatopoeia in Japanese manga and one I mentioned was the sound of silence: sheeeen/シーーン.  I promptly forgot  all that when over on Discord the other day there was some talk and Yokai Parade (shoutout!) mentioned it again and I was like, Oh! This can be interesting! 

So, yes, when a scene in a manga is completely silent you'll see the characters シーン or しーん written on the page.

So why is there a sound of silence? 

One theory is that it's the sound you hear when there simply is no sound. If you wake up in the middle of the night and everything is perfectly quiet, you can hear your blood in your ears, a kind of "sheeen" noise. 

Another is that one of the readings for forest is "shin" (森) , so perhaps originally sheen was referring to the deep silence you find when alone in a forest. 

It's a mystery. But I like both theories.

But where did it come from?

It seems there is debate on whether Shotaro Ishimori  (森章太郎) who created Super Sentai (later Power Rangers) and Kamen Rider or Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) who created Astro Boy and Dororo and is considered the godfather of manga invented it.

Tezuka says he was making up all kinds of sounds even where there was no sound. Totally taking credit.

However, apologies to Tezuka sensei and Ishimori sensei, but reading about it right now, the word was used before either of them were even born.

Sheen and sheen-sheen has been used in novels and haiku for ages evidintly. For example, in 1638, there was a haiku that goes:

春をしたへる哥や案ずる お座敷は三月しんとしづまりて

Something like:

The spring approaches,

In the parlor, deep silence—

March tranquility.

So lovely ♡. 

Okay, here's the fun part. Even though the word (written) sheeen means absolute silence, you will hear it used and can use it yourself to convey the same meaning. Either utter silence or no reaction to something. One example could be: 

"Yesterday I took a hike deep in the mountains and it was utterly quiet."

(Kinō yama no oku ni haikingu ni itta. Sheeen to shita.) 

Another: 

"I asked my boss if I could have two months off to travel around Japan. Sheeen." 

But my favorite usage is as a punchline, when someone verbally acknowledges there is silence or no reaction to something.  

A: "Okay, everyone. Who wants to help me clean the sewer?" 

*waiting*

*waiting*

A: "Sheeen."Thank you all always and always ヾ(๑╹◡╹)ﾉ"

XO,

t