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Subject: Re: yubi-kiri
From: TAKASUGI Shinji (tssf.airnet.ne.jp)
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 16:22:00 GMT
References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

> In the old days, kids used to chant that. Nowadays, some kids still go through the yubi-kiri ritual, but I'm not sure if they know what it really means. Kids now don't know the chant, but in rural areas they might.

The yubi-kiri chant is still very popular, at least here in Yokohama, very near Tôkyô. My two-year-old daughter learned it at her nursery school. I have been living here since I was born, and my daughter and I chant the same way: "Yubi-kiri gemman, uso tsuitara hari sembon nomasu, yubi kitta!" Gemman is supposed to mean to punch ten thousand times.


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