German-born writer Hermann Hesse wrote a short story masterpiece called "Jugendgedenken" (Boyhood memories). It is about the main character "I," who is intensely passionate about making specimens of butterflies and moths. The story is also known for tormenting translators, for a reason that has nothing to do with the literary world led by Hesse.
This is because no vocabulary was used in the original story to distinguish between butterflies and moths. I hear that in an unexpectedly large number of countries, including Germany, butterflies and moths are categorized together, so people don't call them by different names. In Japan, of course, we do. Many people probably hunted beautiful butterflies for their collection in childhood.
As I recalled the old days when I used to swing bug nets around, I got a little upset. I recently learned that Japan's national butterfly, the great purple emperor, has drastically declined in number.
It was found to be at the level of an endangered species, according to a survey conducted by the Environment Ministry and other organizations. The Entomological Society of Japan chose the butterfly as the national butterfly in the mid-Showa era (1926-1989) because of its extensive habitat from Hokkaido to the Kyushu region, in addition to its elegant beauty.
Its glowing purple wings can be up to 10 centimeters across, and they stand out in the scenery when flying. Probably because I grew up in the countryside, it never occurred to me that the butterfly was such a rare insect, so the news came as a surprise to me.
I hear there are not as many boys who are avid bug collectors as there used to be, but it would be sad to tell them not to catch them. Yet it would be even more sad if the butterfly goes extinct and can only be seen as specimens.
(This is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Nov. 14 issue.)
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