First-year Japanese
student received the highest mark for an essay written in invisible ink. So,
how was it?
Eimi Haga, 19,
a first-year student of history department at Mie University who studies
ninja history, was supposed to write an essay about visiting the Ninja Museum of Igaryu. However, instead of writing, she
handed to the teacher a blank sheet of paper.
In fact, it was
an essay written using the “Aburidashi” technique - letters in invisible ink.
Ninja used this technique to transmit secret letters and messages.There are
many recipes for making invisible ink. Eimi Haga made ink according to an
ancient recipe used in ninja time - from soybeans. Before writing an essay,
Ms Haga needed to prepare ink. To do this, she soaked soybeans in water for
several hours and prepared an extract from them. She mixed the extract with
water.
"It is something I learned through a book when I was
little. I just hoped that no-one
would come up with the same idea," said Eimi Haga in an
interview with the BBC.
Eimi Haga since
childhood had been interested in the culture and life of the ninja -
interest appeared after she watched the Nintama Rantaro anime series talking
about the ninja.
"When the
professor said that he would praise the creative approach, I decided that I
would write an essay that would be different from the work of other
students," the freshman says.
"I thought
for a bit and it occurred to me to write an essay using the Aburidashi
technique," the girl says.
In order to
read the message written in such a technique, it is necessary to heat the
paper, holding it above the fire.It took the student more than 10 hours to
prepare the ink. After the ink was ready, Ms Haga set to writing an essay —
with a brush, on traditional Japanese washi paper. To make sure that her
composition did not go to the rubbish bin, Ms Haga left in the margins - in
ordinary ink a note: "heat the paper."
The teacher,
Professor Yuji Yamada, admitted that at first he was very surprised to see a
blank sheet of paper with a note.
"I had seen such reports written in code, but never
seen one done in aburidashi," the professor admitted.
"To tell the truth, I had a little doubt that the words
would come out clearly. But when I actually heated the paper over the gas stove
in my house, the words appeared very clearly and I thought 'Well done! "
- says Yuji Yamada.
"I
didn't hesitate to give the report full marks - even though I didn't read it to
the very end because I thought I should leave some part of the paper unheated,
in case the media would somehow find this and take a picture." - says the professor.
According to
the student, her composition attracts more attention to itself by the technique
of execution, but not by content.
"I was
sure that the professor would at least appreciate my efforts to get the
building done creatively. Therefore, I was not very worried about the fact that
I could get a low rating. The content of the composition is nothing
particularly original," says Eimi Haga.
Sources:
1.
Did
you do your homework using original ideas?
2.
What
secret ninja techniques are you aware of? Or what interesting fact from
their lifestyle do you know?
3.
What
do you feel after going to museums? Does it inspire you?
Comments
I don't know much about ninja, but I watched Lego Ninjago with my younger brother. It's a funny fairy tale. Ninja come from Japan and use the dark to creep.
I like to see exhibits in museums and imagine how people used to live. But this is not a job that I do often. It does not inspire me, but it stimulates the brain to think and pleases the eye.
2. Unfortunately, I am not fond of Japanese culture and do not know such subtleties.
3 Well, I don't know about inspiration, but going to museums develops us as individuals.
2. I don't know much ninja techniques, but if you know some, share it, I will gladly teach you;)
3. I love going to the museum, if there is an interesting exhibition, I do it with pleasure. Overall, I'm very interested in history
and the museum is a good place to develop your interests. If you know any nice museum in Warsaw or the surrounding area - share the information!
I wish I could do my homework by siri or AI, but it seems kinda impossible now, so I basically do my homework in a normal way.
2. What secret ninja techniques are you aware of? Or what interesting fact from their lifestyle do you know?
I used to watch many Japanese ninja cartoon in TV when I was a kid, so I know that ninja is like a spy, they are good at hiding themselves and they only wear dark clothes, so I guess it is why this girl try to hide her homework as a ninja, and ninja use ninja darts and Katana which is a ninja sword.
3. What do you feel after going to museums? Does it inspire you?
I like visiting museums, I like to imagine the scene and life of ancient times by watching the historical relics, I would like to experience living 2000 years ago if possible, at least I want to try it for a month.
I can't say that I used such interesting ideas to do my homework, but something interesting to cheer up the teacher usually wrote. I can't give any example right now because these were some of the small things that were used in context, so I just don't remember.
2.What secret ninja techniques are you aware of? Or what interesting fact from their lifestyle do you know?
All I know about ninja techniques is that their name comes from the art of masking ninjutsu, which was first invented not even by them, but by some Japanese monks 2-3 centuries before the appearance of ninjas themselves. And with regard to his lifestyle, I know that, contrary to myth, they almost never wore black suits, because they were mostly masking among people rather than wading into someone's rooms at night. But in the country they were moving in the really interesting clothes of the monks of the komuso - they wore instead of headdresses wicker baskets that completely covered their faces. The ninjas themselves were nothing more than a league of hired killers, spies and saboteurs.
3.What do you feel after going to museums? Does it inspire you?
I love going to history museums and being transported in ancient times, you feel like you are present at those events in those rooms. And this is a great inspiration for the study of history in order to draw upon the knowledge of the generations and thereby to perfect themselves. Because everything that is happening has happened before, just it's looking more modern now, and accordingly you can respond to such events as they once did, but taking into account their mistakes, which in turn makes you more successful. So yes, I feel very inspired after hiking to museums.
2.I don't know much about ninja, but I've heard that they can move without making any noise.
3. To be fair I don't like typical museum, it bores me. Maybe I haven't been in intresting one yet and I should keep visiting them.
Thank you , now I know at least this awesome old ninja technique.
I know totally nothing about ninja techniques or ninjas in general. The things I saw in films probably have nothing in common with the real ninjas :)
It depends on the type of museum. I love modernised museums with the interaction technics, historical are usually quite boring for me.
2) I'm not a ninja, so I'm not educated on their secret techniques, but in history, there were cases of ninjas having close to ten real families that were located in the different prefectures of Japan and were completely unaware of each other existence, all of this just for the goal of conspiration. I don't know how they managed to deal with so many wives at the same time, but in order to please so many women at once, some very strong and very secret techniques should be necessary.
3)I like the good ones and hate bad ones. I guess it is the best way to describe how I feel about them.
2. So they only attacked at night, that's why they dressed only black things. Also they mastered movement around the buildings to perfection and they could move without making any noise.
3. It depends. Most of the time I just feel good that I went to museum and saw something new. But I don't feel that inspires me