“You don’t look very happy,” the Public Information chief commented. “Weren’t you satisfied with the article?”
“It’s not that. I wanted to confirm something about dialects to see if I had a usable clue or not.”
“And what would satisfy you would be to find out that the Tohoku dialect is used in some other region. Is that it?”
“Yes,” Imanishi nodded. “But from reading this, I’m convinced that there’s no possibility.”
“Hold on a minute,” the Public Information chief said, thinking of something. “This encyclopedia only gives summaries. It might be better for you to take a look at a more specialized book.” He drummed on the edge of his desk. “A university classmate of mine is a Japanese language specialist at the Ministry of Education. He might be able to give you some information. I’ll call him right now.”
After talking to his friend on the telephone he turned to Imanishi. “He wants you to go to his office and talk to him directly. I’ll write you an introduction if you want to see him.”
“Yes, I’d like to talk to him,” Imanishi said.
Imanishi got off the train at Hitotsubashi and walked toward the Imperial Palace moat until he came to a weathered white building. It was a small structure with a sign at the entrance identifying it as the National Language Research Center.
He gave his name card to the receptionist. A thin man in his forties came down the stairs, Kuwahara, the Ministry of Education specialist who was the Public Information chief’s classmate.
“So you’re wondering if the Tohoku dialect is used in some other region?” Kuwahara said.
“Yes. I’ve come to ask you if there is a region like that.”
“1 wonder,” the specialist cocked his head. “There are a few instances of the Tohoku dialect being used in areas settled by people from Tohoku. For example, there is an area in Hokkaido that was settled by aa entire village from the Tohoku area, and so the dialect is spoken there. But I haven’t heard of any places on the main island of Honshu. Just what is it that you are checking on? I assume that it’s related to a case.”
Imanishi described the case briefly.
The specialist thought for a while and asked, “Was it
“The witnesses said it sounded like it. The victim and his companion had only a short conversation, so we can’t be certain, but all five witnesses said it seemed to be Tohoku dialect.”
“Is that so? And yet they were not from the Tohoku region?” the specialist asked.
“We discovered later that one of the men-the victim-was not from that area at all. He was from Okayama Prefecture, in the opposite direction.”
“What? Okayama Prefecture?” The specialist muttered to himself. He thought hard for a moment, and said, “Please wait a minute,” and stood up.
He walked over to a bookcase and pulled out a volume. He stood there reading for a while. When he walked back over to where Imanishi sat waiting, he was smiling.
“This book is about the dialects in the Chugoku region.” The specialist handed the thick volume to Imanishi. “Here, why don’t you read this section?”
From the look on the specialist’s face, Imanishi could guess what he had discovered. He eagerly read the passage indicated.
The Chugoku dialect refers to the spoken language of the Sanyo and San’in routes composed of the five prefectures of Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Tottori, and Shimane. The dialect is subdivided into two groups. One is named Unho dialect from the three areas of Izumo, Oki, and Hoki; and the other, used in other areas, we shall term Chugoku main dialect.
Examples of Unho dialect include the existence of the labial sound in the “h’s”; the faintness of the sounds “ie.” “shisu,” and “chitsu”; the existence of the sound “kwo”; and the dominance of the “shye” sound. This has caused scholars to expound various theories to explain the similarities in phonemic phenomena between two widely separated regions. One theory is that the Japan Sea coast region once was in a single phonemic unit that was invaded by the Kyoto area dialect, splitting the linguistic region… The phonemics of Izumo are similar to those of the Tohoku dialect.
When Imanishi had read this far, his heart started pounding. There
Kuwahara had found another source for Imanishi. This was called
“This map illustrates that hypothesis.” Kuwahara pointed.
The map used different colors to indicate the dialect regions. The Tohoku area was colored yellow. The Chugoku region was blue. But within the Chugoku region, one section of Izumo was colored yellow.
“It’s amazing,” Imanishi said, letting out a big sigh.
“This is the first that I’ve heard of it. Thanks to your question, I’ve learned something myself,” the specialist said.
“Thank you very much,” Imanishi said and stood up.
“Has this been helpful?”
“Yes, it’s been very helpful. Thank you for your time.”
It had been worth it to come all this way. Indeed, the results exceeded his expectations. Miki Ken’ichi was from Okayama Prefecture, which was right next to the Izumo area.
Before catching the streetcar, Imanishi stepped into a nearby bookstore and bought a map of Shimane Prefecture. Unable to wait until he reached headquarters, he went into the coffee shop next door to the bookstore. He ordered an ice cream that he didn’t even want and spread the map out on the table. Now he was searching the Izumo area for the syllables “Kame.” The map was full of tiny characters that looked like small insects. It was difficult for him to read each name. Going to the window he searched methodically from the right-hand edge of the map. All of a sudden he found it. There was a town beginning with “Kame.”
Kamedake was west of Yonago, near Shinji. Deep in the hinterlands of Izumo, Kamedake was right in the middle of the
Imanishi hadn’t forgotten that Miki’s adopted son had said, “Father had been a policeman.” Had he been a policeman in Shimane Prefecture? He felt he was on the right track now. He felt a surge of excitement flow through him. When he reached headquarters, he hurried to his section chief. Showing him the map, he explained the linguistic theory in detail from the notes he had taken.
“You’ve made quite a discovery.” The section chief’s eyes glowed. “I think you’re right. So what are you going to do about it?”
“I thought,” Imanishi responded, forcing himself to remain calm, “that since Miki’s son told us that his father had been a policeman before he opened his general store, it’s possible that Miki was stationed in this Kamedake. I’d guess that Miki and the man with him in that bar had known each other when he was stationed there. Perhaps the other man had once lived in Kamedake.”
The section chief took a deep breath and said, “You may be right. Let’s ask the Shimane Prefecture police to find out whether a Miki Ken’ichi ever served as a policeman there. That’s the next step.”
“I’d be grateful if you’d do that,” Imanishi said.
Three days later they received a response from the Shimane prefec-tural police. The section chief showed Imanishi the report as soon as he came in that morning.
As a result of the investigation concerning Miki Ken’ichi, we have discovered that said person served as a policeman in the Shimane Prefecture Police Department from 1928 until 1938. Said person’s record was as follows:
February 1928: officially appointed as Shimane Prefecture policeman, assigned to Matsue station. June 1929: transferred to Kisuki station, Ohara county; January 1933: promoted to chief of police; March 1933: transferred to Minari station, Nita town, Nita county, assigned to Kamedake substation. 1936: promoted to assistant inspector, became chief of patrol at Minari police station. December 1, 1938: retirement at own request.
Imanishi sighed involuntarily.
“It’s just what you thought, isn’t it?” the section chief said, still at his side. “Miki was a policeman in the
