へのへのもへじ is more than likely the oldest japanese 絵文字 “émoji“. “An emo-what ?!”. émoji is a 絵 “drawing” made of 文字 “characters”. In other words, it is equivalent of the smileys used in chat messaging : 
. However, you don’t need to turn your head to decipher 絵文字 “the japanese smileys”. For instance, the equivalent of is ^_^ .
Let’s go back to へのへのもへじ “hénohénomohéji“. It is a 顔 “face” made of the following 平仮名 “japanese characters” : へ “hé” for the eyebrows and the mouth, の “no” for the eyes, も “mo” for the nose, and じ “ji” for the face with two drops of sweat (my guess). For a long time it used to be へへののもへじ “héhénonomohéji” but you will agree that this one is more difficult to pronounce correctly. There are plenty of faces made of 平仮名 “japanese characters” like the spouse of mister Hénohénomohéji : へめへめくこひ “héméhémékukohi” !
Mr Hénohénomohéji is working in the fields. His job is to scare the crows. Well, he is trying. For his defence we shall say that is deaf-mute and planted into the ground. You probably guessed that it is a 案山子 “scarecrow”. It is interesting to note that the 漢字 “chino-japanese characters” used for かかし “scarecrow” : 案 “proposal, suggestion”, 山 “mountain” and 子 “child”. Is it that scarecrows are some kind of mountain guide ? In fact, it is a bit more complicated than that.
It all started with the god 久延毘古 “Kuébiko”. This god is known for his impressive knowledge. Unfortunately, his two legs are paralyzed. His red face might seem scary at first but overall he is very friendly and always happy to answer the questions of the travellers. Kuébiko is also introduced under a different name in the 古事記 “the register of the ancient facts” : 山田之曾富騰 “Yamada-no-sohodo”. The 古事記 also mentions that according to a collection of essays on popular songs, 曾富騰 is equivalent to 曾富豆 which is a doll placed in the fields to scare the animals. It seems that scarecrows spread from the first the half of the 12th century. But we still don’t understand why the god Kuébiko suddenly became a scarecrow , right ?
If we analyze 山田之曾富騰 “Yamada-no-sohodo”, we have 山田 “the paddy rice field in the mountain”, 曾富 which seems to come from 赫 “red*2″ and 騰 said to be equivalent to 人 “human”. From there we learn from the dictionnary that 赫 can also be read as かが. Also, the kanji 子 “child (~human)” is considered to show more respect than 人 “homme”. This leads us to the old pronunciation of かがし “scarecrow”.
A lit bit more digging into the 広辞苑 “japanese-japanese dictionnary Kôjien” in my electronic dictionnary revealed that 案山子 has several pronunciations : そおど, そおず, そほず and particularly そほど. The use of the Kanji 案 “proposition, opinion” comes from the advices that Yamada-no-sohodo was sharing with travellers. Who would have guess that the japanese scarecrows had a divine origin ?
Like always, this is an excellent article, I have to admit that I have never seen any website about Japan talking about mister HENOHENOMOHEJI ! Now, you should get a picture of his wife HEMEHEMEKUKOHI
!
Thanks,
I had the choice between writing about “playstation 3 hitting the stores in Japan” or “Mister Henohenomoheji”.
That was a tough choice
Thomas of “la rivière aux canards” blog chose to write about the PS3
I definitely have to find an unexpected subject to write about on the release day of the Nintendo Wii
I don’t even know (care) when it will be available
???
désolé absolument aucune idée ! mais en allant sur le site de nintendo je pense qu’il doit y avoir une date…
Vraiment sympa ce blog! Je prends beaucoup de plaisir à apprendre des choses impossibles à trouver ailleurs sur le web francophone!
Sinon,la Wii est sortie aujourd’hui aux Etats Unis,sort le 2 Décembre au Japon et le 8 Décembre sur le vieux continent…
C’est toujours un excelent site!
Pour epouvantail ce n’est peut etre pas la peine de mettre un ル a la fin, non ?! エプヴァンタイー wa ii ja nai ka naaa !?
Merci,
C’est vrai, il y a une erreur dans la prononciation d’épouvantail en caractère japonais. Je vais opter pour une prononciation similaire à éventail telle qu’elle est écrite dans mon dictionnaire. Cela donnera donc エプヴァンタィユ.
Ca a beau rester un debat d’expert, vous etes passionnant les enfants ! Et encore, je ne connais casiment rien aux kanjis !
Franchement, nous ne pouvons qu’avoir honte nous, blogamateur… La voie est encore longue avant de rejoindre le maitre ;-p
Sly,
Il n’y a ni maître, ni honte à avoir. Chacun est libre de faire ce que bon lui semble.
Ce blog me sert notamment de support pour mon apprentissage de la langue japonaise. Je pense que pour se perfectionner il n’y a rien de tel que d’écrire à propos de choses dont on ne sait presque rien initialement.