矛盾: Spear+Shield=Contradiction

For those who don't know the Japanese language, its use of Chinese characters or kanji can seem archaic and impractical. And for those studying the Japanese language, the thousands of kanji (and their multiple readings) can simply be maddening. However, there is meaning to this madness.

First, let's look at the English word contradiction.

Contradiction is from the Latin contra (against) dicere (speak), meaning "to speak against". Latin in its logic and...

BORING

Now let's look at the Japanese word for contradiction, mujun.  It is made of two kanji, 矛 (mu) spear and 盾 (jun) shield. What does a spear and a shield have to do with contradiction? It comes from China, so let's give credit where credit is due. In ancient China a merchant selling weapons said "I sell a spear that can pierce anything." And in another place the same merchant said "I sell a shield that is unpierceable." A customer who had heard both pitches asked, "then what would happen if that spear were to strike this shield?" The merchant had no answer and thus we have a...

CONTRADICTION

Now, that's interesting. Also interesting and entertaining is the Japanese show Hoko x Tate Taiketsu or Spear versus Shield Showdown. Wait. Isn't spear mu and shield jun in Japanese? Yes, but mu and jun are the Chinese-style reading. Hoko and tate are the Japanese-style readings. WTF? I never said Japanese and kanji were easy, just meaningful.

The show asks which would win if spears that can pierce anything against shields that can't be pierced are pitted against each other, and pits various products and skills against each other. For example, in the latest episode  a man who has been growing some of the world's best melons for 41 years and can even tell how many days old a melon is just by looking at it, was challenged by the world's best maker of display sample food to see whether he could tell the difference between his real melons and the fake one. The grower stared at each melon, picked out the melon that was his and cut it with a special melon cutter. Finally down to two melons, the grower was able to pick out his melon from the sample. Yes, I'm really talking about fruit.

But if you really want to go there, a past episode pitted one of Japan's top plastic surgeons against the latest NuBra to see if he could spot the woman wearing the NuBra. For five minutes, the doctor stared at the breasts of five bikini clad women. Each time he eliminated a NuBra-less woman she took off her top and showed him her breasts. No, the audience wasn't privy to the view. Anyway, the doctor got down to the last two pairs of breasts, couldn't pick out the woman not wearing the NuBra and lost.

The show is usually not so crass and often showcases interesting technologies and their creators. One showdown was between a Japanese company that makes super strong fans, versus a Belgian or Dutch (I can't remember) man who makes the world's most wind resistant umbrellas. The umbrella had to withstand fan wind and simulated rain for 3 minutes without breaking. The umbrella flexed out of shape but in the end was still operational. The sporting Belgian told his Japanese opponent that he would like to use his fans to test future products and gave him the umbrella as a gift. The Japanese guy wasn't the happiest man, but took it in stride.

The video in Japanese but the production value is high, so it should give you an idea about the show's appeal. This episode featured a revenge showdown between a drill that can make a hole in any metal and a metal that can't be pierced by any drill in a modern day version of the spear versus the shield. The drill lost in the first match. Watch to see which wins the rematch.

Note: YouTube took down the rematch video. This video is from Japanese video site Dailymotion. It's not the rematch video but it should still give you a good idea of what happens when badass drill encounters super badass metal.


ほこ×たて 矛盾 110124 最強ドリルvs最強金属３ 投稿者 plutoatom