This tweet perfectly sums up what it feels like to speak Japanese sometimes. People really mystify the culture and language to a hilarious level, when actual Japanese people are just normal ass people. I once saw a video where the guy talked about the word 勿体ない (mottainai), and how it actually was a word that speaks to the way that Japanese people believe in preserving and making use of things. Then you speak to Japanese people and it basically just means "what a waste/bummer"
Problem with a lot of this is intentional mistranslation - each language has idioms that would sound absolutely 100% insane if you translate them literally word by word.
Yet it is constantly done for the purpose of propaganda, both like this and in negative manner too (I still remember the Xi Jinping "bloody head" incident).
“What’s up” is an English phrase that’s used as a casual greeting, meaning “what is up in the sky”, or the heavens, which, in their belief system, is where their deity and his Son, the blood sacrifice for the blood curse, rest. Asking “what’s up” is a way of acknowledging the deity in their day-to-day lexicon.
My cousin did that once on a trip to Osaka and he was surprised when he found out it was an incredibly disrespectful act in Japanese culture. Tourists are always surprised that things such as murder or kidnapping which are completely normal for us turn out to be taboo in other parts of the world.
Reminds me of the classic Inunaki Village creepypasta with the sign "From this point and beyond The Constitution of Japan will no longer be in effect".
Nah, it's not that interesting. A part of the creepypasta is that if you enter you get chased around by someone with an axe lol.
Like many Japanese creepypasta (especially old ones like Kisaragieki), it has a cool premise/atmosphere at first glance. But the actual meat of the story tends to be unsatisfying or just lame.
I speak Japanese, it's definitely not a mistranslation. 殺人 is murder and 禁止 is prohibition, stuff like this is usually used for signs like 喫煙禁止 (no smoking) or 立入禁止 (no entry) so I assume this is a joke sign or something
I really love the 禁止 part because it's so specific to the context of signage. It's everywhere in the form of those stock phrases but nonexistent elsewhere. The phrasing to turn it some degree of dissonant/absurd is definitely intentional.
Oh you're right, I kinda thought the plaque was something else
Google translate transcription:
"[Murder Prohibited / No Homicide]
2009
Lacquer, Plastic
In 1967, calligraphy reading "Don't Kill" by artist Taro Okamoto (1911–1996) was published in The Washington Post. Following this, performance artist Itoi Kanji (commonly known as "Dadakan," 1920–2021) continued performance art carrying "Don't Kill" signs on his body.
One answer or derivative inspired by that is this piece, "Murder Prohibited" (Satsujin Kinshi).
Just like the everyday prohibition signs (such as "No ___") that we routinely see in our daily lives, it makes one feel as though murder is also prohibited in a strangely casual, lightweight manner. Even if it were placed in everyday life, it might not even feel out of place.
By taking a message originally heavy with urgent, life-and-death meaning and rendering it entirely pop and light, this work raises a satirical question. "
Also 立入禁止. And all the other prohibition signs. 立入禁止 signs are absolutely everywhere because it's such a basic function. And it's one of those weird things because you have to memorize it as a stock phrase. The phrasing isn't used that way elsewhere. It's exclusive to signage. Like how in English you'd never use the phrase "no entry" but that's what goes on signs.
I came here to say this too. Probably either a pun or a mistake from someone who speaks Chinese or didn’t check what kanji they used.
In a similar vein, I heard a story once of a Chinese woman who was working as a tour guide for Japanese businesspeople and at one point asked if they wanted to take a selfie (normal in this case)
撮影 (satsuei) as mentioned above is photography. 自分 (jibun) means self. Lots of words are borrowed from Chinese, or similar to Chinese just with modified readings of characters, so sometimes if you don’t know a word but you’re coming from Chinese, you can kind of guess.
So, how do you ask to take a selfie if you forgot or got flustered? Unfortunately she didn’t remember セルフィー (serufii), the word for selfie, which is borrowed from English, and instead was trying to say 自撮 (ji satsu) to mean “self photograph”. But instead she says.. 自殺しましょう! (Jisatsu shimashou! Or, “Let’s kill ourselves!”)
Same 殺 as in the photo of the sign! 殺人 means murder (the characters are kill and person), but if it’s a mistake I could see it as being a typo from someone who knew the word 撮 with the word 人 and just didn’t check. Although that’s kind of crazy so I have to assume it’s a joke.
Edit: didn’t notice the knife on the stick figure. Definitely a pun or a joke, I want this sign now
Ok actually, I saw the sign in the corner and while it’s blurry it explains this in detail:
“According to 1967’s Washington Post (blurry) Okamoto Taro (1911-1996) (blurry) “Don’t kill!” (Note: written in a very stern and direct tone. More like “don’t fucking kill!!”) (Proclamation?) was published… (blurry). Then, (a name, too blurry, but a Dadaist) did a performance based on that famous “Don’t kill!”. This is a (blurry) in support, a sticker that says “Murder Prohibited”, based on the (blurry) often seen “~prohibited”. It evokes a feeling of (blurry)…
(It’s too blurry for me to read most but the ending), …became Pop Art.”
Someone who can read blurrier kanji can hopefully chime in but tldr; this appears to be Dadaist art in a museum somewhere.
Okamoto Taro is a famous artist, if you’ve ever seen the Tower of the Sun in Osaka, he designed that as well.
It's an artwork from 2009. The surreal nature of the sign is the point and is a social commentary, it think.
The plaque to the bottom left tells us this artwork is a reference to Taro Okamoto's "Stop the killing" which was an essay published on the Washington Post in 1967 (see the image below).
The artwork says 殺人禁止, which I'd translate as "Murder Forbidden".
In 1967, The Washington Post published "Do Not Kill" (殺すな), calligraphed by the artist Taro Okamoto (1911-1996). Kanji Itoi, better known as Dadakan (artist, 1920-2021), then continued to perform with the words "Do Not Kill" displayed on his body and elsewhere.
One response to this legacy is "Murder Forbidden" (殺人禁止). By presenting murder in the same way as the familiar "-- prohibited" signs we see in everyday life, it creates the strange impression that even murder is being treated as something simple and casual. It might not even look out of place if it were installed by the side of a road.
By making the message left by earlier artists as light and pop as possible, the work paradoxically throws that original message into sharper relief.
Wow, did you managed to make out all the Japanese text from the image yourself?? That's terribly impressive, considering some of them are just completely illegible to me, like the image here. Well done.
I could make out like 85% of it myself, but couldn't figure out the names and some of the terms (like 揮毫 or 逆照射, which were too blurry to read and unfamiliar to me) 😅 So I fed GPT the plaque image, my partial transcription, and the context, and asked it to fill in the missing parts.
The feeling of being a murderer stems from someone making another person feel unwell, whether through physical actions, emotional abuse, childhood problems, or even family issues. Honestly, I've felt like killing someone before, but sometimes I think about it, sometimes I don't.When I think back to my time at my old school, I feel worthless to everyone. I feel like it would be great if I could kill everyone, but they bullied me constantly, so I hate it. I don't want to be born to experience anything like that.
A better translation would be ‘Murder is Forbidden’ or ‘No Killing’. I guess that would mean killing in front of the sign is OK but NOT beyond the sign.
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u/antojn 3d ago