I opened my middle school graduation booklet for the first time in years. [1]
In the column asking what I would be like in ten years, I had written “Tunkichi.” All my other classmates had written clear goals: childcare worker, teacher, registered dietitian. Only I had written “Tunkichi.”
What even is Tunkichi?
I looked it up and found nothing. Would “Tonkichi” not have done? Does this one small extra character really make a difference? [2]
It is only a single character’s difference, and yet “Tun” does somehow feel, intuitively, more energetic than “Ton.”
When I mentioned this to a classmate named Ishikawa, he said, “Tunkichi, isn’t that the name of some prophet, like Nostradamus?”
A prophet.
What could it mean for Tunkichi to be a prophet? I could see nothing connecting it to Nostradamus. Even without understanding it, that word stayed lodged in my mind in a way I could not explain.
Throwing caution aside, I drew an illustration of a character called Tunkichi as a yuru-chara mascot. [3] I had a costume made and appeared in it at an event.
Maybe someone who knew something would come and speak to me. An old friend, or a complete stranger, someone who would say, “Oh, I know that one.”
No one reacted at the event at all.
Afterward, I was about to close the graduation booklet when I happened to notice the date. Today was exactly ten years to the day from when the booklet had been written.
Just the other day at that event, I had been wearing the Tunkichi costume.
The prophecy that I would become Tunkichi in ten years had come true.
[1] The sotsugyou bunshu (卒業文集) is a keepsake booklet produced at Japanese school graduations, in which each student contributes a short personal statement. A common feature is a section asking students to describe what they imagine their lives will look like ten years into the future. These booklets are kept and sometimes revisited in adult life, functioning as a kind of time capsule.
[2] In Japanese, “トン” (ton) is an ordinary everyday syllable, while “トゥン” (tun) uses an additional small kana character to alter the phonetic quality of the sound. The result feels slightly foreign and a little more charged, as though the name had been borrowed from another language. The narrator’s instinct that one carries more vitality than the other is genuine phonetic intuition, even if the difference is almost invisible on a page.
[3] Yuru-chara (ゆるキャラ) are Japan’s ubiquitous local mascot characters, typically representing regional governments, companies, or events. The name combines “yurui” (loose, easygoing) with “character.” They are intentionally soft and slightly awkward in design, produced in enormous numbers across the country, and their costumes are commonly worn at public events as a recognized form of community engagement and grassroots promotion.
—
【1分小説】10年後の予言(10作目)
中学の卒業文集を久しぶりに開いた。
10年後こうなっているという欄に、「トゥン吉(きち)」と書いてある。他の同級生は保育士、先生、管理栄養士など、明確な目標を書いている。自分一人だけが「トゥン吉」だった。
そもそも、「トゥン吉」とは何なのか？
調べてみても何も出てこない。「トン吉」ではダメだったのか。この小さい「ゥ」が大事なのか。
一文字の差でしかないが、確かに「トン」より「トゥン」の方が心なしか躍動感がある気がする。
この話を同級生の石川に話すと、「トゥン吉って、確かノストラダムスみたいな預言者の名前やろ」と言った。
預言者。
トゥン吉が預言者とはどういうことなのか。ノストラダムスとの共通点が何一つ見えない。見えないまま、その言葉だけが妙に頭に残った。
思い切って「トゥン吉」というゆるキャラのイラストを描いた。その着ぐるみを作り、イベントにも出演した。
知っている誰かが何か話しかけてくれるかもしれない。古い友人でも、見知らぬ誰かでも、「それ知ってる」と言ってくれる人がいるかもしれない。
イベントで何の反応もなかった。
後日、卒業文集を閉じようとして、ふと日付に気がついた。今日はその卒業文集を書いた日から、ちょうど10年後だった。
私は先日イベントで、「トゥン吉」の着ぐるみを着ていた。
10年後、私が「トゥン吉」になるという予言は当たっていた。