Abstract
Kenji Miyazawa is one of the most popular literary men in Japan. He was well grounded in geology because he was highly educated for geology. Therefore geological issues underwent a good infl uence on his literary productions. For example, he used colors of minerals to represent atmospheric phenomena such as colors of sky, cloud, mist, sunshine etc. However, the past annotations for technical terms of geology in Kenji's literary works are much doubtful from the viewpoint of geologists. I, a geologist, would like to introduce some examples of the investigation about his intended discrepancy between strict description of geological terms and literary expressions.
1. Kenji ventured to adopt technical terms which were not always ordinary in even his days. For example, he used the term“ gastaldite” , blue-colored minerals to express blue ship beacons. But in general“ glaucophane” is used. Kenji used the former in order to make rhythm“ da-da-da” in his poem.
2. Kenji also adopted wrong technical terms purposely. For example, he used“ dihexagonal pyramid” as a crystal form of quartz. He said it is originated from high quartz in rhyolite or dacite, therefore they must be“ hexagonal bipyramid”. Of course he understood the difference between them, however he adopted the former wrong terms purposely because the former term is more beautiful in Japanese linguistic sense.
3. Special pronunciations of technical terms peculiar to Kenji were used. For example, he read Lepidodendron, a plant fossil as“ Rinboku” in Japanese. Today“ Rinboku” is common pronunciation, however it was named“ Urokogi” originally as Japanese name, therefore the latter was also common in Kenji's days.
