Fly-swatter

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Fly-swatter (haetataki)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Flies and mosquitoes, the ubiquitous companions of summer.
The haiku by Kawahigashi below prompted this research.

The fly-swatter can be made of a metal mesh, nowadays plastic mesh. In olden times, strong leaves of the hemp palm (shuro　棕櫚) had been used in Japanese farmhouses as a sort of home-made swatter. They were hung on the wall, ready to be used at any time.

The hemp palm has been used for other things used in a Japanese home. This kind of swatter is also called the Swatter of a Forest Goblin, Tengu no uchiwa　天狗のうちわ。



Have a look at more hemp palm items.
http://www.wsk.or.jp/work/d/yamashita/01.html

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hae-tataki　蠅叩き（蠅叩）、　蝿叩き（蝿叩）
hae-uchi 蝿打
hae-tori 蝿とり、蝿取
haetataki, haeuchi, haetori


www.illinoisdestinationimagination.org

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Another item is the fly-catching pot. I have one in my home, a present from an old farmer way in the North of Japan, and it works wonders.
It is a glass pot, where you add a bit of sweetened water to lure the flies, mosquitoes and other fiends.



Look at this page with old things from Japanese farmhouses.
http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~miyoshir/mingu/mingu95.html


fly catcher, haetori-ki 蝿取器
..... haetori bin 蝿取瓶
fly-catching can , haetori kan 蝿取缶

fly-catching paper, haetori gami 蝿取紙
.... the sticky one

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... how long has the term fly swatter been around?
In the old days, didn't we just reach for anything... as Gabi mentioned, a newspaper? In the haiku by Hekigodo, 'this', seems to be a contemporary fly swatter.. a play on words. You buy something with a name that alludes to its intended us... but until you actually 'use' it, it's what.... nothing?
It's still a fly-swatter by design in my opinion.
C.san


Nowadays, we even have electronic, electric ones ...

Daruma san and many others are using a . fly whisk (flywhisk) 払子, hossu . to get rid of the flies in his sourroundings.

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Flies can't eat solid food. When a fly lands on food, the fly vomits on it in order to soften the food. The fly grinds the vomit into the food until the food becomes a liquid. Germs can be introduced during this process. When the food becomes a liquid, the fly drinks the liquid. When the fly has finished eating, it is now your turn to eat.

Not only do you contend with flies, there's also the mosquitoes, moths, and spiders that enter your house as uninvited guests.



Light and portable, the Electric Fly Swatter zaps bugs instantly without smears & smudges on your walls, windows and furniture. Just press the button to activate and the grid quickly zaps mosquitoes, flies, and other pesky bugs.
http://www.fightwestnilevirus.com/electric-fly-swatter.html

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Worldwide use

Germany

Fliegenklatsche

A visitor to a German farmhouse in the olden days complained to the mother about the many flies in the outhouse, when he was on his morning duty sit-in. She answered: "Best go shortly before lunchtime. Then the flies are all here with me in the kitchen!"

Click HERE to see more of the German versions of this instrument.

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Things found on the way

The term fly-flap first was used in modern English in 1735 as a noun. There is a corresponding transitive verb, and a further noun, flyflapper, one who kills flys.
The term swat first appeared in 1615 as a verb. Fly-swatter may be more used in American English than British English, but I see no reason why the instrument and the person should not have the same name.
Hugh Bygott, a discussion



The History of the Fly Swatter, an American Story
As Published in Quilted Northern "100 Anniversary Bathroom Book"

THE FLY SWATTER.
Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine of the Kansas State Board of Health was watching a baseball game in Topeka in 1905. It was teh bottom of the eighth inning , the score was tied, and Topeka had a man on third. Fans were screaming "Sacrifice fly! Sacrifice fly!" to the batter, or "Swat the ball!" Crumbine, who'd spent much of the game mulling over how to reduce the spread of typhoid fever by flies during hot Kansas summers, suddenly got his inspiration: "Swat the fly!"
Crumbine didn't actually invent the fly swatter; he just popularized the idea in a front-page article titled "Swat the Fly", in the next of Fly Bulletin.
A schoolteacher named Frank Rose read the article and made the first fly swatter out of a yardstick and some wire screen.
Rose called his invention a "fly bat." Dr. Crumbine renamed it "fly swatter."
http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20338


Advertisement for "The King Fly Swatter" from 1901, June, issue of Ladies Home Journal.


The above text reads:
The King Fly Killer - Kills Without Crushing - Soils Nothing
The wire being almost invisible the flies and mosquitos are quickly killed, thus clearing your house of them in only a few minutes. A prominent lady has said,
"It is the most prized article in my home."
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blflyswatter.htm

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Tengu, the long-nosed forest goblin
by Gabi Greve

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Cartoon of the Japan Times about Swatting Roaches



© Japan Times, July 2, 2006

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HAIKU

蝿打つまで蝿叩なかりし
hae utsu made haetataki nakarishi

Kawahigashi Hekigodo

I was reminded of this haiku above just yesterday, June 28, 2006.
We had human visitors, sitting outside enjoying freshly baked bread. There were also a few visitors from the animal realm. As they grew more noisy, one human took the nearby newspaper, rolled it hard and ... SWAT ! thus ended the life of one fly. And then a few more.

My translation of the haiku, which seems pure shasei (sketching from reality) in this context, would thus be:

until I hit that fly,
this was not
a fly-swatter

Translation and discussion by Gabi Greve



Until I hit the fly, the fly-swatter did not exist.
(Tr. Ueda Makoto)

Discussion of this translation by Hugh Bygott

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蝿打てけふも聞也山の鐘
hae uchite kyô mo kiku nari yama no kane

while swatting a fly
today again...
the mountain temple bell



老牛も蠅はらふ尾は持にけり
oi ushi mo hae harau o wa mochi [ni] keri

even the old cow
has a fly-whisking
tail



打って打ってと逃て笑ふ蝿の声
utte utte to nogarete warau hae no koe

swat! swat!
the escaping fly buzzes
with laughter

More fly haiku by Issa, (Tr. David Lanoue)

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> > > fly swatter
> > > Buddhist monks sure aim
> > > at nothing

> fly swatter
> a Zen monk's sure aim
> at nothing

"chibi" (pen-name for Dennis M. Holmes)

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summer drizzle ~
the cow swirls the tail
swats the flies

©　Narayanan Raghunathan , India, April 21, 2005

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Related words

***** Mosquitoe (ka)　蚊

***** Fleas and lice (nomi, shirami) louse


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