Dedicated to Aho-no-Sakata

When I was working, I used to say to my subordinates, “Don't talk exhaustively. Talk symbolic”.

That means, for example, something like this:

If you want to explain that everyone knows something, you could say, “Mr. A knows about it, Mr. B, Mr. C,…, and Mr. Z as well. So, everybody knows about it”.

That is logically very true, but some people will get sick of hearing such long-winded explanations.

If you want to convince people of that, it is quicker to say, “Even Aho-no-Sakata knows about it”.

Do you know Aho-no-Sakata?

He was a famous comedian who belonged to Yoshimoto Kogyo for a long time. His real name was Toshio Sakata, but he was rather known as Aho-no-Sakata, which literally means Sakata the idiot.

He was selling his stupidity to get laughs from the audience, and his tricks were truly exquisite.

But he passed away at the end of last year. Alas! What metaphor can I use to explain this from this year?

We really loved him so much that we were able to refer to his stupidity without the constraints of politeness.

I miss him. And in his passing, I feel that he was never an idiot, but may have known more than us. But if he would allow it, I would like to keep using this metaphor.

May his soul rest in peace.