Kaii to Otome to Kamikakushi - Vol. 6 Ch. 58 - Pure Land of Mice - Part 2

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the chapters

 

[comeonnow0]

I love that setting, it reminds me of some dreams I had.
A sprawling maze-like world, full of all kinds of items stored about like in an endless attic, hiding just behind the walls of buildings that no one remembers why they were built.
Deserted concrete paths that run parallel to busy streets, separated only by a waist-high wall and some grating, yet which do not appear on maps, and those who walk them, though plainly visible, are ignored by the passersby on the other side.
Underground paths that connect the emergency exit of a cinema to a forgotten and partially walled-off basement behind someone's oven.
Transparent footbridges tucked between skyscrapers, leading only to a view of the city.

Similar vibes are found in Panpanya's works, as well as the game "Creaks".

 

[NotSomeone]

Nezumi no Jodo (Pure Land / Paradise for Mice) is an old Japanese folk tale where an old man (sometimes a dumpling seller, sometimes he just happened to have dumplings on him) gave small dumplings to a mouse, who in gratitude then invites him to the underground mice paradise, where all the mice live in abundance and happiness and share it with the old man. It's a Buddhist tale teaching the fundamentals of, well, Pure Land Buddhism, with the moral of the story being that humans need to look under the surface (literally in the story) and see that the struggles of everyday life is pointless. It's similar in idea to Jesus's "Consider the lilies" sermon in Luke 12:27. This tale is associated with the Boddhisattva (or Buddha, or deity, depending on sect) Daikoku-ten/Mahakala. If you play FGO, Nezumi-jodo is Daikokuten's Noble Phantasm.

However, this chapter and its story most likely references John Calhoun's infamous 1968 rat utopia experiment, which is often translated into Japanese as nezumi-jodo as well. In this experiment, Calhoun created a "perfect" (by human standards) environment for rats to thrive in and started raising several generations of rats in it, terminating the experiment in 1973. Calhoun's team discovered that the rat population actually collapsed after a while because once all competitive factors had been removed from the environment they simply stopped breeding. Or rather, a population of satisfied rats stopped competing for mates and over time newer generations adopted the same non-breeding lifestyle.

For anyone wondering.

Matthew 6:28-34 (Luke 12:27-34) NIV:

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

[Swift]

So... who's gonna tell the Pikamee group the good news?

Spoiler: Reincarnation

 

[Quieo]

The science history institute has a fascinating article on the subject: https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/mouse-heaven-or-mouse-hell/

I'd heard all kinds of explanations for what happened in the mouse study. People have been projecting their political beliefs onto the study since the 60s, and it turns out that we should be cautious when doing so, because the results of the experiments are more complicated than they appear at first blush. Here are some of the things from the article that I found surprising:

The mice didn't simply "stop breeding," overcrowding lead to high levels of stress, and a big part of the fall in the mouse birth rate was due to neglect and infant mortality - so we can't easily draw an analogy between the mouse colonies and falling birthrates in the human developed world, where these are not major factors in the decline.

One interesting thing stands out: so-called "alpha" mice at the top of the hierarchy normally fight other mice for mates, and the losers, what they called "dropout" mice, will normally escape in the wild to do their own thing elsewhere - in the study however, they had nowhere else to run to, and their constant attacks on the alpha mice and their mates weakened them beyond the point where they had energy to reproduce.

The original study also described groups of these dropout mice just brawling viciously amongst themselves for apparently no reason (I want to describe it as mouse fight club, but that would be an act of projection!).

Seen in this light, the deviant asexual mice, who gave up on reproducing and spent their time grooming, were engaging in behavior that would have allowed them to avoid getting killed in the dropout mice brawls. It might have been the "smart" move on an individual level.

In short it was a bad experiment as it didn’t actually replicate what mice actually need but rather what we think they need.

 

[Quieo]

Nezumi no Jodo (Pure Land / Paradise for Mice) is an old Japanese folk tale where an old man (sometimes a dumpling seller, sometimes he just happened to have dumplings on him) gave small dumplings to a mouse, who in gratitude then invites him to the underground mice paradise, where all the mice live in abundance and happiness and share it with the old man. It's a Buddhist tale teaching the fundamentals of, well, Pure Land Buddhism, with the moral of the story being that humans need to look under the surface (literally in the story) and see that the struggles of everyday life is pointless. It's similar in idea to Jesus's "Consider the lilies" sermon in Luke 12:27. This tale is associated with the Boddhisattva (or Buddha, or deity, depending on sect) Daikoku-ten/Mahakala. If you play FGO, Nezumi-jodo is Daikokuten's Noble Phantasm.

However, this chapter and its story most likely references John Calhoun's infamous 1968 rat utopia experiment, which is often translated into Japanese as nezumi-jodo as well. In this experiment, Calhoun created a "perfect" (by human standards) environment for rats to thrive in and started raising several generations of rats in it, terminating the experiment in 1973. Calhoun's team discovered that the rat population actually collapsed after a while because once all competitive factors had been removed from the environment they simply stopped breeding. Or rather, a population of satisfied rats stopped competing for mates and over time newer generations adopted the same non-breeding lifestyle.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I get the impression the story of this arc is about stop running away and instead coming to terms with your own feelings possible through finding connections in other. I get the feeling the author is setting up another romance between Tomoyasu and the rabbit girl probably to link back to in a future story once we return to Sumireko and Co.

 

[Ultimatecalibur]

In short it was a bad experiment as it didn’t actually replicate what mice actually need but rather what we think they need.

Actually it was a very good series of experiments because it started from a hypothesis of what a rat/mouse "heaven" would need, examined why the experiment failed or succeeded, modified the hypothesis based on the data and then adjusted the factors for the following iterations of the experiment. Remember that they were 24 prior attempts with mice before the famous Universe 25.

While they wouldn't performed in the modern day due to the ethics of animal testing and the conclusions drawn from the results are debatable, they did follow the scientific method.

 

[schlumpf]

There are two chapters without Sumireko's boobs and suddenly everyone in the comment section turned into a scholar

I didn't know about that experiment, very interesting, thank y'all 🙏

 

[Phantommemorial]

Truly, an Alice in the wonderland moment
A suspicious hole
Weird tunnel of items
Chasing a weird rabbit
Meeting three odd guys that invite you to a table

 

[Quieo]

Actually it was a very good series of experiments because it started from a hypothesis of what a rat/mouse "heaven" would need, examined why the experiment failed or succeeded, modified the hypothesis based on the data and then adjusted the factors for the following iterations of the experiment. Remember that they were 24 prior attempts with mice before the famous Universe 25.

While they wouldn't performed in the modern day due to the ethics of animal testing and the conclusions drawn from the results are debatable, they did follow the scientific method.

The thing is, is that they stopped at Universe 25 instead of readjusting the experiment and carrying on. For they thought they had come to a startling conclusion but in fact they just hadn’t adjusted for natural behaviour of the mice. Hindsight is twenty twenty and all but I would have run a universe 26 under the same conditions check to see if I get the same results and then I would change small factors and see how that effects things like what happens if add a factor of mice hell or something. The possibilities are in endless.

 

[AerinSoronume]

The author is clearly a vtuber lover. From a hololive yubi yubi toy to a salary man cheering on pikamee to come back lmao

Dayo!

 

[Ultimatecalibur]

The thing is, is that they stopped at Universe 25 instead of readjusting the experiment and carrying on. For they thought they had come to a startling conclusion but in fact they just hadn’t adjusted for natural behaviour of the mice. Hindsight is twenty twenty and all but I would have run a universe 26 under the same conditions check to see if I get the same results and then I would change small factors and see how that effects things like what happens if add a factor of mice hell or something. The possibilities are in endless.

They continued well beyond Universe 25. Universe 25 existed from '68 to '70 and the Calhoun's Universe experiments lasted until at least 72 with multiple universes running at the same time (he even introduced former residents of Universe 25 into newer Universes to see if they would relearn courting behaviors and such). Post Universe 25 they added various things in order to stimulated the mice. The experiments that involved stimulation where the ones that inspired the Rats of NIMH stories that became the basis of the movie the Secret of NIMH.

Universe 25 was not the final Universe it was just the one that got the most fame because it was actively written about.

 

[cash-616]

we all could end up there at some point in our lives lmao´nt
Interesting arc tho, I like it when they bring back old characters, even unimportant ones

Thanks for the chapters and hail the eggs

 

[Big_Boss]

The author is clearly a vtuber lover. From a hololive yubi yubi toy to a salary man cheering on pikamee to come back lmao

I knew I saw that face somewhere before!

 

[Big_Boss]

Truly, an Alice in the wonderland moment
A suspicious hole
Weird tunnel of items
Chasing a weird rabbit
Meeting three odd guys that invite you to a table

Yes, this! It's on the nose, but also a western reference mixed into the bunch of stories about japanese spirits.
Translation team - thanks for double release!

 

[barusan]

Thanks For The Chapter!

 

[Wahtda]

This is not how i remembered the start of bunny girl senpai