The above popped up on reading your caption, “This brother and sister rode in perfect unison, handling their donkey with perfect ease.” under picture 7. And then I could confirm your comment while watching pictures 8, 9 and 11.

The Japanese quote above is recycled from “Jinba Ittai”「人馬一体」”Rider and horse as one”) , a catch-phrase now entered into the Mazda Miata fans’ jargon.

Mazda Motor Corp. of Hiroshima rolled out of the assembly line their revamped version of their MX-5 Roadster Miata in 2006. In coining the phrase, they intended to convey to the potential owner the enhanced driver’s experience of symbiosis with the machine.

Although I know firsthand how hugely fun to drive this two-sitter is, a first trial test will make your tooshie feel threatened with being soon one with the tarmac. Ground clearance is minimal.

Being that Mazda had borrowed from the samurais’ horsemanship tradition, my thought process in tweaking their phrase was blissfully unencumbered by any thought of copyrights legislation.

(*): Where 「人」 “jin” stands for “rider” in the English here, it actually means plainly “human”. I availed myself of the Japanese quirk for shortening words and preserved only「驢」in「驢馬」 (pronounced “roba” rolling the tongue on ro), the donkey in Japanese. Today,「ロバ」is the preferred script over the obsolete 「驢馬」. Not many Japanese would know to write the ideogram「驢」which means donkey also in Chinese. And lastly, I just found the term “usagi-uma” (兎馬、うさぎうま) that I did not know of and means also donkey, where “usagi” is a rabbit and “uma” is a horse, which makes sense once you picture the rabbit’s ears on top of a horse’s head.

Have not your eyes glazed over yet? Since ‘tis the season, happy yuletide greetings to all.

Have a very Happy Holiday season!

Sylvia

All the best
Guy
Regina In Pictures