#thinker in the eibon

[singular-yike]

Got anything on Shiro-onee-sama? (I think I'm just going to make it my thing to give you cursed nicknames.)

We already did one on Hoojiro herself, so instead here's one on the almost cult-like organization that she belongs to herself: The "Ponderer of the Ivory Cup", or the "Thinker in the Eibon".

Depicted below: Hoojiro pondering her cup (Not really obviously but I have a format by now and it feels weird not having an image at all)

What we know

The Ponderer of the Ivory Cup was mentioned by Hoojiro in AWTIF as a mysterious group of philosopher-scientists.

They're an organization interested in researching the unknown mechanisms of the world, which they simply call "Unknowns", or "Black Boxes", systems whose internal workings are not understood, but can still achieve results based on inputs and outputs.

They're interested in understanding and making use of these unknowns, and to this end performs experiments with and on them.

Namesake: The Ivory Cup (Cup of Eibon)

The "Ivory Cup" (based on an MtG card of the same name), is the group's central theme of contemplation as well as their namesake.

According to Haru, it's a cup "filled from the abyss accumulated at the base of a spring of wisdom, deep-rooted at the pith of the world"... Whatever that may mean.

Curiously, someone has apparently seen this cup before, and claimed that it's mug-shaped. While Hoojiro never gets to reveal who, judging by Haru's reaction, it would seem that she at least believes that it's Tsubakura Enraku.

According to the group's English title, it would seem that the Ivory Cup is also called the "Cup of Eibon".

This makes reference to the fictional Lovecraftian magician "Eibon of Mhu-Thulan", first mentioned in the Hyperborean Cycle by Clark Ashton Smith.

The most famous artefact pertaining to him is the Book of Eibon, which contains the magic spells he practiced, records of the area he lived in and historical accounts of other mages.

When H. P. Lovecraft adopted the character and the book into his own writings, he wrote that the book was translated from its original lost language of "Hyperborea" into several other languages, notably Liber Ivonis in Latin and Livre d'Ivon in French.

Here, "Ivon" and "Ivonis" are meant to conjure up the image of ivory white, as opposed to the ebony black "Eibon" alludes to, both referenced in the titles of the object.

While there's nothing that ties either Eibon or his book to a cup, the name was likely picked for how much arcane knowledge his book had recorded, in reference to what the Ivory Cup itself seems to contain.

Name: Ponderer of the Ivory Cup

While the name "Thinker in the Eibon" is given to us directly in English, the Japanese title 象牙の杯を酌む者, which I had translated as "Ponderer of the Ivory Cup", is actually quite the tricky one.

It's all because of the verb used in the title, kumu (酌む), one that has a number of varying meanings. Complicating things is the object on which it acts, the "Ivory Cup", a term which itself acts as both a physical cup and a conceptual metaphor for the unknown.

So, if you care for a little behind-the-scenes "how I got to this translation" section, here we go. (And if not: feel free to skip this part I just need to get this out lol)

To understand how the verb is used, we must look at the three times Hoojiro herself used it in the story, here I'll italicize the word translated from kumu.

Hoojiro first used the word in protest to Haru's use of "philosopher" to describe her profession:

Haru "Yes, I get it, you’re not a scientist, you’re a philosopher." Hoojiro "Not a philosopher, a 'ponderer', of the Ivory Cup." Haru "....aren’t they the same after all?"

Here she uses the verb's definition of "to think, guess, hypothesize, contemplate, etc. about something" to make "ponderer" (酌む者 lit. a person who ponders/thinks/considers), which can be seen from Haru then refuting that the change of wording makes no difference.

Hoojiro next uses the term when talking about the Ivory Cup:

Hoojiro "It's the cup that is filled from the abyss accumulated at the base of a spring of wisdom, deep-rooted at the pith of the world."

It's fairly clear from the context that the cup is "drawing water" from the abyss. So kumu is used here under the definition "to fill a vessel (with liquid, typically saké)"; or to be metaphorically "drinking" from the abyss, under the definition "to drink (typically saké)".

Hoojiro finally uses the term when introducing the organization itself as a part of the organization's name.

Hoojiro "Although we do not understand the 'unknown' mechanisms, it is still possible to make use of them. We call the organization that tries to unravel these unknowns (black boxes), 'Ponderer' of the Ivory Cup (Thinker in the Eibon)."

Here the organization is the subject of her sentence that acts on the Ivory Cup in turn, and all three previously mentioned definitions are applicable:

The group "ponders" the unknowns that the Ivory Cup represents.

They metaphorically "drink" from the cup, partaking in its mysteries by both making uses of and experimenting with them.

They "draw water" from the cup, which is said to be from a "spring of wisdom", representing the knowledge they reveal and obtain from studying the black boxes.

Honestly, I'd say that the organization's Japanese title is actually "Ponderer(s) of the Ivory Cup", "Filler(s) of the Ivory Cup" and "Drinker(s) of the Ivory Cup" all at once.

In fact, the word choice was likely deliberately precisely because it is able to convey all three (six) of these meanings at once. Ultimately though, I chose "Ponderer of the Ivory Cup" to mirror the English title "Thinker in the Eibon".

Potential Theories

Right! So that's really all that we concretely have on the mysterious organisation. However, there are a few interesting possibilities that we could keep at the back of our mind:

It's very likely that Tsubakura is a member of this group too, especially considering that their previous research into dimensions certainly sounds like they fall under the group's interests

It's quite possible that Yabusame Houlen is involved as well, perhaps as a member or a target of study, thanks to their ability

In a similar vein, it's possible that Suzumi Kuzu was involved as well, thanks to their unique existence.

It may also be that they are related to how Yabusame and Suzumi became the way they are

And that's all that I really have on them, we can't get much until we learn more about them after all. In any case, I hope you enjoyed :)

[singular-yike]

hoojiro if you can find anything on her

Following up on my previous general Shitodo post, here's Hoojiro Shitodo, a fishy philosopher-scientist from the outside world. I admit there's not much I can really say about her, but we can still check out what we can.

General Background

We've already gone through the general Shitodo background, so I'll keep things brief here, although separated into three categories:

General Information

Eldest sister of the Shitodo siblings

Seems distant from the rest of the siblings

Belongs to a group of philosopher-scientists (although she rejects both those terms) called the Ponderer of the Ivory Cup, or the Thinker in the Eibon

Prior to and During AWTIF

Works under, and admires extremely, Tsubakura Enraku

Tasked with dealing with the aftermath of Tsubakura's disappearance if ever they're gone for more than one year

"Technically" Haru's guardian, seems distant from her

After AWTIF (Presumed Twitter conversations & Critical Point)

Went on a "dimensional tour" with Haru on the Wings of Magritte, presumably in search of Tsubakura and co.

Close friends with Haru

No longer as hung up on Tsubakura (calls them "nostalgic")

Thinks that their "dimensional tour" will start once again

So, as we can see, the awkward thing about Hoojiro is that we seem to know so little about her, and that's stretched across a rather large timeframe.

In fact, I'd say that there's more that I can say about the Ponderer of the Ivory Cup than I can about Hoojiro. This post isn't going to have much in the way of analysis, other than their name, but I will point out some curiosities that I've noticed related to them.

Name: Hoojiro Shitodo

We've already gone over her last name, Shitodo (鵐), in the previous post. So I'll just make a brief mention that it is an archaic word used to refer to buntings (genus Emberiza).

Onto her given name: Hoojiro (頬告鳥), whose reading points to the meadow bunting. While there are a number of kanji names for the bird, it gets its reading from 頬白, "white cheecks".

Notably, the Japanese term for genus Emberiza is actually "genus hoojiro", taking the meadow bunting to represent the whole group.

Depicted below: A meadow bunting

Onto the way Hoojiro is written, the three characters in their name respectively mean "cheek(s)" (頬 hoo), "to reveal/inform" (告 ji) and "bird" (鳥 ro).

It should be noted, that since the first two characters can be identified with a particular part of the pronunciation, we can dissect 鳥 to be read as "ro" here, but it is not standard pronunciation.

The character 頬 is almost certainly taken from the typical way to write meadow bunting in kanji, 頬白; but it can also be noted that Hooaka starts with the same character as well, forming an alternating naming pattern with the younger siblings:

Hoojiro and Hooaka both start with "hoo" (頬)

Kuroji and Aoji both end in "ji" (though not written the same way)

The other two characters 告 and 鳥, while unclear independently, can be combined into one character as 鵠, read "kugui", it is an archaic word that refers to the swan. Nowadays, "swan" is written as 白鳥, "write bird", reinforcing Hoojiro's association with the colour.

As a final interesting note, Hoojiro's name is actually made up of the three younger siblings', Hooaka, Kuroji and Aoji. Or rather, from an in-universe perspective, the three's names are derived from Hoojiro's Perhaps a reference to how the genus Emberiza (hoojiro in Japanese) encompasses all the birds found in the three's names.

Hoojiro Curiosities

That really wraps up any analysis I can do regarding Hoojiro, so instead here are a few mysteries she's left for us to ponder:

Technologically Inept Hoojiro

Despite working at what we can only assume to be the extremely high-tech lab of Tsubakura's, Hoojiro is practically hopeless with technology, she:

Couldn't open up AWTIF (which means that she either couldn't open up the .pdf file or couldn't unzip the folder it comes in)

Has her full name as her Twitter account name

Uses the default Twitter handle generated upon creating an account

Doesn't know what a DM is

Uses a free-to-use illustration of a meadow bunting that could be easily found upon typing "hoojiro" (ホオジロ) into Google for her Twitter icon

To do a NiLU impression, "It really is quite humorous~."

Bizarre Food Suggestions

When dining on the train in AWTIF (Backside: A World Lacking of You), Hoojiro suggested that Haru add ketchup to her earl grey (which she refused), and sounded disappointed with how normal Haru's tastes are.

While one may easily chalk it up to the usual Len'en characters having strange tastes, we later see Hoojiro herself having extremely normal food as well.

Depicted below: Hoojiro and Haru on the Wings of Magritte, the scroll outside is titled "Ketchup".

I've no concrete proof for this, but perhaps it's because she's used to catering to some other people's bizarre tastes, namely Hooaka (who likes liquid nitrogen) and Tsubakura (who is Tsubakura).

A Story Buried by History's Darkness

AWTIF [Baclside] - Alice Leaping Atop Lily Pad Ice Hoojiro: "Have you ever heard of it? The story of the imperial family and the Earthly Gods buried by history's darkness."

Hoojiro briefly brings up this mysterious topic in order to strike up conversation with Haru in AWTIF, although Haru quickly derails her. Being a major (Japanese) mythology nerd as well, this line immediately caught my attention.

It almost certainly references the events in Japanese mythology known as the "Transfer of the land" and the "Descent of the Divine Grandson", as well as other surrounding stories.

According to the myths, the Shinto gods are split into two factions, the Heavenly Gods of Takamagahara, the celestial realm, and the Earthly Gods which resided on the earthly world.

Japan used to be ruled by the earthly gods, but the leader of the heavenly gods, the sun goddess Amaterasu, declared that they should be the ones to have sovereignty over the earth.

After her envoys negotiated (peacefully and violently) the handover of the lands, she sent her grandson Ninigi to rule it. Her grandson would end up siring the ancestors of the Japanese imperial family

There's not much concrete that we can really get from this, but quite a lot that we can think about, especially in regards to Mugenri's history and origins.

Hoojiro mentions a "Country of Non-Humans" where "a race that split off from mankind long, long ago" resides; while Tom gives Mugenri the titles the "Gods' Tabooed Land", "Garden of Eden", "Lost Horizon" and "Oppressed Land of Exile".

I myself have a few theories regarding all these, but I'll save them for another time.

But that, I think, concludes all I have on Hoojiro. Like I said, not much in the way of analysis, but she has left us some interesting points to think about. Let's hope that EMS album comes soon-ish~! (I doubt you're reading this JynX but no rush tho seriously rushing is strictly forbidden)