Do you know the Japanese Pinky Promise? It’s a similar to the “Make a promise/Hope to die/Stick a needle in your eye” song I learned while growing up. Hook your pinky with someone else’s and chant the song, which goes, “Pinky Promise, if you lie, I will make you swallow 1000 needles.” (If you want it in Japanese, it’s Yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu.) You then say “Yubi kitta!” (I break the pinky connection!) as you pull your fingers apart, and you’ve made the most excellent promise you can make in Japan, at least if you’re in elementary school. The Pinky Promise shows up quite a lot in anime, often to show a promise made between characters while they were younger, although the origin of the custom is somewhat less innocent. Supposedly, the Pinky Promise began back in the Edo Period as a gesture of devotion that prostitutes would make with their favorite customers. The “cutting” of the pinky signified the women severing her own finger as a sign of eternal affection for her partner, essentially saying that she loves him enough to commit shinju, or ritual lovers’ suicide with him. Kind of adds a new dimension to watching your favorite cute anime series, doesn’t it?
