Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume29 Postscript

Afterword

Ah, another rose … !

"Maria-sama ga Miteru: Crown of Roses."

I've used rose again. It's the third such title, after "Yellow Rose Revolution" and "Rose Mille-Feuille." However, if you don't just look at the cover, but also at the chapter subtitles then it's used quite a bit. Like in "Yellow Rose – ," "Rosa Chinensis' best day of her life," "Rose Dialogue," etc. It seems like there's endless combinations of them.

I think a large part of this is because the characters are called Roses. The pattern whereby "Rose" is used as a synonym for the character. For instance, it's possible to replace "Rosa Chinensis' best day of her life" with "Mizuno Youko's best day of her life" and "Rose Dialogue" could be changed to "Sachiko and Rei's Dialogue."

However, the "Rose" in this book's title, "Crown of Roses," isn't identifying anyone. It purely relates to the flower.

So what the heck is the crown of roses then? (Although I'm sure a lot of you already know.) It's the rosary. The rosary used to offer prayers to the Virgin Mary has the connotation of a "Rose Loop" or a "Garland of Roses."

Therefore, this book's title could simply be "Rosary." Chosen as the symbol of the ties that bind Sachiko to Yumi, and Yumi to Touko. At Lillian's Girls Academy, a rosary is ceremonially placed around the younger student's neck when two students become soeurs. However, Catholics generally don't wear a rosary around their neck. They hold it, and count the beads as they say each prayer. (Similar to how the juzu is used in Buddhism.)

Speaking of Roses.

Occasionally I'll get asked, "Why are they called Roses if they're on the Yamayurikai (Golden-rayed Lily council)?" That's probably because the floral image I have of Maria-sama is both as a rose and a lily, so I wasn't able to choose just one.

Thinking back, umm, a few decades. When I was in kindergarten, I had a picture showing a group of lovely women (they may have been angels, I only have a faint recollection of this) offering a crown of roses to Maria-sama, from memory just after the conception of Jesus.

In other words, a painting of the famous annunciation. The white lily was a symbol of purity, and was often drawn alongside archangel Gabriel. They seemed to match.

Well, back to the present. It's been a while, but I've got another everyday story.

In summer this year, there were some little geckos that would appear in my room. They were about the size of dried sardines, or perhaps baby dried sardines. If you include the tail then they were a bit longer, but that was about the width, the impression they gave. They were closer to black than gray – if I was being fashionable I'd say it was charcoal gray – their appearance were incredibly lovely.

Still, I wondered where they could have come from. It didn't seem like they could have teleported there. There were three of them for about two weeks. And only in my room.

– Two wins, one loss.

Of what, you ask. Two safely escaped outside while one died. I saw it one morning, but then I lost it. After that it was unaccounted for, but when I found it four days later it had expired. I don't know it's cause of death, perhaps heatstroke (at that time it was hot every day, with no water) or perhaps an accident. I gave it some thought, but couldn't come to a conclusion. Still, the shock I felt when I saw the body falling from the curtain that I'd just moved gave me pause to consider. I buried the remains in a grave I dug in my garden and said a prayer for its happiness in the next life (either Buddhist or Christian).

Anyway. There are still a number of unresolved matters from this story. They can wait until the next volume. It may be a presumption of importance, and it's not a quiz, but when you hear the answer you might go, "Oh, really?" An equally valid opinion would be that in that case I shouldn't put it off. Still, it's quite drawn out. I'll answer that like Shimako.

"The answer is within the amusement park date in the next volume of Maria-sama ga Miteru. Teeheehee. It'll be interesting."

– It's no good. Like Yumi, I could only manage a forced laugh when attempting to imitate Shimako.

Disperse before I creep you out.

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