There is an occult meaning to the word mushi [虫 / 蟲] in Japanese, the nuances of which are lost in its English translation as ‘insect’ or ‘bug’. Here is a translated excerpt* from an article called Mushi ga ii [虫がいい] in a collection of essays Nihongo Omote to Ura [日本語 表と裏] written by the cultural critic Morimoto Tetsurou [森本哲郎] (1925 – 2014) –

The Japanese characterize such mysteries of the heart as mushi. The heart is what one desires, what one thinks and what one feels. Nevertheless, there are times when the heart does not work the way one would like it to. In other words, there is another heart within one’s heart. The Japanese call that ‘second soul’  mushi. It is believed that, of the two, mushi is by far closer to the depth of one’s being. The reason for it is that when one loses consciousness and when one’s breathing weakens, the Japanese call that condition ‘the breath of mushi‘. ‘The breath of mushi‘ means that only the mushi within one’s body is left to do the breathing. In other words, mushi is the last thing that supports one’s life. In that sense, the Japanese concept of mushi is close to Freud’s libido.

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