The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XLIV, Part 1-2, 1956 - Khamkoo

102 Charles Nelson Spinks
Kambei of the Siam House,
'l'he goods he produced were called
8hrtrn'lt-sanum ( Ul.!.JL9';_(:j·) or Shamu-some ( ~1U!i-*' ), namely, cotton
prints with typical Siamese patterns.
To take a few more examples of such Siamese inflnences, to
this day a game cock in Japan is called a shamo (:if£$), a cot·ruption
nf S hamu-dor·i ( i}Lfri ,0 7 ), meaning "Siamese bird". ']'he ideographs
for the word shmno should properly be read gttnlcei. They were
selected because they literally mean "fighting chicken"; but the
arbitrary pron nnciatian used clearly betrays the Siamese ot•igin of
the term. Pl'esnmably, thii:! long-legged brown and red fighting
rooster was first brought to .Japan from Siam or some other part of
Southeast Asia. During the 'l'emrnei (~n}l) period (1781-1788) a
dance known as the S'hamu-odm·i ( Gi!.iiff1~) became popular among
the chonin ( ll1J A.), or townsmen class, in Japan and was based npon
due of the classicM Siamese dances. One of the principal Japanese
imports from Siam in the 17t.h century were deerskins which the
J apaneso used for mal{ing leather soclm called Tcawatabi (Jt A:..1k).
'1.'his material was known as Shamtt-gawa ( rr&. !.JiJF. ), or Siamese
leather.
Among the JontT£ ( i1i fB Jf/J ), or puppet players, a seedy
Whether in
looking person was kno\VU us a Shamu, Taro ( :t.P-11 ).
this case the word shc~mtt, which was written in the lcana syllabary,
referred to Siam is not clear, but the word strongly suggests this
association and may have originated from the strange jf not seedy
(tppearance of some of those .Japanese traders and ad venturers who
1·eturned to Japan from Ayuthia.
During the Edo pedod there was an official at Nagasald who
held the title of Shamu 1'sushi ( ill.!.fi:@.~;iJ ). He was the Siamese
interpreter of the Shogunate and dealt with the Siamese shjps which
occasionally arrived at this port, which wel'e, of course, callecl
Shmm.J/ro-bune ( UL!.Jt+1&: ), Siam ships. It is possible, therefore, that
some of the foregoing terms were coined by these Siamese interpJ'eters
an4 throngh them fonnd theil' way into the ;Japanese vocabulary,
Several plants also came to have the prefix S hamu or Sham~t-ro
attached to them.
vu'l{Jaria, was frequ·ently called the Shamzwo dailcon ( llt!.fi ;k fit),
Ol' Siamese radish.
For examp1e, the lojisa ( J?j J!#J g ), or Beta