The Danube: A Study of River Morphing

by Masami Kikuchi

FluidArts Japanese collaborator Masami Kikuchi challenges learners to join him in River research and an investigation into the history of the word "Water."

I have been interested in rivers and in particular the Danube for quite some time now.

In Japan and in the Japanese language, we have two different ‘imported names’ for Danube. According to its origins: "Danube," probably from the English or of more international origins, and "Donau," obviously from German origins.

I was intrigued by the fact that there were two names for one river and began researching to discover if the Danube had other names, depending on the area through which it flows.

Yes, there were!

The Danube, in its English name, starts from Switzerland, near Freiburg, and upon reaching Germany is called Donau. It flows through Germany, passing Ulm, Regensburg (Ratisbon in English) and Passau into Austria (passing Linz and Wien.

Passing into Czechoslovakia, the Donau changes its name to Dunai, passing Bradislava.

In Hugary, it's called Duna, flowing by Budapest and Mohacs.

Then in Yugoslavia, it changes the name to Dunav, passing Beograd (Belgrade in English)

And it flows along the boundaries of Bulgaria with the name of Dunav; and Dunarea in Romania.

It finally flows in to Black Sea.

Water Roots - Word Origins

Translation provided by Moh'd Abbas, schoolarabia.com.

WaterWorth:
What value does your culture and your community place on water?"

From Masami:

Japan has been an environment with rich water and greenery; we have a lot of rain; Many parts of the country have a "monsoon climate"; with hot and very humid summers (one can hardly breathe), with cold and very dry winters.

Spring is very beautiful, full of the blossoms of many kinds of flowers, most notable are the cherry blossoms all over Japan; the national flower.
Very beautiful full of red and orange and yellowed maple trees and many other trees.

For such reasons, most Japanese do not care about pouring water, wasting water and dried water resovoirs, because we can expect (with almost 100% probability) that the rain will come soon.

We have a saying " to consume money just like water", meaning we have no respect for water and so waste it, and to consume money like water is very bad.
Are any of you putting a specific value on water?
Is water more valuable than money, in some cases?

As a result of such respectless consumption of water in Japan, we have severe damage and contamination of water all over Japan, and the "drinking city water"is hardly suitable to drink. We drink water from a supermarket. And many households deploy water purifiers. I have my own well pumped up to my house which is very unpopular, and the water is tasty and less contaminated.