These four essays enable you to grouse about having too little. Perhaps you receive a pittance of a salary; both 蚊 and 涙 will help you express disappointment and anger about that, but you'll be talking about an animal's tears, not your own. Or maybe you live in a dime-sized space; if so, 狭 will let you complain that your abode feels crowded and cramped. Alternatively, you might gripe that your garden is tiny; calling it as small as a cat's (猫) forehead will get that point across.

Donald Richie said the Japanese perceive their nation as small (though it's not) because they feel it's gross to be large. Indeed, an affection for itty-bitty things runs through these essays. The prefix 豆- characterizes tiny books, small dolls, and trivia as "miniature." With 掌 the Japanese describe books as "palm-sized" and stories as "very short." The prefix 姫- indicates that a Chinese crabapple is adorably petite or that an animal is diminutive. And with 零 as "small" one can lament the loss of mom-and-pop bakeries and offer advice to small business owners engaged in David-versus-Goliath battles.