The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into
_saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or
pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the
original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say,
with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in
the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder
was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind,
because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would
moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and
open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every
house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber,
and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people.
Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs
of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to
contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how
to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the
carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied.
Saka-bashira
Tatéshi wa tazo ya?
Kokoro ni mo
Fushi aru hito no
Shiwaza naruran.
[_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have
been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._]
Hidayama we
Kiri-kité tatéshi
Saka-bashira--
Nanno takumi[51] no
Shiwaza naruran?
[_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence
brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work
can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been
done?")_]
[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signify
either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus
two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was
fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was
so fixed with malice prepense.]
Uë shita wo
Chigaëté tatéshi
Hashira ni wa
Sakasama-goto no
Uréï aranan.
[_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it
will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]]
[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_,
"up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity,
contrariety, adversity, vexation.]
Kabé ni mimi
Arité, kiké to ka?
Sakashima ni
Tateshi hashira ni
Yanari suru oto!
[_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the
groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted
upside-down!_]
[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kabé ni mimi ari_ ("There are
ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk about
other people, even in private."]
Uri-iyé no
Aruji we toëba,
Oto arité:
Waré mé ga kuchi wo
Aku saka-bashira.
[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was
for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of
reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its
eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]
[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more
than even a free translation can express. _Waré_ means "I," or "mine,"
or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _waré mé_
(written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _warémé_
(one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should
remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down
post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.]
Omoïkiya!
Sakasa-bashira no
Hashira-kaké
Kakinishit uta mo
Yamai ari to wa!
[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon
the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted
upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]
[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is
up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kaké_ ("pillar-suspended thing")
is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted,
which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]