[Footnote 8: This statement also implies that a professional diviner
has been consulted. The reference to the direction, or _bōgaku_, can
be fully understood only by those conversant with the old Chinese
nature-philosophy.]
[Footnote 9: Lit. "thrice-three-nine-times-wine-cup."]
[Footnote 10: At a Japanese wedding it is customary to avoid the use
of any words to which an unlucky signification attaches, or of any
words suggesting misfortune in even an indirect way. The word _sumu_,
"to finish," or "to end"; the word _kaēru_, "to return," (suggesting
divorce), as well as many others, are forbidden at weddings.
Accordingly, the term _o-hiraki_ has long been euphemistically
substituted for the term _oitoma_ ("honourable leave-taking," i.e.
"farewell"), in the popular etiquette of wedding assemblies.]
[Footnote 11: "I felt a tumultuous beating within my breast," would
perhaps be a closer rendering of the real sense; but it would sound
oddly artificial by comparison with the simple Japanese utterance:
"_Ato ni wa futari sashi-mukai to nari, muné uchi-sawagi; sono
bazukashisa bisthi ni tsukushi-gatashi._"]
[Footnote 12: From _sato_, "the parental home," and _kaëri_, "to
return." The first visit of a bride to her parents, after marriage, is
thus called.]
[Footnote 13: _Aigasa_, a fantastic term compounded from the verb
_au_, "to accord," "to harmonize," and the noun _kasa_, "an umbrella."
It signifies one umbrella used by two persons--especially lovers: an
umbrella-of-loving-accord. To understand the wife's anxiety about being
seen walking with her husband under the borrowed umbrella, the reader
must know that it is not yet considered decorous for wife and husband
even to walk side by side in public. A newly wedded pair, using a
single umbrella in this way, would be particularly liable to have jests
made at their expense--jests that might prove trying to the nerves of a
timid bride.]
[Footnote 14: She means the great Buddhist temple of Kwannon,--the most
popular, and perhaps the most famous, Buddhist temple in Tokyo.]
[Footnote 15: In the Ōkubo quarter. The shrine is shadowed by a fine
grove of trees.]
[Footnote 16: That is to say, "It was agreed that we should all go
together to see the flowers." The word _hanami_ ("flower-seeing") might
be given to any of the numerous flower-festivals of the year, according
to circumstances; but it here refers to the season of cherry blossoms.
Throughout this diary the dates are those of the old lunar calendar.]
[Footnote 17: A literal rendering is almost impossible. There is
a ferry, called the Ferry of Imado, over the Sumidagawa; but the
reference here is really neither to the ferry nor to the ferryman,
but to the _nakōdo_, or match-maker, who arranged for the marriage.
_Miméguri-Inari_ is the popular name of a famous temple of the God of
Rice, in Mukojima; but there is an untranslatable play here upon the
name, suggesting a lovers' meeting. The reference to the Sumidagawa
also contains a play upon the syllables _sumi_,--the verb "sumi"
signifying "to be clear." _Shirahigé-Yashiro_ ("White-Hair Temple")
is the name of a real and very celebrated Shintō shrine in the city;
but the name is here used chiefly to express the hope that the union
may last into the period of hoary age. Besides these suggestions, we
may suppose that the poem contains allusions to the actual journey
made,--over the Sumidagawa by ferry, and thence to the various temples
named. From old time, poems of like meaning have been made about these
places; but the lines above given are certainly original, with the
obvious exception of a few phrases which have become current coin in
popular poetry.]
[Footnote 18: The Soga Brothers were famous heroes of the twelfth
century. The word _kaichō_ signifies the religious festival during
which the principal image of a temple is exposed to view.]
[Footnote 19: Name of a public hall at which various kinds of
entertainments are given, more especially recitations by professional
story-tellers.]
[Footnote 20: Lit. "there never yet having been any waves nor even wind
between us."
[Footnote 21: The Shinto parish-temple, or more correctly,
district-temple of the Yotsuya] quarter. Each quarter, or district,
of the city has its tutelar divinity, or Ujigami. Suga-jinja is the
Ujigami-temple of Yotsuya.]
[Footnote 22: _Iyogasuri_ is the name given to a kind of dark-blue
cotton-cloth, with a sprinkling of white in small patterns,
manufactured at Iyo, in Shikoku.]
[Footnote 23: The Kanazawa-tei is a public hall in the Yotsuya quarter.
Harimadayū is the professional name of a celebrated chanter of the
dramatic recitations called _jōruri_ and _gidayū_,--in which the
reciter, or chanter, mimes the voices and action of many different
characters.]
[Footnote 24: She alludes to a popular saying of Buddhist
origin:--_Jishin, kwaji, kaminari, misoka, kikin, yamai no naki kuni é
yuku_ ("Let us go to the Land where there is neither earthquake, nor
fire, nor lightning, nor any last day of the month, nor famine, nor
sickness").]
[Footnote 25: _Ujigami_ of the Ushigomé district.]
[Footnote 26: Festival of the "Further Shore" (that is to say,
Paradise). There are two great Buddhist festivals thus called,--the
first representing a period of seven days during the spring equinox;
the second, a period of seven days during the autumnal equinox.]
[Footnote 27: This drama is founded upon the history of a famous rice
merchant named Matsumaëya Gorōbei.]
[Footnote 28: Shiogama-Daimyōjin, a Shinto deity, to whom women pray
for easy delivery in child-birth. Shrines of this divinity may be found
in almost every province of Japan.]
[Footnote 29: Uréshiki ma wa wazuka nité, mata kanashimi to henzuru;
umaréru mono wa kanarazu shizu.--A Buddhist text that has become a
Japanese proverb.]
[Footnote 30: Composed by the bereaved mother herself, as a discipline
against grief.]
[Footnote 31: _Nadéshiko_ literally means a pink; but in poetry the
word is commonly used in the meaning of "baby."]
[Footnote 32: _Samidaré_ is the name given to the old fifth month, or,
more strictly speaking, to a rainy period occurring in that month.
The verses are, of course, allusive, and their real meaning might be
rendered thus: "Oh! the season of grief! All things now seem sad: the
sleeves of my robe are moist with my tears!"]
[Footnote 33: The _sotoba_ is a tall wooden lath, inscribed with
Buddhist texts, and planted above a grave. For a full account of the
_sotoba_, see the article entitled "The Literature of the Dead," in my
_Exotics and Retrospectives_, p. 102. I am not able to give any account
or explanation of the curious superstition here referred to; but it
is probably of the same class with the strange custom recorded in my
_Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 126.]
[Footnote 34: It would be unfair to suppose that this visit to the
theatre was made only for pleasure; it was made rather in the hope of
forgetting pain, and probably by order of the husband.
Ōkubo Hikozaëmon was the favourite minister and adviser of the Shōgun
Iyem-itsu. Numberless stories of his sagacity and kindness are recorded
in popular literature; and in many dramas the notable incidents of his
official career are still represented.]
[Footnote 35: There are five holidays thus named in every year. These
_go-sekku_ are usually called, _Jinjitsu_ (the 7th of the 1st month),
_Joki_ (the 3d of the 3d month), _Tango_ (the 5th of the 5th month),
_Tanabata_ (the 7th of the 7th month), and _Chōyō_ (the 9th of the 9th
month).]
[Footnote 36: A divinity half-Buddhist, half-Shintō, in origin, but now
popularly considered Shintō. This god is especially worshipped as a
healer, and a protector against sickness. His principal temple in Tōkyō
is in the Nihonbashi district.]
[Footnote 37: A festival in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary
of the establishment of Tōkyō as the Imperial capital, instead of
Kyōtō.]
[Footnote 38: _Daimyō-no-g yōretsu_. On the festival mentioned there
was a pageant representing feudal princes travelling in state,
accompanied by their retainers and servants. The real armour, costumes,
and weapons of the period before Meiji were effectively displayed on
this occasion.]
[Footnote 39: A congratulatory feast, held on the evening of the
seventh day after the birth of a child. Relatives and friends invited
usually make small presents to the baby.]
[Footnote 40: The first annual Festival of Girls is thus called.]
[Footnote 41: All the objects here mentioned are toys--toys appropriate
to the occasion. The _Dairi_ are old-fashioned toy-figures,
representing an emperor and empress in ancient costume. _Hina_ are
dolls.]
[Footnote 42: Another name for the Buddhist Paradise of the West,--the
heaven of Amida (Amitābha).]
[Footnote 43: Nephritis.]
[Footnote 44: Or, "very thin and loose,"--the Karma-relation being
emblematically spoken of as a bond or tie. She means, of course, that
the loss of the child was the inevitable consequence of some fault
committed in a previous state of existence.]
[Footnote 45: _Gidayū-bon_, "the book of the _gidayū_." There are many
_gidayū_ books. _Gidayū_ is the name given to a kind of musical drama.
In the dramatic composition here referred to, the characters Miyagino
and Shinobu are sisters, who relate their sorrows to each other.]
[Footnote 46: I.e. before she herself (the mother) dies;--there is a
colloquial phrase in the Japanese text. _Ko ga oya ni sakidatsu_ is the
common expression: "the child goes before the parents,"--that is to
say, dies before the parents.]
[Footnote 47: A euphemistic expression for death.]
[Footnote 48: _Aënaku_ is an adjective signifying, according to
circumstances, "feeble," or "transitory," or "sad." Its use here might
best be rendered by some such phrase as "Piteous to say!"]
[Footnote 49: Her poem bears no date.]
[Footnote 50: A necessarily free translation;--the lines might also
be read thus: "Having awakened, all the joy fleets and fades;--it was
only a dream of Spring." The verb _saméru_, very effectively used here,
allows of this double rendering; for it means either "to awake" or "to
fade." The adjective _hakanashi_ also has a double meaning: according
to circumstances it may signify either "fleeting" (evanescent) or
"hopeless" (wretched).]
[Footnote 51: Lit. "the first two _nanuka_": one _nanuka_ representing
a period of seven successive days from the date of death.]