Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan. Shikibu Murasaki

20

This seems to be the last line of a kind of song called Imayo, perhaps improvised by the singers; its meaning may be as follows: "You compare us with singers of the Western Provinces; we are inferior to those in the Royal City; we may justly be compared with those in Osaka."

21

Hakoné Mountain has now become a resort of tourists and a place of summer residence.

22

Fear of evil spirits which probably lived in the wild, and of robbers who certainly did.

23

Aoi, or Futaba-aoi. At the great festival of the Kamo shrine in Kioto the processionists crowned their heads with the leaves of this plant, so it must have been well known.

24

Mount Fuji was then an active volcano.

25

The Princess was Sadako, daughter of King Sanjo, afterwards Queen of King Goshujaku [1037-104]).

26

Lacquered boxes, sometimes of great beauty, containing india ink and inkstone, brushes, rolls of paper.

27

Plum-trees bloom between the first and second months of the old calendar.

28

By pestilence. People were often attacked by contagious diseases in those days, and they, who did not know about the nature of infection, called it by the name of "world-humor" or "world-disease," attributing its cause to the ill-humor of some gods or spirits.

29

In those days windows were covered with silk and could not be seen through.

30

Fujiwara-no-Yukinari: One of the three famous calligraphers of that time.

31

Place where cremation was performed.

32

It is a Buddhist custom to go into retreat from time to time.

33

Some of these books are not known now.

34

A kind of screen used in upper-class houses: see illustration.

35

Her lamp was rather like an Italian one – a shallow cup for oil fixed to a tall metal stem, with a wick projecting to one side.

36

Sadharmpundarika Sutra, or Sutra of the Lotus, in Sanscrit.

37

In October it was the custom for all local gods to go for a conference to the residence of the oldest native god, in the Province of Idzumo; hence, Gods-absent month. This Province of Idzumo, full of the folklore of old Japan, has become well known to the world through the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

38

According to the superstition of those days people believed that every house was presided over by an earth god, which occupied the hearth in Spring, the gate in Summer, the well in Autumn, and the garden in Winter. It was dangerous to meet him when he changed his abode. So on that day the dwellers went out from their houses.

39

Readers are urged to read the delightful essay of Lafcadio Hearn called "The Romance of the Milky Way" (Chogonka). Here it must suffice to relate the story of "Tanabata-himé" and the herdsman. Tanabata-tsume was the daughter of the god of the sky. She rejoiced to weave garments for her father and had no greater pleasure than that, until one day Hikiboshi, a young herdsman, leading an ox, passed by her door. Divining her love for him, her father gave his daughter the young herdsman for her husband, and all went well, until the young couple grew too fond of each other and the weaving was neglected. Thereupon the great god was displeased and "they were sentenced to live apart with the Celestial River between them," but in pity of their love they were permitted to meet one night a year, on the seventh day of the Seventh month. On that night the herdsman crosses the River of Heaven where Tanabata-tsume is waiting for him on the other side, but woe betide if the night is cloudy or rainy! Then the waters of the River of Heaven rise, and the lovers must wait full another year before the boat can cross.

Many of our beautiful poems have been written on this legend; sometimes it is Tanabata-himé who is waiting for her lord, sometimes it is Hikiboshi who speaks. The festival has been celebrated for 1100 years in Japan, and there is no country village which does not sing these songs on the seventh night of the Seventh month, and make offerings to the star gods of little poems tied to the freshly cut bamboo branches.

40

River of Heaven: Milky Way.

41

Name of an old song.

42

The continuous writing of the cursive Japanese characters is often compared to a meandering river. "Ink seems to have frozen up" means that her eyes are dim with tears, and no more she can write continuously and flowingly.

43

A mountain in a suburb of Kioto.

44

This conversation in the original is a play upon words which cannot be translated.

45

In an old chronicle of the times one reads that it was on February 8, 1032.

46

The country people of the Eastern Provinces beyond Tokyo were then called "Eastern barbarians."

47

Away from the Capital where the King resides is always down; towards the capital is always up.