The Silver Spoon (18 page)

78
A traditional jacket which, “once reserved by law to upper-class males, enjoyed a sudden and widespread popularity among men and women in all walks of life” during the Meiji period. Dalby, p. 64.

79
As Naka goes on to explain, there are two kinds of
hōzuki
: marine and land. Marine ones are usually egg cases of whelks; land ones are the fruits of a variety of Chinese lantern plants
(Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii).

80
Matsumushi (Xenogryllus marmoratus)
: a variety of cricket. Prized for the twinkling sound it makes.

81
Suzumushi (Homoeogryllus japonicus)
: a variety of cricket. Prized for its quiet, limpid sound. In Japan it's called “King of Singing Insects.”

82
Kirigirisu (Gampsocleis buergeri)
. The famous singing insect that is identified by this name in classical Japanese literature was probably what is now called
kōrogi
, cricket.

83
Kutsuwamushi (Mecopoda niponensis)
. May correspond to the “fork-tailed bush katydid.” Because the next insect mentioned is another name of this insect, Naka might have meant
umaoi
, “horse chaser”
(Hexacentrus japonicus)
, a variety of katydid.

84
Gachagacha
: another name of
kutsuwamushi
, a large variety of katydid. Its onomatopoeic name is said to derive from the noise a horse bit makes and is sometimes described as “noisy.”

85
The childhood name of the warrior Sakata no Kintoki (dates uncertain). One of the four “guardian kings” of Minamoto no Raikō (see note 64 on Ōe-yama in Episode 1.18). As legend has it, Kintarō was born of the Old Woman of the Mountain and a red dragon and was brought up playing with bears and other animals. His ruddy-faced boyhood figure, wearing only an apron and carrying an oversize ax, is still used as a symbol of health, strength, and courage.

86
Nitta Tadatsune (d. 1203). A vassal of Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–99), Tadatsune killed Soga Jūrō Sukenari after the latter, along with his brother, Gorō Tokimune, carried out a vendetta, in 1193. Later, at the instigation of Yoritomo's son, Shogun Noriyori, he tried to assassinate Regent Hōjō Tokimasa (1138–1225), but failed and was killed. In children's books, Tadatsune used to be depicted as a valorous warrior who could subdue anything.

87
Sansukumi
: an object consisting of three magnetic parts representing a snake, a slug, and a frog. As common belief in Japan has it, the snake is afraid of the slug, the slug of the frog, and the frog of the snake.

88
Tai
-
yumi
: A simple bow-like toy with a small bream shaped in clay attached to its string so that when it was held up vertically the clay bream may descend, trembling, as if alive.

89
Papinot: “Hachiman under which the emperor Ōjin (201–312) is honored as a god. . . . Hachiman was the tutelary god of the Minamoto.” Also: “The name of the temples dedicated to the god of war.” The dates Papinot gives for Ōjin are in doubt, but Ōjin, who in semi-mythological accounts is the fifteenth emperor, is today recognized as the first emperor likely to have existed.

90
The mask of a male face with one eye exceedingly small and the mouth shaped like a crooked tube. The word derives from
hi
-
otoko,
“man on fire.”

91
Okamoto Kansuke (1839–1904): explorer of Karafuto (Sakhalin) and Chishima Rettō (Kurile Islands), educator, and author of sixty books.

92
One of the “ring-play” songs, which originated in Edo and was most popular at the start of Meiji. After it appeared in textbooks, the song came to be known throughout Japan. Children make a ring and, turning round and round, imitate the way the lotus opens and closes. One child stays at the center.

93
Her real name was Okamoto Take (1883–96). That is, she was actually two years older than Naka, but, unlike Naka, she died young.

94
Itai
-
itai
-
kusa
or
ita
-
ita
-
gusa
; another name of
irakusa
, stinging nettle.

95
A small wind instrument made of bamboo; used in Gagaku.

96
Sumomo
:
Prunus salicina.

97
Charumera
: a simple, small wind instrument that originally came from Portugal in the second half of the 16th century, though the instrument later used came from China.

98
The carp (
Cyprinus carpio)
is usually regarded as a sluggish, bottom-feeding fish, but in traditional imagination it is a vigorous fish full of fighting spirit—the truth of which has been amply demonstrated by the carp from China accidentally introduced into the Mississippi River. As Chinese legend has it, thousands of fish and turtles tried to leap up the waterfalls of the Yellow River called the Dragon Gate, but only the carp managed to do so, and turned into a dragon.

99
Anesan
-
kaburi
: a simple way of wearing a towel in lieu of headgear.

100
The face of O-Tafuku-san, for which see note 35 on Ota-san in Episode 1.13.

101
Yokayoka
-
ameya
. These were often strolling performers who would visit cheap inns in the evening and do skits from the lives of famous people.

102
Momo no sekku;
also called
hina
-
matsuri
(doll festival),
jōshi, jōmi.
Held on the 3rd of Third Month (today March 3). Chamberlain: “On the 3rd March every doll-shop in Tōkyō, Kyōto, and the other large cities is gaily decked with what are called O Hina Sama, —tiny models both of people and of things, the whole Japanese Court in miniature. This is the great yearly holiday of all the little girls.” Many households used to have a set of such dolls. See Casal for a much fuller account.

103
Shōmen
: the side of the room equipped with a
tokonoma
(alcove) and a decorative closet.

104
Chongakure
. A contemporary's account says it is a variation of blind man's bluff or blind man's tag.

105
Oka
-
oni
. Another variation or name of blind man's bluff.

106
Kage ya tōro
. Translation tentative.

107
Kōtō chūgakkō
: a prep school for an imperial (national) university. Shortly after this time, in 1894, the name changed to
kōtō gakkō
, “higher school.”

108
The gold cherry-blossom insignia on the school cap was the norm.

109
May have been Yanagiwara Rokuzō at Kuroda Ordinary Higher Elementary School (Jinjō Kōtō Shōgakkō). Horibe, p.124.

110
Chin, wan, neko
-
nyā, chū.

111
Inu, hashi, hon, tsukue.

112
Japanese syllabary comparable to A, B, C.

113
Binan
-
kazura (Kadsura japonica)
: a shrub that bears glossy red berries. The sap from its stalks used to be used as hair oil, hence the name. Also called
sanekazura
. It is a popular plant in classical Japanese verse.

114
This probably refers to a sub-temple or temple.

115
Sasa (Sasa nipponica)
: a variety of bamboo, though, unlike regular bamboo,
sasa
is a low-growth plant with a profusion of leaves.

116
Amane: chigusa (Phalaris canariensis)
?

117
Tokiwa Gozen (1138–90?): concubine of Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123–60). After Yoshitomo was defeated during the Heiji Disturbance in 1160 and killed, Taira no Kiyomori (1118–81), who emerged victorious, ordered that Tokiwa's three sons—Imawaka (later, Ano Zensei, 1153–1203), Otowaka (later, Gien, 1155–81), and Ushiwaka (later, Yoshitsune, 1159–89)—be captured and killed. Told of this, Tokiwa fled Kyoto, taking her three sons along with her. As the military tale
Heiji monogatari
tells it: “It was the 10th of Second Month. The persisting cold was severe, and it snowed ceaselessly. She made Imawaka walk ahead, led Otowaka by the hand, and carried Ushiwaka hugging him, with the two boys not even wearing footwear as they walked barefoot on ice. ‘It's cold, it's freezing, Mother,' the young ones cried and wept. She took her robes off and had them wear them, making sure that they were on the quiet downwind side, she on the severe upwind side.”

118
Torreya nucifera
: a large evergreen tree.

119
A swordsman famous for simultaneously using the two swords that a samurai carried (1584?–1645). The best-known among his tracts on swordsmanship is
Book of Five Elements (Gorin no sho)
.

120
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159–89): a warrior-commander who helped his clan, the Miyamoto, win the war against the rival clan, the Taira. See note 117 on Tokiwa Gozen in Episode 1.37.

121
A legendary warrior-monk who remained steadfastly loyal to Yoshitsune.

122
Ryūgū(jō): the undersea palace where the Watatsumi (Sea God) lives. It is famous for the Urashima legend. A young fisherman, Urashima Tarō, out fishing in his boat, meets and marries the Watatsumi's daughter, Princess Oto, and spends three glorious years in the palace. When he returns to his fishing village, he discovers three hundred years have passed. The best account appears in the Tango
Fudoki
, one of the regional reports compiled in 713. The large verse anthology
Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves (Man'yōshū)
has a poem on the legend, no. 1740. In both accounts the palace is said to be Paradise (
tokoyo
), but in neither is it called Ryūgū.

123
Sugai (Turbo [Lunella] coreensis)
: a species of marine snail.

124
Harbor at the estuary of the Kako River, in Harima (today's Hyōgo), once famous for its picturesque scenery. Takasago is also the name of a celebratory nō play by Zeami (1363-1443?), which is based on the legend that the pine of Takasago and the pine of Sumiyoshi, in Settsu (today's Osaka), are husband and wife, and on the belief in the pine tree as a symbol of peaceful coexistence and longevity. The protagonist of the play is a benign-looking, handsome old man with white hair and white eyebrows, and he holds a rake.

125
Yokobai (Japanagallia pteridis)
: an insect that looks like a tiny version of a cicada.

126
Hato
-
mushi
or, more commonly,
hato
or
aobahagoromo (Geisha distinctissima)
: a light-green insect one third of an inch long.
Aobahagoromo
means “blue (green) wing feathery cloth.”

127
Kenka ryōseibai
: an old adjudicatory principle. One reason the famous Forty-seven Samurai carried out their vendetta for their lord, in 1703, was the shogunate's failure to uphold this principle in punishing both their lord and the man he tried to kill.

128
Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an invading army to Korea twice: the first time, in 1592, for the purpose of conquering China—the Ming Dynasty at the time—and the second time, in 1597, for a punitive purpose, Hideyoshi claiming that China had violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement concluded a year earlier. In the first expedition, Hideyoshi's army of 160,000 soldiers won a series of victories but had to abandon the idea of reaching China. During the second expedition, the Japanese army of 140,000 soldiers again won quick victories but decided to withdraw because of Hideyoshi's death. Katō Kiyomasa, who had served as a top commander in the first expedition as well, had to defend the fort he had built in Ulsan—actually the outermost one of a network of eight forts—from the combined Ming-Korean forces twice, the first time from the end of 1597 to early 1598, the second time, in the summer of 1598, and beat them back both times. For Kiyomasa, see note 19 in Episode 1.8.

129
In the old way of counting one's age, a person was one year old at the time of birth. Someone born in an earlier part of the year, as in the New Year, had advantage over someone born later in the year in growth and other respects, even though they were the same age.

130
Inu
-
jirami
: Naka probably refers to a plant in the
Oenanthe
family commonly known as
kusa
-
jirami
, “grass lice,” or
yabu
-
jirami
, “bush lice” (
Torilis japonica
). Its tiny seedpods are burs that stick readily to clothes and hair.

131
A figure in the kabuki
Taikō ki,
modeled after Akechi Mitsuhide. See note 19 in Episode 1.8. In historical plays and other accounts written during the Edo period, changing the real names, often in palpably obvious fashion, was routine because the Tokugawa government frowned upon descriptions of actual historical figures, current and in the recent past.

132
One of the
kazoeuta
, “counting rhymes,” in playing
temari
. In a collection of his essays on customs and the like toward the end of the Edo period,
Kiyū shōran
(1830), Kitamura Nobuyo (1784–1856) quoted a version of these counting rhymes, saying, “The meaning is hard to get.” See Horibe, p. 163. The tentative translation given here is based on Kyoko Selden's suggestion that
nenjo
may mean “start of year.”
Jo
of
oyonejo
is a suffix meaning “girl” or “woman.”

133
The onomatopoeic reproduction of the warbler's warbling. It is thought to be particularly auspicious because it also means “The Law, the Lotus Sutra.” What follows is one of the
temari
songs current in those days.