|
Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, 1
2 August Fire-Lady'; or, 'the August Sun-Lady,' Amaterasu-oho-mi-Kami.
Notes for Chapter Ten
1 Mionoseki
2 Zashiki, the best and largest room of a Japanese dwelling - the guest- room of a private house, or the
banquet-room of a public inn.
Notes for Chapter Eleven
1 Fourteenth of August.
2 In the pretty little seaside hotel Inaba-ya, where I lived during my stay in Kitzuki, the kind old hostess
begged her guests with almost tearful earnestness not to leave the house during the Minige.
3 There are ten rin to one sen, and ten mon to one rin, on one hundred to one sen. The majority of the
cheap toys sold at the matsuri cost from two to nine rin. The rin is a circular copper coin with a square
hole in the middle for stringing purposes.
4 Why the monkey is so respectfully mentioned in polite speech, I do not exactly know; but I think that
the symbolical relation of the monkey, both to Buddhism and to Shinto, may perhaps account for the use
of the prefix 'O' (honourable) before its name.
5 As many fine dolls really are. The superior class of O-Hina-San, such as figure in the beautiful displays
of the O-Hina-no-Matsuri at rich homes, are heirlooms. Dolls are not given to children to break; and
Japanese children seldom break them. I saw at a Doll's Festival in the house of the Governor of Izumo,
dolls one hundred years old-charming figurines in ancient court costume.
6 Not to be confounded with Koshin, the God of Roads.
7 Celtis Wilidenowiana. Sometimes, but rarely, a pine or other tree is substituted for the enoki.
8 'Literally, 'The Dance of the Fruitful Year.'
9 First, - unto the Taisha-Sama of Izunio; Second, - to Irokami-Sama of Niigata; Third, - unto
Kompira-Sama of Sanuki; Fourth, - unto Zenkoji-Sama of Shinano; Fifth, - to O-Yakushi-San of
Ichibata; Sixth, - to O-Jizo-Sama of Rokkakudo; Seventh, - to O-Ebisu-Sama of Nana-ura; Eighth, - unto
Hachiman-Sama of Yawata; Ninth, - unto everyholy shrine of Koya; Tenth, - to the Ujigami-Sama of our
village.' Japanese readers will appreciate the ingenious manner in which the numeral at the beginning of
each phrase is repeated in the name of the sacred place sung of.
Notes for Chapter Twelve
1 This deity is seldom called by his full name, which has been shortened by common usage from
Susano-o-no-mikoto.
2 A kichinyado is an inn at which the traveller is charged only the price of the wood used for fuel in
cooking his rice.
3 The thick fine straw mats, fitted upon the floor of every Japanese room, are always six feet long by
three feet broad. The largest room in the ordinary middle-class house is a room of eight mats. A room of
one hundred mats is something worth seeing.
|
