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.