8/23/2015

utsurobune ufo ship

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. densetsu 伝説 Japanese Legends .
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utsurobune, utsuro-bune 虚舟(うつろぶね)うつろ舟 "hollow ship"

虚舟(うつろぶね)とは茨城県大洗町(北茨城市とも語られる)沖の太平洋に突如現れたとされる、江戸時代における伝説の舟である。
Seen in Ibaraki, Oarai town.


source : wikipedia

長橋亦次郎の描いた虚舟


- quote
The Utsuro-bune or the hollow ship refer to an unknown object which allegedly washed ashore in 1803 in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan. The tale has been told in three texts; Toen shōsetsu (1825) , Hyōryū kishū(1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844). The book Toen shōsetsu contains the most detailed version.



According to legend an attractive woman arrived to the coast of Japan aboard the Hollow Ship. This woman was unlike the other women in the region. Local fisherman accompanied this strange-looking female inland, but they were unable to establish communication since this visitor could not communicate in Japanese.

This historical event took place on February 22, 1803 when the round looking object, which according to texts was made of iron and glass, floated ashore. The object was unlike any other ships in the region, and according to history, at the time this “ship” washed ashore- there were no round ships in Japan. This “hollow ship” had very strange symbols on its metallic surface which the locals did not manage to decipher. According to the Ume-no-chiri , the ship reminded the witnesses of a rice cooking pot, around its middle it had a thickened rim. It was also coated with black paint and it had four little windows on four sides. The windows had bars and they were clogged with tree resin. The lower part of the boat was protected by brazen plates which looked to be made of iron of the highest western quality.

The female visitor was not very tall, according to ancient texts, 1.5 meters, she had very pale skin and was dressed in a very strange way, the woman seemed very polite and had fiery red hair with red eyebrows. In her hands she held a box that was 60 cm in length.

There were two books published early that speak about this strange incident. One book is called Toen Shousetsu, published in 1825 and the other book is Ume no Chiri, published in 1844.The stories that were told in the books are considered to be based on old tabloid-like newspapers that are commonly called kawara-ban, while there are also many stories that originate from local folklore.

One of the most mysterious and interesting aspects of this legend revolves around the box that the female visitor held in her hands. A rectangular shaped box was made out of material unlike anything found in Japan. The female visitor did not allow anyone to touch the box so we can assume that it was extremely important to the visitor, but the exact purpose of the box is till unknown.


Ink drawing by Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴 (1825)

In the Toen shōsetsu story, an old villager is said to have made a speech at the female visitor was present in the village:

“This woman may be a daughter of a king in a foreign country and might have been married in her home country. However, she loved another man after marriage and her lover was put to death.
Since she was a princess before, she could get sympathy and avoid the death penalty. She had been forced to be put in this boat and was left to the sea to be trusted to fate. If this guess is correct, her lover’s severed head is inside the square box.
In the past, a similar boat with a woman inside drifted ashore in a beach not far from here. In that incident, a severed head placed on a kind of chopping board was found inside the boat. Judging from this kind of secondhand information, the contents of the box may be similar. This may explain why the box is so important to her and she is always holding it in her hands.
We may be ordered to use much money to investigate this woman and boat. Since there is a precedent for casting this kind of boat back out to sea, we had better put her inside the boat and send it away.From a humanitarian viewpoint, this treatment is too cruel for her. However, this treatment would be her destiny.”
- source : Ivan Petricevic


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江戸時代の浮世絵にUFO!?うつろ舟の謎
うつろ舟の蛮女


source : yaji-kita.comxxx

兎園小説「虚舟の蛮女」日本随筆大成第二期巻一
(昭和三年)より





江戸「うつろ舟」ミステリー Utsurobune mystery
加門正一 (著)





うつろ舟 - 澁澤龍彦 Shibusawa Tatsuhiko


- Japanese reference -


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. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .

. densetsu 伝説 Japanese Legends .


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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #utsurobune - - - -
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8/22/2015

makuragaeshi pillow turner

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. 大道芸 Daidogei street performance .
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makuragaeshi 枕返し juggling with pillows, pillow turner

They used the typical hako makura 箱枕 pillow box, also called kimakura 木枕 wooden pillow.
This act has been popular in China for a long time, but in Japan it became popular in the Edo period, when a juggler from Kyoto made it to Edo to show his skills.



Some could use up to 10 pillow boxes standing on top of each other.
There were different makura for their show:
「四季四つ枕、一つ枕、二つ枕、八ツ橋枕、あや杉枕、勅使の枕、すくい枕、打ち抜き枕、出会い枕、屏風枕、瀧枕」
- source : kyokugoma.blog. -




Pillows in the Edo period where of two types.
-- kukuri makura くくり枕 stuffed pillow, sometimes so long it lasted for two persons
-- hako makura 箱枕 "pillow box" wooden box with a bit of soft cover for the head, it was ment to protect the large coiffures of people.
. makura 枕 pillow .

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Later makuragaeshi (まくらがえし) turned into a yokai monster.


竜斎閑人正澄画『狂歌百物語』より「枕返シ」

日本の妖怪の一つ
- source : wikipedia -


- quote
枕返し pillow flipper - 枕小僧 makura kozō

APPEARANCE:
Makuragaeshi are a kind of zashiki-warashi: a child ghost which haunts specific rooms of a house. They are found all over Japan, though details about them vary from region to region. They take the form of a small child dressed as a Niō, a monk, or a samurai, and appear in bedrooms late at night.



BEHAVIOR:
Makuragaeshi gets it is named for its primary activity: flipping pillows. People who sleep in a room haunted by a makuragaeshi often wake up to find that their pillow has been flipped and is now at their feet. Makuragaeshi are also known for other minor pranks, such as running through ashes and leaving dirty footprints around the rooms they haunt.

While most stories about makuragaeshi present them as harmless pranksters, there are a few stories that describe scarier powers. Some don’t flip the pillow, but lift up and flip people instead. Others pick up entire tatami mats that people are sleeping on and bounce them around. Still others are said to sit on their victim’s chest while he or she sleeps, pressing down hard and squeezing the wind out of the lung. They occasionally cause kanashibari, or sleep paralysis. The most extreme stories say that anyone who sees a makuragaeshi loses consciousness, after which the makuragaeshi steals their soul, leaving them dead.

ORIGIN:
There are as many theories as to where makuragaeshi come from as there are variants of zashiki-warashi. Most often they linked to the ghosts of people — particularly children — who died in the room they come to haunt. As makuragaeshi are generally lower in rank than zashiki-warashi, they are often the result of ghosts which died tragically, such as murder victims. However, some makuragaeshi have also been attributed to shape-shifting, prank-loving yokai such as tanuki or saru.
Others still have attributed this spirit to the actions of monster cats such as kasha.
- source : yokai.com/makuragaeshi

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- - - - - Yokai legends from the prefectures

zashiki warashi 座敷童子 girl spooks in the best room

岩手県を中心に青森、秋田、宮城などに分布する、旧家に棲む一種の妖精(妖怪と精霊の中間か)。地方によってザシキボッコ、クラワラシ、クラボッコ、コメツキワラシ、ウスツキコ、ホソデ、ナガテなどの異名がある。赤顔垂髪の小童で、旧家の奥座敷などにいる。それがいる間、家は繁盛し、いなくなると、衰亡する。その家の座敷に寝ると、ザシキワラシに枕返しされたり、上から押さえられたりすることがあるが、人を害することはない。座敷小僧というのもこれに似ている。愛媛・徳島地方ではほぼ同じものをアカシャグマといった。


............................................................................... Ehime 愛媛県
広田村 Hirotamura

nawamesuji, nawame suji ナワメスジ Nawame road
The small mountain road near the big mountain is called Nawame road, and sometimes even Mashoosuji 魔性筋 Masho, Evil Spirit Road".
If a home is built along this road, the pillow turner shows up regularly. If someone sleeps with his head in one direction, he will find himself facing in the opposite direction the next morning.



............................................................................... Gunma 群馬県
東吾妻町 Higashiagatsuma In Edo is a place called 吾妻町(あづまちょう)

neko 猫 cat
When a human comes to sleep in the house the 化けたネコ bakeneko cat turns the pillow.
If a person had been sleeping with his head to the West, he will find himself now facing East (and vice-versa).


............................................................................... Ibaraki 茨城県
水府村 Suibumura

4・5年前に取り壊した築300年ほどの母屋の座敷に寝ると枕返しされた。頭を南向きにして寝ていたのが、北向きになっているという。水戸光圀様が泊まったから寝てはいけないということなのかもしれない。



............................................................................... Iwate 岩手県

tanuki 狸 badger,saru 猿 monkey
熊谷という家では、老婆が死んで入棺し奥座敷に置いていたところ、誤って火が出て棺や畳が焼けてしまった。その部分の畳替えをしたが、その上に寝ると枕返しにあうという。狸、猿の類だろうともいう。

ザシキワラシ
座敷の掛け軸が風も無いのに音をたてたり、物陰から赤い頭巾をかぶったワラシが出てきて屏風の陰にかくれた。山から猿が入ってくることが多いと大人は言うが、ザシキワラシだと思った。

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warashi ワラシ / 童子
鱒澤村の某家に、座敷の床の間の前からたたみ1畳去って寝ないと、夜中にワラシが来て揺り起こしたり、体を上から押し付けたり、枕返しをしたり、とても寝させぬところがある。

大原のある家には、ザンギリ頭の赤ら顔、5,6歳の童子がすねにはばきをつけ、赤いチャンチャンコを着て枕返しに来た。

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東磐井郡

chiisa na ko 小さな子 a small child
興田村の京津畑の旧家には、赤い着物を着た小さな子が現れ枕返しをした。その部屋の柱が逆木だったのでそうなったのだろう。

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下閉井郡 Shimohei district

Kappa 河童
In the compound of the 金子家 Kaneko family there was a well with fresh water. There lived a Kappa who sometimes came into the house and turned the pillow.

. Kappa densetsu 河童伝説 Kappa Legends - Introduction .


............................................................................... Kyoto 京都府
亀岡市 Kameoka

About 350 years ago at the temple 嶺樹院 Reiju-In there was a scroll with a Daruma painting said to be by the Chinese Zen painter 顔輝 Ganki (Yan Hui).
When the priest wanted to sell it to make some money, Daruma came to his dream pillow and said
"I want to go home!" 「帰りたい」.


............................................................................... Wakayama 和歌山県

hinoki 桧の木 Japanese cypress tree
古い檜で上のほうで7本に分かれている木を伐ったら、夜中に7人の僧が現れて木をもとに戻す。何とか切り倒したが、その夜、山小屋に7人の僧が現れて、杣人の鼻を捻って殺した。ここを枕返しの檀と呼ぶ。


............................................................................... Yamanashi 山梨県

zashiki boozu 座敷坊主 - kura bokko クラボッコ
座敷には座敷ボウズ、倉にはお倉ボウズがいる。屋根の破風の三角の部分から出入りしている。それらがいなくなるとその家は潰れるという。祭日には食物を倉の入り口に供える。郡内の枕返しもこの類だろう。




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makuragami 枕神 "god of the pillow"
a deity that appears in your dream at your pillow (yumemakura 夢枕)

If you have a difficult problem on your mind, you can ask the "god of the pillow" to come in your dream and show you a solution.

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Iwate, 奥州市 Oshu

neko 猫,nezumi 鼠 cat and mouse / rat
In a certain temple there lived a huge rat, which was trying to kill the priest. So his cat called together all her cat friends to help getting rid of the big rat. But the cat got killed instead. The cat appeared in his dream with the makuragami and spoke with a grudge:
"If you had shouted to support my efforts, I would still be alive!"



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Saga 小川島 Ogawajima Island

nanpamono no haka 難破者の墓 grave of shipwrecked people
On the beach of the island are many graves of drowned people of shipwrecks. But since folks did not speak well of them, many families rebuild a grave in their own home-graveyard.
Sometimes the drowned people appear with the makuragami in a dream and ask to be taken to their own family graves.


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Shimane 邇摩郡 Nima district

. Yakushi no men 薬師の面 mask of Yakushi .

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yumemakura 夢枕 "dream pillow", 112 legends to explore
- source : Yokai database -

makura 枕 171 legends to explore
南枕,北枕 / 枕飯 / 枕団子 / 枕小僧 makura kozoo / . . .
- source : Yokai database -

- source : Yokai database -


. yumemakura, yume makura omamori 夢枕お守り "dream pillow" amulet .
Tsumagoi Jinja shrine 嬬恋神社, Tokyo

. yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - Introduction .


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. 大道芸 Daidogei street performance .

. densetsu 伝説 Japanese Legends .


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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #makuragaeshi #makura #makuragami #yumemakura - - - -
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8/19/2015

Edo Yokai and Yurei

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. yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters and ghosts - ABC-List .
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江戸 Edo - 妖怪 Yokai monsters, 幽霊 Yurei ghosts

. Legends and Tales from Edo 江戸の伝説 .
- Introduction -



. Edo Nana Fushigi 江戸七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Edo  .
The number seven itself carries a mystical significance.
Various districts of Edo had their own collection, for example Honjo:

. Honjo Nana Fushigi 本所七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Honjo .
Oitekebori 置いてけ堀 / 置行堀
baka bayashi 馬鹿囃子 (tanuki bayashi 狸囃子)
okuri choochin 送り提灯
ochiba shinai shii no ki 落葉しない椎の木 pasania tree without falling leaves
Tsugaru no taiko 津軽の太鼓
kiezu andoo 消えずの行灯
ashi-arai yashiki 足洗い屋敷



. Ghosts (yookai, yuurei, bakemono 化け物  o-bake お化け) .
- Introduction -

. Edo Yookai Karuta 江戸妖怪かるた Edo Yokai monsters card game .

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Bushu 武州 : Tokyo 東京都、Chiba 千葉県、Saitama 埼玉県
Tales about Yokai along the Tokaido road 東海道

. The 53 stations of the Tokaido Road 東海道五十三次 .

. Kaido Ancient Roads - Yokai and Yurei 街道の妖怪 - 幽霊 .

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- - - - - ABC-List - - - - -

haifuri tanuki 灰降狸 the ash-throwing Tanuki



In the year 1854 in the 6th lunar month there was constantly ashes raining down to the ground of the Tenjin Shrine in 麹町 Kojimachi.
People thought it was the malicious deed of a Tanuki badger.

. tanuki 狸 - mujina 狢 - racoon dog, badger legends .

. Kōjimachi 麹町 / 麴町 Kojimachi district in Edo .

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isogashi いそがし "busy busy" the busybody



Showed up first in Kumamoto, running busily around the streets, knocking things over.
Very similar to the tenjoname 天井嘗 ceiling licker.

- reference -

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. Kappabashi かっぱばし/ かっぱ河 / 合羽橋 in Asakusa .
Where the famous water goblin, Kappa 河童, is living.
and the legend of Kappa Kawataro 合羽川太郎(合羽屋喜八 Kappaya Kihachi).

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Kioicho no densha 紀尾井町の電車 the train from Kioi village



An old fox who lived in the vicinity of Kioi village began to imitate the sound of the train toward Akasaka all night long : gatagoto chinchin ガタゴトチンチン.
But there is no train to be seen.

. Kioichoo 紀尾井町 Kioicho district, Chiyoda, Tokyo .

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. Konoha Tengu 木葉天狗 / 木の葉天狗 "Tree Leaf Tengu" .
One of them lives at Mount Takao, 高尾山薬王院 Mount Takaozan, Temple Yakuo-In, Tokyo.

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kuchisake onna 口裂け女 slit-mouthed woman



- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. Sangenjaya 三軒茶屋 Sangen-jaya, "three tea stalls" .
She likes the number three, so she likes to come here.

Someone saw her on the road in 千代田区 Chiyoda ward. If there are three people walking together, she comes after them with a knife.

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kurokamikiri 黒髪切 black hair cutter



In the middle of the night a black monster comes out and cuts the hair of people.
Its hands are said to look like scissors, sometimes his mouth also.



- quote -
The black hair cutter or Kurokamikiri
is one of the most grotesque and disturbing yokai and has a hair obsession. Kurokamikiri is vaguely humanoid. It has a bloated body with chubby arms and legs. It has no neck but a bulbous head. Its skin is deepest black and the only features visible are a wide mouth with a slug like tongue and huge flat teeth, and two tiny, evil yellow eyes spaced far apart on its dark visage. Kurokamikiri will creep up behind its victims and bite off their hair.
Kurokamikiri is said to make a “mogaaaaa!”sound.
- source : Richard Freeman -

Kurokamikiri anatomical illustration from Mizuki Shigeru : Yokai Daizukai
- source : pinterest.com -

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onimusume, oni-musume 鬼娘 demon daughter



A young girl that would eat anything you put in her mouth. Said to be the yokai of a cat.
A monster version of うら若きむすめ urawakaki musume.



She was often shown in 見世物小屋 curio shows.

- - - - - A bit different



nekomusume, neko musume 猫娘 cat daughter

- source and text : Zack Davisson-

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ooji no kitsune 王子の狐 the Fox from Oji


Ando Hiroshige 安藤広重

. Ooji Inari Jinja 王子稲荷神社 Oji Inari Fox Shrine .

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ooki na otoko 大きな男 the huge man

Once the children of the village were telling stories when in the room next-door there was a strange noise of something falling down. When they looked, it was a huge, huge rice cake and they all enjoyed to eat it together.
"Let's hope another one will fall down!" they wondered and indeed, there was again a noise in the room next-door.
"Where is that rice cake?" shouted a huge man.
They all run away in great fear.

- - - - - 10 tales of huge men to explore
- source : yokai database -

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. Sara yashiki 皿屋敷 "the Dish Mansion" .
The story of お菊 Okiku and the Nine Plates
at Bancho 番町皿屋敷


. sazae-oni 栄螺鬼 / さざえ鬼 haunted turban shell .
may be found in 品川 Shinagawa.


. Shinozakigitsune, Shinozaki-gitsune 篠崎狐 the Kitsune fox from Shinozaki .
江戸川区 Edogawa ward, Tokyo

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tachifusagari たちふさがり twister, whirlwind
tachifusagaru 立塞がる to stand in one's way



A kind of whirlwind (tatsumaki たつまき) that occurs in Saitama.
Also called kawa no tachifusagari 川のたちふさがり (you can not cross the river).
Sometimes it occurs right in the middle of a river and people were quite afraid of it.
It looked like a fearful monster to the people of old.

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図説江戸の幽霊 - 江戸怪談と幽霊画
恐ろしくも美しい幽霊画とともにめぐる江戸の怪談と幽霊の世界

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水木しげるのTOKYO妖怪めぐり Mizuki Shigeru Tokyo Yokai Meguri

第1章 - 日常に潜む妖怪たち
(銭湯 あかなめ ―清潔志向の現代を生き抜くのもひと苦労?
Akaname (Grime Licker)
A yokai that appears if a bathtub is not kept clean. He licks grime in the bathroom.
ラッシュアワー  いそがし ―心休まる暇もない、ストレス社会を象徴
Isogashi
busybody, running around constantly
深夜のオフィス - オバリヨン ―残業つづきで疲れたあなたを癒してくれる? 
Obarion, Obariyon
Yokai which rides piggyback on a human victim and becomes unbearably heavy.

第2章 - 東京妖怪名所図会
(麻布十番  小豆洗い ―甘いお菓子の裏にはこの妖怪の努力あり?
Azuki arai
(or Azukitogi) – A spirit that washes azuki beans.
吉祥寺 油すまし ―どこに潜んでいるか、わかるかな?
Abura sumashi -
Oil Presser - a squat creature with a straw-coat covered body and a potato-like or stony head - originally from Amakusa, Kumamoto
お台場  海坊主 ―自然の恐ろしさを伝える海上の大入道 
Umibōzu, Umibozu –
A giant monster appearing on the surface of the sea.

第3章 - 鬼太郎と仲間たち
(コインランドリー 一反木綿 ―のんきに宙をさまよっている…わけではない!
町田 児啼爺 ―赤ちゃんのような姿にだまされてはいけない
Konaki-jijii
A yokai with an old man’s body who cries like a baby. If someone who hears a baby wailing and picks up this creature (which looks like a baby), it becomes heavier and heavier, turning into a rock that crushes the victim.
巣鴨 砂かけ婆 ―「おばあちゃんの原宿」は妖怪にも通用するのだっ!? 
Sunakake-baba
Yokai with a kind-hearted personality who runs the Yokai Apartment business. There are tubes inside her nails that inject sand, blinding people.
column 本所七不思議 Honjo Nana Fushigi
column 水木妖怪に会える街、境港と調布
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- a long list of yokai along the Main Roads
Tokyo : たちふさがり、王子の狐、紀尾井町の電車、大きな男、灰降狸、黒髪切、鬼娘
いい姉さん、提灯、鳴甑
- source : wakanmomomikan.yu-nagi.com -


3 Best Yokai Spots in Chofu, Tokyo - in memory of author of “Kitaro,” Shigeru Mizuki,
Tenjin Dori Shopping Street 天神通り商店街 // Fudaten Shrine 布多天神社 // Kitaro Chaya Shop 鬼太郎茶屋
- source and photos : goinjapanesque.com -


All the Old Haunts: A Yokai Guide to Tokyo and Beyond

- source : John Paul Catton -

- - - -- Tokyo 東京 - 143 tales to explore
- source : nichibun Yokai database -

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. Japanese Legends - 伝説 民話 昔話 – ABC-List .

- back to -
. Kaido Ancient Roads - Yokai and Yurei 街道の妖怪 - 幽霊 .

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8/17/2015

Robin D. Gill quotes

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]

. fûzoku 風俗 Fuzoku, entertainment and sex business .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
- Robin D. Gill -
- From Wee Tinkle To Woeful Torrent -


Inspired by the
. shoobengumi, shôben-gumi 小便組 Shobengumi, "the urine gang"  .
I got permission from Robin to post his pages about peeing here.


It is part of his book



The Woman Without a Hole -
& Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems

To read it all here :
- source : books.google.co.jp -


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From Wee Tinkle To Woeful Torrent - - - シイシイ から ザアザア まで

小便の音 - - - The Sound of Piss

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

娘シイ年増のはじゅウ 乳母のはザア 一五六
musume shii toshima no wa juu uba no wa zaa

daughters go shii
experienced women juu
and wet-nurses zaa

a maiden tinkles
mother showers, wet-nurse
just pours down!

This is very late Willow ku (bk 156) is poetry if Old McDonald Had a Farm is. Yet you can bet it made its author and editor happy, for chances are no senryu (or haiku) before it contained more than two piss noises in 17 syllabets. Such is the nature of competitive short-form literature. Moreover, onomatopoeia itself takes on the nature of a word game in Japanese where one may find whole dictionaries devoted to matching sounds both physical and psychological with their proper subject (or, is it object?). Perhaps the closest English equivalent would be the collective nouns of venery (as in hunting) assembled after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who did it in a novel (where a young man was quizzed as to the proper terms for various groups of game), and thoroughly but not exhaustively supplemented by James Lipton (An Exaltation of Larks, or the venereal game: 1968). It turned into a parlour game. Old McDonald aside, English keeps the lion’s share of its extraordinarily good sound sense (it suffices to consider stop and shrimp) under wraps – I call it built-in as opposed to apparent mimesis – so such games combining aspects of matching, collecting and guessing, do not work.

an
Edo
observation:
girls go tinkle,
their mamas shower,
but wet-nurses can power
a hydro-electric plant !!!

Pardon the hyperbolic anachronism or anachronistic hyperbole as you wish. This example of one of the oddest themes to ever chapter a book come from Cuntologia (女陰万考) whose page on the subject starts with an explanation about why a woman’s urination was said to sound like a cataract (「女の小便滝の音」), namely, it gushes so powerfully for being far closer to the bladder than a man’s nozzle. I think I would call it oxygenated, for the sound sometimes resembles that of water coming from a tap with a filter. But such spigots were not around back then and because we moderns generally piss into water (I guess this makes us closer to raccoons, who do the same), males now sound as loud if not louder, in a less hissy way, for the longer distance to splashdown and the sound-box effect of the bowl.

しのをつく様にお乳母は小便し 摘 四
shino o tsuku yô ni uba wa shôben-shi

like a torrential downpour
the wet-nurse’s water
is an ear-sore

raining cats and dogs?
well, a wet-nurse
pisses hogs!

The wet-nurse, proverbially slack, as we see in another chapter, pisses true to character, or rather, stereotype. The shino in the original is a small variety of bamboo that combined with tsuku (stick/stab) denotes, as far as I could make out, a big bundle of slender projectiles flying together into something “downpour” literally translates as “sticks shino” and that idiomatically means a torrential cataract of a rain, what we might call “raining cats and dogs” but in Japanese is usually “raining spears.” I added “ear-sore” in one reading because this rain doesn’t always strike the ears as music (see Mother Goose: It’s raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring verse) and to bring out the insulting quality intrinsic to wet-nurse senryu. Directly after the above ku, Mr. Cuntology intro-duced a 7-7 epigram that transliterates as “affection-exhausts/ing piss/ing-sound” (aisô no tsukiru shôben no oto).

Where went the lovers’ bliss?

falling out of love to
the sound of piss
Love’s dead, the proof is this

you suddenly hear it
the sound of piss

love’s dirge

the sound of piss
from one who
no longer
cares

The verb in the original leaves room for ambiguity. I think it means that awareness of the sound of piss marks the death of love, but it may mean that the pisser is no longer trying to piss in a manner to please, or, at any rate not alienate the other, so the sound really is different.

cupid flown
discretion ceases
now she pisses as she
damn well pleases!

But most women in senryu did care:

なりつたけ娵小べんをほそくする
narittake yome shôben o hosoku suru   摘2-21

just married, she
would do all her pissing
through a pin-hole

a young wife
does her best to keep thin
her stream of piss

the bride tries
her best to keep a bridle
on her piss

the new wife
keeps her piss as narrow
as possible

The dietary joke in the second reading is an anachronism. In Japan, brides (young wives living with their husband’s family) had to struggle not to grow thin, for, if senryu are right, mother-in-laws preferred growing hair in closets (mold on hidden dumplings) to satisfying the appetite of their son’s wife. The bride is both struggling not to sound gross to her husband and, I would think, not to challenge

her mother-in-law with a bold display of sound.

たしなんた尼ハ小便しわくさせ 万 宝
tashinanda ama wa shôben shiwaku sase  13

prudently
the nun works to knit up
her pissing

decorously
the nun puts pleats in
her sheet of piss

to be discreet
sister puts pleat after pleat
into her piss

Shiwaku sase is “to wrinkle” or “put folds in.” This nun is embarrassed to reveal her gross humanity rather than one trying to sound demure and feminine.

小便をいきめば器量がどっとせず
shôben o ikimeba kiryô ga dotto sezu
(urine/piss[acc] strain-if/when looks/beauty plenty-does-not)

straining at pee
for all the world knows beauty
does not gush

squeezing her pee
for cats and dogs would mar
her beauty

a careful piss
her beauty won’t mean shit
if it bursts out

beauty’s boudoir
strains her pee lest it belie
her fragility

Usually the verb ikimu is used for straining at stool; here it means trying to restrict it rather than push it out faster, but both activities involve squeezing and breath-holding. First, I imagined a maid-servant who presumes to be a beauty, then a pretty mistress, a “Celia Pisses!” I took the Japanese from Cuntologia, but alas, it and, hence, my readings are probably wrong! A 1995 reprint from a prestigious publisher (岩波文庫), and a 1927 reprint (日本名著全集版) have one less syllabet – making it proper, for the above version was a syllabet over, something rare in the middle part of a senryu. “Ikimeba,” or “strain-if/when” becomes “imeba,” to have a strong aversion for, or “loathe-if/when.”
In this case, the allusion would be to a popular scam –popular in senryu at any rate – called “the piss team” (小便組 shôben-gumi), where an exceptionally beautiful woman becomes a mistress on extraordinarily reasonable terms, and within a week or two starts pissing in bed, then demands a high settlement fee to break off with her patron, i.e., the victim. Unfortunately, the final five syllabets, dotto sezu, have a number of readings. Using the same one used above, a figurative translation might be: “If they hate piss / they are not blessed with / drop-dead looks,” a round-about way of saying that one rarely gets lucky with beauties. But another idiomatic reading of dotto sezu, gives us –

小便をいめば器量がどっとせず   五
shôben o imeba kiryô ga dotto sezu
(urine/piss [acc] loathe-if/when looks/beauty cares-for-not)

if you loathe piss,
beauty is something
you can miss!

fear piss enough
and you will not dare
care for beauty

these beauties
will find nothing amiss
if you hate piss

The first and second readings seem weak of wit, so I prefer the last, which takes the “looks” (kiryô) for the person – something possible then, but not today. I.e., the beauties want someone who hates it so they can lose their job and gain that severance package. What’s funny is how attention is called to a perfectly normal dislike of piss in bed. But I am beginning to feel like a fool for wasting so much time on one stupid senryu – I even had one more reading: By definition he hates pee / A woman who doesn’t gush is a beauty! – and leave it only as an example of how a lack of pronouns can make some poems horribly polysemous. While all three imeba versions may be wrong, chances are that Mr. Cuntology misread. I went along with his ikimeba reading because it was surrounded by other ku about that same idea. As Laurence Sterne’s Tristam Shandy (1759-67) once explained:

“It is the nature of a hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates everything to itself as proper nourishment; and, from the first minute of your begetting it, it generally grows stronger by every thing you see, hear, read, or understand. This is of great use.”
(Go read this old post-modern novel if you have not!).

If you listen for strained piss, you will hear it. Enough, one last ku to get rid of the piss-team and we will get back on the main path of this essay.

小便は古イと妾あわをふき   万
shôben wa furui to mekake awa o fuki

piss is old
so this mistress
spews foam

piss is old hat
so now mistresses are
foaming over

A confidence trick must be new to work. With bed-wetting so well-known, it was time to move on . . . to epilepsy. I suppose the poet invented this, for I encounter no more of these ku, while the piss-team continues in senryu for generations!

めつきりと・小便ほそふする娘 かぢ枕 宝暦六 
mekkiri-to shôben hososuru musume

a young maiden
all too obviously
thins her pee

Coming of Age in Senryu, or at least a 1756 zappai. I will not explain how the 7-5 plays on the letters of the adverb めっきり(obviously). Suddenly self-conscious, a young girl squeezes her piss. Do her parents hear that their daughter is no longer innocent? The sound is not given in the ku, but we are conscious of it. So women of various ages and professions all worried about how they sounded pissing. The author of Cuntology also gives a ku about a woman in the Court, I cannot understand, though I imagine it means someone has the job of covering the sound, as a radio might do for bashful moderns, and concludes his “Sound of Pissing” section with a word of sympathy for the high-stress lifestyle these women led, when even the natural pleasure of release in urination may not be enjoyed chibiri-chibiri (in drips and drabbles), when one is afraid to let it all out.

欲心の無い小便を下女は垂れ
yokushin no nai shôben o gejo wa tare
(desire/greed-heart’s not urine[acc]maid-as-for drip)

the maid-servant
lets loose a stream of piss
without avarice

Nor artifice, for it is the same thing. The verb, tare, normally used for male pissing, suggests a real stream of piss. But maids are generally reserved for sex in senryu. It is the wet-nurse who cannot piss without becoming a target for senryu:

あいくつわむしさと乳母ハたれて居る  摘 
ai kutsuwa-mushi sa to uba-wa tarete-iru 1-28

“it’s only a giant katydid”
says the nurse-maid
making water

あいくつわむしさと乳母ハたれて居る  摘
ai kutsuwa-mushi sato-uba wa tarete-iru 1-28

a giant katydid?
the country wet-nurse
is taking a piss!

Without the Chinese characters, we have yet another ambiguous reading for the first ku. The sa is an emphatic which I made “it’s only,” and the to means that what came before it was spoken (a verbal quote-mark, lacked by English), but together sato means “country.” Regardless, we may assume the “giant katydid” (Mecopoda elongata) does not say “Katy did!” but sounds like a cataract.

乳母たれる向ふでくろがほへて居る 万 安四
uba tareru mukô de kuro ga hoete-iru

nurse-maid pisses
and, over the way, hark!
blacky is barking

That is enough attention paid to the sound of piss in senryu, though I am sure there must be much more, and better, for Japanese prose was full of it – there are entire lines of onomatopoeia following a piss from start to finish! Honest to goodness, purely verbal musical scores that read like jazz scats. Here is one I recalled reading in Inoue Hisashi’s personal grammar+reader in Japanese (井上ひさし著『私版日本語読本』), kindly looked up & economically transcribed by Y, the partner or doppelganger of O (I don’t have it straight yet) who works in a NY bookstore – for I am currently exiled from my books – which has it in stock: シヤリ(+くりかえし記号4回)ザラ(+4回)シヤア(+4回)ヂウ(+4回)シイシ(+1回)トツクリ(+1回)ポトン、チヨビン (I forgot to ask its original source) 。
.
sharisharisharisharishari, zarazarazarazarazara, shashashashasha,
jujujujuju, shiishishiishi, tokkuri tokkuri, poton, chobin!


It seems the mimesis picks up in mid-urination and the sound is altered by the varying thickness of the flow – maybe something was going on within sight of the pisser – and, possibly by what the piss strikes, and it ends on some notes that indicate the manner in which the flow is shut-down, though I dare not try to read it.

サホ姫のしと/\降るや春の雨 
sao-hime no shito-shito furu ya haru no ame
teitoku 1570-1653 貞徳 崑山

princess spring is out again
making flowers bloom
fine pizzling rain

A original is only “Princess Sao’s is falling shito-shito: spring rain.” The idea of making flowers bloom comes from reading Alexander Pope on women-as-clouds & vice-versa and from reading a ku by Issa, in whose sundry collection of dialect (方言雑集:全集七) I found Teitoku’s ku. Issa’s ku may already be in another of my books and, lacking mimesis, does not really belong here, but it is my favorite of Issa’s half a dozen Goddesses pissing ku, so here it is:

さほ姫のばりやこぼしてさく菫   一茶
saohime no bari ya koboshite saku sumire   文政三

where princess sao
spilled her urine, there
bloom the violets!

Classic poetry credited rain and mist with dyeing flowers and leaves. But what a beautiful complement to Ben Franklin’s observation that eating pine nuts could make urine smell like violets – the scent of ideal urine (?) – in his Letter to the French Academy of Science suggesting study be given to improving the smell of farts! And, so long as we are off-subject, let me say that there are older pee poems in Japanese than Teitoku’s. The earliest I know is in the Manyôshû (9c). It is not about pissing but a rare example of something famously rare in Japanese, cussing. A lover upset at another’s unfaithfulness used piss (shiko) to modify this and that (one that was a bed, if I recall right) three times in a tiny 31 syllabet complaint – ancient Japanese used it as British did the word “bloody.” But Teitoku’s is the first clear piss mimesis of the type that would soon become ubiquitous in Edo era literature. that I know of, and, right next to it, Issa jotted down (bassackwards) the most famous of all, or the only classic pissing poem:

サホ姫の春立ながらしとをしてかすみの衣裾はぬれけり 一茶記 犬筑波集
sao-hime no haru tachinagara shito o shite kasumi no koromo suso o nurekeri [sic. ★]

Princess Sao
tinkles with the coming
of the spring

Wetting the hems
of her misty robes
With her spring
Princess Sao makes water
standing tall

Wetting the misty
hems of her robes

The standing=arriving [Spring] does not English. Reading the original, one thinks of Kyoto, where women, like men, pissed into collection troughs while standing. Neither this nor Bashô’s well-known late-fall shower (mura-shigure) that wanders about like a dog whizzing a wee bit here and a wee bit there (inu no kakebari), or Issa’s many pissing ku, use sound words. Usually, Issa uses plenty. Could he hold back when dealing with crude material lest his high ku be considered low?

雨だれは只さほ姫の夜尿かな  犬子集 (1633)
ame dare wa tada sao hime no yobari [or yojito]kana
(rain drops-as-for just sao princess’s night-piss!/?/’tis)

those rain drops?
just little princess sao
wetting her bed

The rude metaphor used in this ku, dating to about the same time as Teitoku’s, feels senryu, but is haiku in direction (nature described by the human).

つみ草に来てハこらへるいなた姫  万
tsumigusa ni kite wa koraeru inada-hime  宝九

draw-verse: it’s so scary!

plucking herbs
she holds it in all the while
a princess inada

princess inada
comes to pluck herbs but
must hold it in

There is no sound here but the chuckling of the poet. The main themes in pissing (or not pissing) by women in senryu are 1) wanting to sound feminine, or sounding otherwise, as explained above; 2) the gorgeous piss-gang (小便組 shôben-gumi) mistress who wets her bed on purpose to make a man dislike her and gain a severance fee; 3) men pissing somewhere they shouldn’t; 4) Things that happen when pissing – thoughts, civilities, observances of nature; 5) women, mostly blind, unaware they are being spied upon by a man, generally their servant; 6) fear of being violated by snakes if they do it in the country, and 7) Fear of doing it on worms (like snakes vindictive?). If I did not fear creating yet another 740 pg worst-seller (I already have two), I would have introduced more of each, but this wee sample must do. Pissing evidently did not piss-off the censors, for Blyth catches enough of 3) – perhaps the most amusing category – and 4), so I was able to let them go and instead chose to concentrate on sound, for its raw quality makes it sound senryu.

The above ku, from Karai Senryû’s earliest major collection, is one of the wittiest examples of 6). Princess Inada, more commonly Kushinada-hime, daughter of an ancient King, bound to be the next victim of the Leviathan, Yamato no Orochi, was saved when a suitor got the serpent drunk and cut it/him to bits. Please note that without the use/non-use of particles, in Japanese, the princess in the poem may be the princess, i.e. an imagined hap-pening after the mythological princess was married to her brave suitor (for noble women went out in the Spring for herbs), AND a Princess Inada, which is to say a clever idea for a name for all women who tend to hold it in on field trips (more likely fearing chiggers or leeches or poisonous plants than snakes). In English, the ku cannot have it both ways; it must be OR, one or the other, as determined by the use or non-use of an “a.” That is far more important than whether the syntax puts the Princess in the first line or the last, as it is in the original.

しゝの出ル穴ハ別さとさゝめこと   摘3-16
shishi no deru ana wa betsu sa to sasamegoto pinch
(“peepee’s leaving hole-as-for different [+emph]” whisper-words)

pillow talk:
telling him the pee hole
is different

“you know, the hole
for pee is not the same”
sweet nothings

“so you thought
the pee hole was the same!”
young lovers

I can recall an argument with friends in primary school about this same problem. Boys just do not know. Moreover, if women really worried about how they piss (as senryu would have it), you might think it reflected on the diameter of their vaginas, and one word for vagina in Japanese was the ninth hole 第九穴 (when anyone who counts the urethra separate would come up with ten, or twelve, counting tits). Shishi is a colloquial term with good sound quality. I did not do a chapter on holes as I save them for a whole book I will probably never write.

.......................................................................

~ eddies ~
.......................................................................

Other Onomatopoeia. More mimetic senryu in this book may be found in passim, but here, two fine examples should suffice for the sound of things other than pissing.

悪ふざけ障子をスポン/\抜き  85-22
waru-fuzake shôji o supon supon nuki

a bad prank:
popping out from
a paper wall

horse-play
pop! pop! through
a paper wall

Or, is it, rather “popping in” ? The original mimesis, supon, cannot be matched by English unless we add a moving s to pop, making it “spop!” or “spopping.” It does not allude to but evokes the suppon, a long-neck soft-shell snapping turtle identified with the penis and eaten or drunk (the blood) as a fortifier for men. This mimesis is not one of those commonly repeated, so I imagine two men, either doing it on a dare possibly to surprise a maid, or else, in their own rundown pad after painting a woman or women on the paper. Another reason for two or more men, rather than one, poking multiple holes is that cock-matches (mara-kurabe), contesting size, erective power (lifting strength) and hardness (punching through paper) were common, at least in picture scrolls of such fun (who can speak for reality?). There would be an old paper door, window or room partition – shôji can be any of these, and doors that slide are often nothing but partitions, ergo “wall” (scene of our pecker-through-the-mouse-hole jokes) – that is, easily spopped paper to make it tempting. Since Japanese tend to be neatnicks, such activity would take place at years-end, when the paper would be replaced anyway.

がさ/\といふととんぼうつるむ也   摘
gasagasa to iu to tonbô tsurumu nari 4-30
(rustling say and dragonflies mating is)

what makes
a rustling sound? mating
dragonflies

a dry sound?
it would be the fucking
dragonflies

This is a senryu often reprinted and probably has been Englished elsewhere. It starts in a manner that reminds us of listing, where one might be challenged to supply examples of “things that rustle,” but some readers might recall Saikaku’s gay(!) dragonflies as well.

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Issa’s Goddess/Violet Ku. Because this chapter concerns pissing I emphasized the Goddess but please note that Issa’s ku is, at heart, a violet (sumire) ku, excellent because it indirectly describes the place where violets are found, ground so damp another Issa ku explains, “I sit after / spreading out tissue paper: / violet-viewing” (鼻紙を敷て居 (すわ) れば菫哉 hanakami o shiite suwareba sumire kana). Issa did not actually say “viewing” and the tissue is literally “nose-paper,” but you get the idea: he didn’t want his seat to get wet. It was a mistake for the editors of Issa’s ALL to only include the ku in question under “Princess Sao” and forget to at least mention it in under the theme “violet.”
.......................................................................

More Pissing Ku type 3 and 4. The “Pissing on the Moon” chapter of A Dolphin in the Woods (in progress) has men pissing where they shouldn’t and my Fifth Season has them pissing while engaged in civilities. Please note, I do not have particular interest in making water; it just happens to be a favorite theme of the haiku master I know best, Issa.
.......................................................................

Pissing Type 5, or, Watching Blind Women Pee? I have half a dozen such before me now, of which my favorite has someone, almost surely the blind singer’s attendant, so eager to get a peek that he is tip-toeing (nuki-ashi). I also have a picture, with a poor senryu and hundreds of words of prose, showing a man legs spread wide like a giraffe at a waterhole, bent so low to get a good view that his chin is all but grazed by the jet of urine, while the fingers of one hand rest in the rivulet created by the same! The fingertips of his other hand are barely visible reaching around his massive cock in mid-ejaculation. The message for us? Even in a culture with a relaxed view of nudity, men got off by looking.

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Huge Serpent Lovers. If you find such myths and the way they are used in poetry today interesting, Yamato no Orochi appears in a number of translated sea cucumber haiku you may find in Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! (Paraverse Press, 2003)
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★ Issa’s Inu (Dog) Tsukuba Princess Pissing on her Robe. Since Issa, with his word-book, was concerned with the term used for pissing (shito suru) in the old haikai, he put the 5-7-5 that followed the 7-7 first, simply because it had the phrase. The original order is better. Hiroaki Sato skillfully precedes it with a linked verse from the slightly earlier Shinsen (new) Tsukubashû (1495), some call the start of honest-to-goodness haikai, where Monk Sôzei wonders “whether he’s looking at the inside or outside of the robe because the day has not fully broken.” Then he gives the opening linked-verse of the Inu (dog=pseudo) Tsukubashû (1536): “the robe of haze is wet at its hem / Princess Sao of spring pissed as she started.” He passes over the standing connection, but his “started” is itself a good pun – I use it several times in The Fifth Season with respect to Spring’s starting/standing – and his broader explanation is elegant:

The maeku (initial part) is innocuous enough; but, instead of explaining conventionally why the robe is wet, the respondent – it could have been Sôkan – says it is because the goddess of spring inopportunely succumbed to the call of nature. (One Hundred Frogs: 1983)

Other Japanese explanations where the haze stands for the vanishing waka replaced by the wet (full of bodily humors?) haikai. Then, in the heyday of haikai, in the 1633 Enoko (dog/puppy) collection, we have the more outrageous pissabed goddess we saw in the maintext. But so long as we are off-subject, a few more examples from Issa’s word-book, or “vernacular miscellany” (方言雑記) as it is called. On the same page as the pissing Princess: “Shiritasuki [shiridasuki],” a butt that looks like it has been criss-crossed by a tasuki sash/chord (see page 299). The OJD explains this means someone is so thin their butt gets folds. Pages before we learn the fine line between the privates and the anus is called “ants’ gate-crossing” (蟻の門渡り), i.e., a single file from gate to gate. And, before that, we find “chopenashi: when an old man etc. pinches a woman’s butt”(一茶全集七巻).

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One Meta-mimetic Senryu.
The following is so simple an observation that only an extraordinarily alert poet could catch it.
.
家毎に風は違った音を立て 素人
ie goto ni kaze wa chigatta oto o tate

the wind makes
a different sound
at each house

I found this ku in Blyth’s Japanese Life and Character . . , with no source given (Change “at” to “Round” & uncenter for his translation). Blyth writes “This is yet another example of how the poetry of senryu is different from that of haiku.” It is also an extraordinarily poetic ku. ◎What I mean by the title of this eddy, “meta-mimetic,” is that I wonder if people might listen more carefully to sounds other than the human because of their tendency to turn so many of them into onomatopoeia. The ku does not itself contain mimesis, but it may have been born of it. (Note: Japanese intellectuals can get quite conceited about their mimesis and, since I hate collective boasting as much as I hate individual boasting – unless it is damn funny hyperbole ala Davy Crockett – I have also pointed out that the existence of settled upon onomatopoeia for so many sounds may dull ears to the real thing. That argument and what I wrote above may both be true.) ◎ And, why so much use of mimesis/tic rather than onomatopoeia/tic? 1), it is shorter; 2), it includes psychological sound effects which are clearly recognized in Japanese but not in English; 3) it is easier to spell and remember if you only know what mime means. Try using the word. If others mimic you, soon we may be able to discuss sound more easily.

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~ 蛇足 ~

仮章題には、「シイちゃんからザアザ・ガボール迄」の方が良かったかしら? 




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. shoben, shooben (小便), the" small business" .
often pronouced shomben.
to pee, bari suru ばり, 尿 ( ばり ) する
piss-pot, shibin 尿瓶
piss bucket, shooben oke 小便桶
If you do it standing, it is tachishoben, tachi shôben , 立小便.


. shoobengumi, shôben-gumi 小便組 Shobengumi, "the urine gang"  .
- Introduction -

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


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8/02/2015

sankin kotai

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. Edo period - History .
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sankin kootai 参勤交代 Sankin Kotai Daimyo attendance in Edo
daimyoo gyooretsu, daimyō gyōretsu 大名行列 Daimyo procession


. samurai 侍, buke 武家, bushi 武士   .
Lord of a Domain, Daimyo, daimyoo 大名

. hatamoto 旗本 samurai class .





. shukuba 宿場 post station, postal station .
along the Sankin Kotai roads
Honjin (本陣):
Rest areas and lodgings built for use by samurai and court nobles. Honjin were not businesses; instead, large residences in the post towns were often designated as lodging for government officials.

. Kaido 街道 Highways used by the Daimyo .

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- quote
Sankin-kōtai 参勤交代 "alternate attendance",
a daimyo's alternate-year residence in Edo - was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to strengthen central control over the daimyo, or major feudal lords.

History
Toyotomi Hideyoshi had earlier established a similar practice of requiring his feudal lords to keep their wives and heirs at Osaka Castle or the nearby vicinity as hostages for loyal behavior. Following the Battle of Sekigahara and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, this practice was continued at the new capital of Edo as a matter of custom. It was made compulsory for the tozama daimyo in 1635, and for the fudai daimyo from 1642. Aside from an eight year period under the rule of Tokugawa Yoshimune, the law remained in force until 1862.


Sightseers and merchants gazing at an entourage (sixth panel) from
"Folding Screen Depicting Scenes of the Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle",
National Museum of Japanese History

Description
The details changed throughout the 26 decades of Tokugawa rule, but generally, the requirement was that the daimyo of every han move periodically between Edo and his fief, typically spending alternate years in each place. His wife and heir were required to remain in Edo as hostages while he was away. The expenditures necessary to maintain lavish residences in both places, and for the procession to and from Edo, placed financial strains on the daimyo, making them unable to wage war. The frequent travel of the daimyo encouraged road building and the construction of inns and facilities along the routes, generating economic activity.

There were a number of exceptions for certain fudai daimyo in the vicinity of Edo, who were allowed to alternate their attendance in Edo every six months instead. Temporary exceptional dispensations were also occasionally granted due to illness or extreme extenuating circumstances.

In principle, the sankin-kōtai was a military service to the shogun. Each daimyo was required to furnish a number of soldiers (samurai) in accordance with the kokudaka assessment of his domain. These soldiers accompanied the daimyo on the processions to and from Edo.

With hundreds of daimyo entering or leaving Edo each year, processions (大名行列 daimyō-gyōretsu) were almost daily occurrences in the shogunal capital. The main routes to the provinces were the kaidō. Special lodgings, the honjin (本陣), were available to daimyo during their travels.

The sankin-kōtai figures prominently in some Edo period ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), as well as in popular theater such as kabuki and bunraku.
- source : wikipedia

- quote -
Picture of Daimyō Visiting the Castle on New Year's Day
The processions of all the daimyo, or domain lords, were one of the famous sights of the New Year in Edo.
The daimyō leave from their Edo residences to arrive at the castle at about seven in the morning.
The date of this paying of respects was arranged according to the rank of each daimyo
and held not only on New Year's Day but went on over three days.
- source : Tokyo Metropolitan Museum -

under construction
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NHK samurai drama, August 2015

Ichiroo 一路 Ichiro "One Road"

The adventures of Sankin Kotai, as experienced by 小野寺一路 Onodera Ichiro.

Ichiro’s father dies suddenly in a fire at his home. 19-year-old Ichiro, who had studied in Edo, has to come home. His father was supposed to prepare Sankin kotai and lead the lines of his Daimyo to visit Edo.

After his father's death, Ichiro leads the procession of Sankin kotai and heads to Edo, relying on his father's notes about the proceedings. During the journey, he faces various problems and schemes which target his family.




based on a book by 浅田次郎 Asada Jiro




- reference -

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- - - - - Legends about Sankin Kotai and Daimyo Gyoretsu - - - - -
There are quite a few tales with the fox or badger. Sometimes they compare their ability in shapeshifting.


............................................................................ Aomori 青森県

The foxes from 三戸 Sannohe
The fox from Akasaka 赤坂の狐 and the fox from Nagane 長根の狐 held a contest in shapeshifting.
The fox from Nagane transformed into a Daimyo procession, which looked quite real with the regional lord and all, when bowing to it from under a tree. The fox of Nagane got caught by the official vassals of the Daimyo and was put to death.



............................................................................ Fukushima 福島県
湖南町 Konan

O-Suga sama お菅さま "Lady Suga"
O-Suga Sama was the wife of the Shogun in Edo. He had been up in Ezo エゾ (Northern Japan and Hokkaido) and since she missed his love so much, she came after him. But she fell sick on the road and eventually committed suicide by drowning in a nearby pond.
She was the youngest of three sisters. When she was a child she liked to roam the forests and look for silkworms. She fed them with leaves and cared for them.

The place is called "O-Suga Sama" and people come here to pray for the well-being of their silk-worms. She observed the silk worms munching leaves with joy and told them:
neesan kuu wa ねえさん食うわ. Since then the leaves were called "kuwa クワ".

When her husband passed the area on his way back, he dreamed that she has become the mist on mount 高井原山 Takaraibarayama to moisten the kuwa leaves.
Her name was actually "O-Sugi お杉", Lady Cedar, but that turned to "O-Suga" in the local dialect.

During the procession of Sankin Kotai there was a great serpent up on a willow tree along the road. It displeased the vassals of the Daimyo and was thus driven away and had to move to Fukushima. When a branch of this willow tree breaks off, there was blood flowing from the wound. So in the end the whole tree was cut off.
This place is called "O-Suga Sama".

. silk 絹 kinu legends .
kuwa 桑 mulberry tree / kuwago 桑子 "kuwa child", "mulberry child", - silkworm



............................................................................ Hiroshima 広島県

. Osangitsune オサンギツネ / 於三狐 O-San kitsune fox with three tails .

Wakamiya no Iwa 若宮の岩 - 大和町 Daiwa

原田備前守が参勤交代で萩原を通ったとき、若宮の岩から白い蛇が現れた。ここを城にしろとのお告げだと思い、城を建てて永住したという。昭和に入ってその岩がトンネル掘削の邪魔になったので、ダイナマイトで壊そうとしたら暴発して作業員が怪我をした。神の住む岩である。

狐,狸 Fox and Badger
昔、於三という悪い狐と、四国の讃岐にいる於三に劣らぬ悪き狸が、どちらが化けるのが上手か比べあった。於三の番がきたとき、於三は今度大名行列に化けるので来てくれといった。約束の日に行くと果たして大名行列が来た。狸が本性を現して近づくと、侍に斬られてしまった。



............................................................................ Hyogo 兵庫県

Shibaemon 芝右衛門 - tanuki and kitsune 狸 - 狐
淡路に芝右衛門という狸がいて、阿波の狸合戦に来て働いたが、その後京都へ上って伏見の狐に遇った。京の狐は口ばかりで腕の程も知れぬから、1つ腕前を見せてくれといわれたので、芝右衛門は翌日大名行列を見せた。盛大な大名行列で、狐は驚きこれは殺してしまわないといけないと思い、次の日におれも大名行列を見せるから稲荷の鳥居に来てくれといった。芝右衛門が約束どおり行くと文句の付けようのない大名行列だったので手を打ち「ヤレヤレ」といってほめたが、それは本物の大名行列で芝右衛門は撃ち殺された。



............................................................................ Kochi 高知県

. The Old Tanuki from 奈半利町 Nahari town .



............................................................................ Nara 奈良県

shirogitsune 白狐 the curse of the white fox
The Lord of Yamato Koriyama 大和郡山 had caught a white fox 白狐 and killed it. The white fox appeared in his dream and asked to have a shrine built so he could go to paradise. But the Lord did not do as he was asked by the spirit. Therefore the white fox cursed him. During his next procession to Edo he behaved quite crazy, like bewitched by the fox. So his family name was taken away and the family line stopped.


. shirogitsune 白狐 Legends about the White Fox .



............................................................................ Niigata 新潟県

Dankuro the Fox and Sankichi the Tanuki 団九郎,三吉 from Sado 佐渡
団九郎狐は、佐渡に住むたちの悪い古狸の三吉を憎んでいた。あるとき信濃川のほとりで団九郎は三吉と出会う。団九郎は三吉をおだてて酒屋の小僧や大入道に化けるなどさせる。団九郎はお礼に自分の芸も見せるといい、次の日に街道に来るようにいう。三吉が約束の場所で待っていると大名行列がやってくる。三吉は感心して行列の前に飛び出るが、それは本物の大名行列で、捕らえられて食べられてしまう。
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佐渡島には狢が群れをなして住んでおり、その首領の名前を団三郎と言った。鎌倉時代の末期、狐が渡って来て、団三郎と妖術の勝負をした。狐は嫁入りの行列をして見せた。そこで団三郎は大名行列をして見せると狐に行った。狐は大名行列のあまりの見事さに驚いて近寄ったら、その行列は本物で、狐は殺されてしまった。それ以来、佐渡島に狐は来なくなった。

mujina 狢 the Mujina badger from Sado 佐渡
The Mujina badger from Sado and the Fox from 越後 Echigo held a contest in shapeshifting.
The fox shapeshifted into a fire, but was soon found out.
The mujina shapeshifted into a Daimyo Gyoretsu and no one found this strange. So the mujina won.



............................................................................ Yamagata 山形県

遊佐町
onshoo no tama 宝珠の玉
小坊が狐の宝珠の玉を盗んでやろうと、子狐をだました。狐たちが玉を取り返そうと画策するが、のけものにされた狐が計画を小坊に漏らした。大名行列に化けてやってきた狐たちは、本堂に閉じ込められ、小坊の話した犬に噛み付かれて死んだものもいた。



............................................................................ Yamaguchi 山口県

tanuki to kitsune 狸,狐 the badger and the fox

化け上手な阿波狸が、中国地方へ股旅をし、周防の国で狐に化けくらべを申し込んだ。まず阿波狸が、翌々日の午前10時頃に、毛利侯の行列に化けてみせることになった。狸は、その日時に本物の参勤交代の行列が通ることを知っていた。当日、狐は狸が化けたものと信じ込み、狸との約束通り拍手喝采したので、侍に捕らえられて斬り殺されてしまったという。


- source : ukiyoeota/status -

Foxes shapeshift as humans and perform a daimyo gyoretsu.
狐たちが人間を化かして大名行列

- reference : yokai database - nichibun.ac.jp -

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参勤交代 : 土橋章宏

- reference - books about 参勤交代 -

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This is probably the definitive work on sankin-kotai in English.

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What is Sankin-kōtai?
[Sankin-kōtai is] the Alternate Attendance Policy. Established by the Tokugawa Shōgunate, this system required all daimyo to live in Edo for a certain period of time, often every other year.

The daimyō were required to attend (provide service to) the shōgun in Edo and so they set up residences within the city. I like to think of them as embassies from the provinces. The daimyō would bring samurai “staff” from their domains to serve in Edo as well, so these were essentially provincial courts accompanied by a military staff. The daimyō residences included a small palace for the lord and domainal administration as well as barracks for the lower ranking samurai who accompanied the lord.

Each lord generally maintained 3 residences in Edo, though some had more. The land was granted to them by the shōgunate and could be confiscated or redistributed at the discretion of the shōgun or his council of advisors.



. . . . . The trip to Edo and the trip back to the domain were also costly.
The daimyō had to walk, with family and court and staff and in tow, in long processions called 大名行列 daimyō gyōretsu daimyō processions. These elaborate parades took days. But with so many domains coming and going all the time, they were a constant site on the major routes in and out of Edo. There are many great Edo Era prints of these and accounts from foreigners and Japanese alike agreed they were something to see!

- - - - - further info and links :
- source : Marky Star -

- reference - books about sankin kotai -

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A Daimyo Gyoretsu is just coming over 日本橋 Nihonbashi in Edo,
the first station of the Tokaido road to Kyoto.


CLICK for more photos !

. Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797 - 1861) .

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. bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government and Administration .

. kido 木戸 The Gates of Edo .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


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