The Silver Spoon (16 page)

Oil vendor's O-Some,

Hisamatsu is ten
.
¹⁵⁸

1
Used as an amulet for safe childbirth.

2
The outbreak in the tenth year of Meiji (1877) claimed 6,817 people. It came a few months after the government promulgated the Cholera Prevention Law. But whether it was the one that killed Sōemon is not clear, for cholera outbreaks were rather common. For example, Clara Whitney (1860–1936), in her diaries, noted that Ulysses S. Grant, visiting Japan in 1879, had to avoid Kobe because of an outbreak there, which is said to have killed more than 100,000 people, and that in 1890 her dear friend Mrs. Murata died in the epidemic. See
Clara's Diary: An American Girl in Meiji Japan
(Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1975), p. 251 and p. 171. In September 1886, there was another outbreak in Tokyo. This one also killed more than 100,000 people. (Modern researchers think those tolls are way too high.) One of the earliest recorded cholera outbreaks in Japan may have occurred in 1674. Maruya Saiichi,
Chūshingura to wa nani ka
(Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1984), p. 127. A worldwide outbreak reached Japan in 1822. The cholera outbreak in 1858 killed 28,000 people.

3
One of the Seven Deities of Good Luck, he embodies wealth and prosperity. He is usually shown as a figure carrying a large bag on his left shoulder and a magic mallet in his right hand, standing or sitting on rice bags. Mice often accompany him to suggest that his supply of rice is inexhaustible and can accommodate any number of them.

4
The white mice here are probably a variety of what later (in Episode 1.23) are called “Nanjing mice,” having originally been bred in China as pets. In Japan breeding them became very popular in the mid-18th century.

5
Another name of cholera after the non-endemic disease came to Japan. It cleverly derives from the pseudo-onomatopoeic adjective
korori
, which describes a ready submission or death. What “one” and “three” mean is not clear, although cholera was also called
mikka
-
korori,
“three-day death,” because of its swift effect.

6
A city in Chiba famous for its Shinshō temple, which, in turn, is famous for its statue of Fudō (Acala). Papinot: Fudō is a “Buddhist divinity (probably the same as Dainichi) which has power to foil the snares of the devils. Fudō is represented with a dreadful expression and surrounded by flames; in the right hand he holds a sword
(gōma no ken)
to strike the demons, the left hand, a cord
(baku no nawa)
to bind them.” Emperor Suzaku (923–52) is said to have presented Fudō with a sword, and “the touch alone of this sword is said to cure insanity and deliver from the possession of the fox.”

7
The author's given name was Kansuke, abbreviated to Kan, but since that is too short in Japanese, his family is likely to have called him Kanbō, “Kan Boy” (like calling William “Billy Boy”). However, little Kansuke was unable to pronounce it, so he called himself “Kanpon” instead, “pon” being the sound of a drum, like “bom” in English.

8
Red and white sugar-coated beans; also called Genji beans. Hōrai (
Penglai
in Chinese) is a mythical island east of China where the inhabitants maintain eternal youth. Papinot: “According to a Chinese legend, one of the three mountainous islands of the Eastern Sea inhabited by genii
(tennin).
This tradition probably has its origin in the vague notions of the Chinese concerning the existence of Japan.”

9
Kulika
in Sanskrit. Here it refers to the Dragon King as the manifestation of Fudō, who is usually presented as a dragon coiling around a sword erected on a boulder and trying to swallow it from its tip—all in flames. Also see note 6 on Mount Narita in Episode 1.4.

10
Inari
: though two Chinese characters meaning “rice” and “load” are applied to it, the word may derive from
inanari,
“rice growing.” Originally it referred to a shrine dedicated to the deities of the “five grains,” i.e., rice, wheat, millet, beans, and barnyard grass. At some point in history, however, the female deity of food, Miketsu-kami, was mixed up with the fox deity, of the same name, and, in consequence,
inari
shrines became strongly associated with the fox. In Edo, in particular,
inari
worship was so pervasive that a proverbial saying went alliteratively,
Ise
-
ya inari ni inu no kuso,
“Ise-ya, inari, and dog shit are everywhere.”
Ise
-
ya
was a shop name most favored by people from Ise Province. In Japanese belief the fox has the magical ability of transforming itself into anything and can be an agent of evil or goodness.

11
From 1677 to 1875, the largest prison complex in Japan. Among the many executed there was the scholar patriot Yoshida Shōin (1830–59).

12
Mikansui
: sugar water boiled down and then mixed with water flavored with a couple of drops of lemon, grape, or (as here) orange juice.

13
“River kid”: an imaginary water creature that resembles a human boy four or five years old except that his face is like a tiger's and he has a beak as well as a turtle-like carapace on his back. Another of his distinctive features is a plate-like dent atop his head; while out of water he can be active as long as water remains in that dent. He is said to play all sorts of nasty tricks on human beings, especially in the water. It is interesting that later on Naka uses the word “hatch” to describe the creature's birth.

14
Deroren saimon
: originally minstrels who recited simple sermons as they went from house to house for money. From Edo to Meiji, some of them became stage performers.

15
Senbon zakura,
more fully
Yoshitsune senbon zakura
or
Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees
, a
jōruri
written by Takeda Izumo (d. 1747) in collaboration with two other playwrights. The story combines the love affair between the warrior-commander Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159–1589) and the dancer Shizuka with the episodes pertaining to some of the vanquished members of the Taira clan. In this typically convoluted
jōruri
play a fox transmogrifies himself into Satō Tadanobu (1141–86), one of Yoshitsune's staunchly loyal soldiers, to follow the drum originally given by the Emperor to Yoshitsune, now in Shizuka's possession. The reason: the drum uses the hides of the fox's parents who were selected because they had “accumulated virtues for a thousand years” and acquired magical powers as a result. Made during the rule of Emperor Kanmu (737–806) for the imperial ritual of calling forth rain, the drum is named Hatsune, “First Sound,” the first cry of joy when it was struck and the rain came down. For a production of a kabuki version of this play, McCarthy,
Childhood Years,
pp. 107–10. For an early account of the relationship between Yoshitsune and Shizuka, Hiroaki Sato,
Legends of the Samurai
(Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1995), pp. 144–50, and for descriptions of Tadanobu, pp. 132–52.

16
Short socks with a separate big toe and hooks above the heels. They were mostly used on formal occasions.

17
Japan has several large black swallowtails in the tribe
Papilio
. Which one of the following three species is meant here is not clear: “Black Swallowtail” (
kuroageha
), “Long-tailed Swallowtail” (
onagaageha
), or “Crow Swallowtail” (
karasuageha
).

18
Ushibeni,
literally “ox rouge”: red ointment that used to be sold for lip sores during the period called
kan,
“cold,” which designates about thirty days before the
setsubun,
in early Second Month. For the purchase of this lip medication on the Day of the Ox, a crudely made bull-shaped toy was given free.

19
On the 13th of Sixth Month 1582, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98), one of the commanders under the warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), defeated another warrior-commander, Akechi Mitsuhide (1526–82), in Yamazaki, between Kyoto and Osaka, following the latter's sudden rebellion and assassination of Nobunaga. The combat between Katō Kiyomasa (1562–1611), a warrior-commander under Hideyoshi, and Shiōten Masazane (d. 1623?), a warrior under Mitsuhide, is likely to be largely a tale imagined by professional narrators and kabuki writers. The name Shiōten (Yomota) Masazane usually comes with the court title Governor of Tajima.

20
Myōjin,
“bright god”: any of the deities so designated by the Engi regulations of 927, or any shrine where one of them presides. Before the end of the Second World War there were at least four
myōjin
festivals a year, but here Naka refers to the Kanda Myōjin Festival, which in his days was held in mid-Ninth Month; today it is held in May.

21
A tadpole-like representation of water rising in the middle and flowing away centrifugally. A cluster of two, three, or four such figures in a circle is common.

22
According to some,
shijinken
means “four deities' swords,” and it is also called
shijinki
, “four deities' flags.” These swords or flags symbolize the four deities in Chinese tradition representing the four corners (directions) of heaven and the four seasons: SeiryÅ« (Blue Dragon, representing east and spring); Suzaku (Scarlet Sparrow, south and summer); Genbu (Turtle or Half-turtle, Half-snake, north and winter); and Byakko (White Tiger, west and autumn). The names
shijinki
and
shijinken
were used interchangeably because the tip of each flag was adorned with a sword blade. As Naka, who originally had
shishi komainu
, “lion and koma-dog,” goes on to describe, however, by his time the
shijinken
referred to two gaudily painted lion heads made of wood. For
komainu
, see this Episode's note 25, below.

23
Maki
-
hōsho. Hōsho
here refers to white quality paper used for ceremonial purposes.

24
Hōshu
or
hōju:
a ball with a pointed head with flames rising from the tip of the head and two sides. Endowed with magical powers, it produces whatever you wish to have.

25
“Koma dogs”: a pair of leonine dog statues placed as talismans at the entrance of a shrine. What
koma
means or refers to is subject to debate. Some say the idea of setting up a pair of guardian lions or lion-headed dogs originated in Egypt and the Middle East.

26
A box-shaped lantern held up with a pole.

27
Taru
-
mikoshi.
A
mikoshi
is a portable shrine carried by a group of men on certain festive occasions. For boys, sometimes a sake barrel is substituted for the shrine.

28
Yuzuriha,
called “yielding-leaf” because the old leaves drop only after the new leaves have fully grown. Its Latin name is
Daphniphyllum macropodum
.

29
The name comes from the Chinese temple Shaolinsi that is famous as the place where the Dharma faced the wall for nine years and where karate originated. But it is a common temple name both in China and Japan. Horibe Isao thinks Naka used the name for the temple called Ryūkōji.

30
“Great Light”: Mahāvairocana in Sanskrit, the pantheistic main deity of esoteric Buddhism who embodies the universe. Here it is a temple enshrining the deity. Horibe thinks it was Myōsoku-in.

31
More fully, Pindolabhāradvāja in Sanskrit, called Binzuru in Japanese. The best of the Shakyamuni's sixteen disciples, he was reprimanded for using the divine power he acquired after he took Buddhist vows. As a buddha with the ability to cure all sicknesses, his figure—represented in Japan as an old man with white hair and white eyebrows—used to be placed at the forefront of a Buddhist hall to enable people to do the kind of thing that Naka's aunt does here, so he was popularly called “the rubbing buddha,” but for that very reason the placement of the figure at an accessible spot was later banned to prevent contagious diseases.

32
There are a number of
jōruri
and kabuki plays called
Awa no Naruto mono,
all of them with convoluted story lines. In one,
Keisei Awa no Naruto,
the samurai Awa JÅ«robei, who has ruined his life through his infatuation with a courtesan and turned into a robber, kills O-Tsuru, a girl pilgrim, without knowing that she is his own daughter. The kind of “picture book” Naka mentions here obviously may have left out the more lurid part of such a story.

33
I.e., Chinese characters.

34
Kinkatō
were candies made of white sugar formed into fish and other shapes then colored.
Kingyokutō
was a transparent summer candy made of gelatin, sugar, and spice, coated with granulated sugar.
Tenmontō
may have been asparagus roots pickled in sugar
. Mijinbō
was a candy shaped like a twisted stick made of baked rice-granules and sugar. For pictures of the kinds of cheap candies Naka is talking about, see “Naka Kansuke to dagashi”
http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/gallery/dat02/dat02_047.html
(retrieved Summer 2014).

35
More fully,
O
-
Tafuku
-
san,
“Miss Many-Blessings.” A smiling female face with a high brow, small nose, and fat cheeks. Here Naka is talking about the O-Tafuku-ame, a stick-shaped candy that incorporates the face in such a way that it shows no matter where you break it.