10 . As the autumn’s dew . . . this brief world: A poem found in the ancient poetry col ection Manyoshu (mid-eighth century) was said to be composed by a girl torn between two lovers. The legend told here is a local variation loosely based on this story.
11 . the magic feather cloak . . . demand that I return it: In the Noh play Hagoromo ( The Feather Cloak), based on a folk legend, a fisherman finds an angel’s feather cloak cast aside on a beach while she bathes, but he returns it to her when she pleads that she cannot fly back to heaven without it.
CHAPTER 3
1 . Boshu province: In the southern part of present-day Chiba prefecture.
2 . “Bamboo shadows . . .â€: This quotation comes from a wel -known col ection of epigrammatic sayings, Taigentan, by sixteenth-century writer Hong Zieheng.
3 . Kosen . . . Mokuan: These seventeenth-century priests of the Obaku sect were renowned for their cal igraphy.
4 . Jakuchu: Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) was famous for his paintings of creatures and plants.
5 an Okyo gives us the beauty of a ghost: Maruyama Okyo (1733-95) famously painted the ghost of a woman in diaphanous robes.
6 . Salvator Rosa: Rosa (1615-73) was an artist and poet who specialized in dramatic scenes.
7 . too many season words: A haiku must have one word associated with a season. “Blossom†and “hazy†are both season words for spring.
8 . Inari’s fox god: The Inari god is often represented by its guardian foxes. The fox is traditional y reputed to be a shape-changer, often taking the form of a woman.
9 . The fierce sculptures . . . Hokusai: Unkei (c.1148-1223) was a Buddhist sculptor. His sculptures of guardian gods at the Nara temples of Todaiji and Kofukuji are among his greatest works. Hokusai (1760-1849) was a famous artist of the ukiyo-e style. His cartoon sketches of everyday life are ful of movement.
CHAPTER 4
1 . Hakuin’s sermons . . . The Tales of Ise: Hakuin (1685-1768) is one of the most famous Japanese Zen masters. The Tales of Ise (c.877-c.940) is among the earliest classic works of Japanese literature.
2 . Young Yoshitsune . . . under the hazed moon: According to legend, the folk hero Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-89) as a youth disguised himself as a woman to make a surprise attack on the great warrior Benkei.
3 . “vast empty mountains, no one to be seenâ€: This is the first line of a poem in praise of the hermit’s life, by Wang Wei (699-759), titled “Deer Park.â€
4 . “Willow Branch†Kannon bodhisattva: Kannon, bodhisattva of mercy, is sometimes depicted holding a wil ow branch, symbolizing her ability to bend and hear al prayers.
5 . “the eye is the finest thing in the human formâ€: A quotation from Confucius. The eye is considered good because it unfailingly reveals a person’s good or evil nature.
6 . Sadder . . . from my sight: This poem is contained in The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment, a novel by the British novelist George Meredith (1828-1909). The two lines below continue this poem.
7 . Rikyu: Sen Rikyu (1522-91) first refined the rituals surrounding the drinking of whisked green tea, which subsequently developed into the modern tea ceremony.
8 . as the famous haiku has it: This passage contains quotations from two haiku. The first is by Kikaku (1661-1707): “The bush warbler/flings his body upside down/with his first song of spring.†The second is by Yosa Buson (1716-83): “The bush warbler / oh how he sings / smal mouth open wide!â€
CHAPTER 5
1 . Fukurokuju: One of the seven “gods of fortune,†of Chinese origin. Fukurokuju is characterized by a very elongated head. Childless couples could pray to a chosen deity in hopes of receiving the gift of a child from him.
2 . Anglo-Japanese Alliance: In 1902 England and Japan drew up a military al iance. It was celebrated in Japan by the issue of sets of tiny crossed flags of the two nations.
CHAPTER 6
1 . Wen Tong’s bamboo . . . the human figures of Buson: Wen Tong (1018-79) was a Chinese ink painter famed for his bamboo. Unkoku Togan (1547-1618) was a bold and expressive painter of screens. Taigado (Ike Taiga, 1723-76) painted in the style of the Southern School of Chinese painting known as Nanga. Yosa Buson (1716-83) was a haiku poet and painter in the Nanga style.
2 . Sesshu: Sesshu (1420-1506) was an ink painter of landscapes.
3 . Lessing: Gotthold Lessing (1729-81) was a German dramatist and essayist who wrote on the theory of aesthetics, most famously in Laocoön.
CHAPTER 8
1 . the Nanso Schooclass="underline" Nanso was a style of traditional ink painting originating in China.
2 . Mokubei: Aoki Mokubei (1767-1833) was a wel -known Kyoto ceramicist and ink painter.
3 . Sanyo: Rai Sanyo (1780-1832) was a Confucian scholar and aesthete, as was his father, Shunsui (1746-1816).
4 . Tankei: Tankei is an area of China that gave its name to the ink stones produced from its prized stone. The stone was characterized by round red spots known as shrike spots.
5 . Kyohei: Rai Kyohei (1756-1834) was a disciple of Shunsui.
6 . Sorai: Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) was a Confucian scholar and poet.
7 . Kotaku: Hosoi Kotaku (1658-1735) was a Confucian scholar and cal igrapher.
CHAPTER 9
1 . “The woman emanated . . . his veinsâ€: A free translation of a scene at the end of Chapter 8 of Beauchamp’s Career by the English novelist George Meredith (1828-1909).
CHAPTER 10
1 . the Iwasakis and Mitsuis of this world: The Iwasaki family, founders of the Mitsubishi Company, and the Mitsui family, founders of the Mitsui Company, were the two great financial families of the Meiji period.
2 . Timon of Athens: This famously misanthropic Greek ruler (fifth century B.C.) was portrayed in Shakespeare’s 1623 play of that name.
CHAPTER 11
1 . Iwasa Matabei: Matabei (1578-1650) was a Japanese painter with a quirky, freestyle form.
2 . nembutsu: A repeated chant invoking Amida Buddha. An early form of nembutsu worship included dance.
3 . Chao Buzhi: Buzhi (1053-1110) was a Chinese poet, painter, and scholar. The fol owing quotation is from Traveling to the Northern Mountains of Xincheng.
CHAPTER 12
1 . Goodalclass="underline" Frederick Goodal (1822-1904) was a British portraitist and landscape painter.
2 . There was once a youth . . . on the rock above: In 1903, at the age of eighteen, Fujimura Misao, a disciple of Soseki, committed suicide at the Kegon Fal s in Nikko. He left a final poem on a nearby tree.
3 . Beset by thoughts . . . all about: A poem composed by Soseki in March 1899, contemporaneously with the period of his life on which this novel is based.