Ugetsu Monogatari or Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Routledge Revivals)

by Ueda Akinari

  136 Amako Tsunehisa: (1458-1541) Sasaki Sadayori had dismissed him for insubordination, whereupon he plotted with the Yamanaka family and regained power. Cf. Intoku taiheiki, I, 35-6. The Enyas and the Amakos were both related to the Sasaki family.

  137 ‘Yama- [1, 11b] naka.’

  138 ‘New Year's Eve’ Ōmisoka no yo: 4 Feb. 1486, by the Western calendar.

  139 Mizawa and Mitoya: two of the families who formed the backbone of samurai strength in the province.

  140 ‘Not to remain indifferent,’ etc. Miru tokoro wo shinobizaru wa, etc.: paraphrased from a famous passage in The Book of Mencius.

  141 ‘Swift and penetrating insight’ Toi wakimōru [1, 12a] kokoro.

  142 ‘Your aged mother’ Kentei ga rōbo: literally, ‘Sagacious younger brother's aged mother.’ Such honourific circumlocutions were characteristic of colloquial Chinese short stories and novels and became a stylistic feature not only of Akinari's tales but those of Tsuga Teishō and others as well.

  143 ‘A gentleman values honour,’ etc. Masurao wa gi wo omoshi to su, etc.: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 89.

  144 ‘Yesterday and today’ Ki- [1, 12b] nō kyō.

  145 ‘The blossoms on the summit of Onoe’ Onoe no hana mo chirihatete: cf. Shinshūishū.

  Hatsuse yama At Hase Temple

  Onoe no hana wa The blossoms on the summit

  chiri-hatete Have already fallen,

  irai no kane ni And the evening bell proclaims

  haru zo kurenuru That spring is nearly gone.

  Kokka taikan, p. 587 (no. 189). Uzuki, Ugetsu, p. 130, points out that Onoe may denote not only ‘summit,’ but also a place name in Kako. I have followed his interpretation.

  146 ‘Despite the chilling breeze that blew, and the sweeping waves’ Suzushiki kaze ni yoru nami ni: poetic diction suggestive of Shinchokusenshū (no. 202) and Fūyōshū (no. 395). See Kokka taikan, pp. 215, 499.

  147 ‘Slave on peas porridge and water’ Shukusui no tsubune: cf. Li chi {The Book of Rites), where Confucius said, ‘Though one sips only peas porridge and drinks water, he should make his parents happy. This is what I call filial love.’

  148 ‘Chrysanthemum Festival, the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month’ Kokonuka no kasetsu: one of the principal festivities in China; also observed in Japan. Ever since the T'ang dynasty its celebration has been associated with thoughts of dear friends from whom one is parted. It is observed by climbing to a high place, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and placing sprigs of holly berries in ones hair or tucking them in ones belt. See Bishop, Colloquial, p. 100, n. 4; Wu tsa tsu, 2, 18b; and Morris, Pillow Book, 11, 12,

  149 ‘Each fresh month and day’ Aratama no tsukihi: aratama, literally, ‘newly bejeweled,’ a pillow-word used since the days of the Man'yōshū with expressions of time.

  150 ‘On the Ninth Day Samon arose earlier than usual’ Kokonuka wa itsu yori mo hayaku: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, pp. 89-90.

  151 ‘Two or three stems’ Ni eda [1, 13a] san eda.

  152 ‘The province of Izumo’ Yakumo tatsu kuni: yakumo tatsu, originally a pillow-word for Izumo; later a poetic name for the place. See the Kojiki, NKBT, vol. 1, pp. 88, 89; note that Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese name, Koizumi Yakumo, reveals an assocation with his place of residence.

  153 ‘Far beyond the mountains’ Yama-gita no hate ni: literally, ‘at the end of the shade of the mountains.’ The kana gloss reads kita, ‘north,’ while the Chinese characters refer to the San'in, one of the administrative divisions of ancient Japan, which included the province of Izumo.

  154 ‘Hundred leagues away’ Hyaku ri: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 91. where the distance is given as a thousand li. Akinari typically changed such quantitative expressions to fit the Japanese scene or to avoid fanciful exaggeration (e.g., see note 256).

  155 ‘Akana is a warrior,’ etc. Akana wa, etc.: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 91.

  156 ‘The day has turned out to be so nice’ Niwa wa kabakari yokarishi: niwa, defined as ‘clear day,’ in Ikenaga Hadara and Ueda Akinari, Man'yōshū miyasu hosei (Osaka: Katsuragi Chōbei, 1809), 3, 32a. This glossary of terms found in the Man'yōshū, which affords valuable insight to the diction of Ugetsu monogatari, was compiled by a young disciple of Akinari who died in 1796, and it was later edited for publication by Akinari, himself.

  157 Akashi: See note 21.

  158 ‘First sailing this morning’ Asabiraki: as defined by Akinari, himself, in a commentary of selected verses from the Man'yōshū, entitled ‘Kinsa.’ See Ueda Akinari zenshū, 11, 65. This and the above-listed text exemplify his scholarly work on the Manyōshū, which is mentioned in the introduction.

  159 Ushimado: in the district of Oku, in Okayama Prefecture, on a promonotory facing Shōdo Island. For an illustration of this port in Akinari's day, see John Whitney Hall, Government and Local Power in Japan, 500 to 1700: A Study Based on Bizen Province (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), Plate 43, facing p. 331.

  160 Azukijima: popular name for Shōdo Island, in the Inland Sea.

  161 Murozu: once the chief port of the province of Harima; the town of Ozu, district of Ibo, in Hyōgo.

  162 ‘Around here’ Kono [1, 13b] hotoru

  163 Uogahashi: formerly a post stop slightly northwest of Kako; now, Amida-chō , in the city of Takasago, in Hyōgo.

  164 ‘Don't think him fickle, like the autumn sky’ Hito no kokoro no aki ni wa arazu to mo: metaphorical of an irresponsible person who easily changes his mind, as in Shinkokinshū,

  Iro kawaru Just as the colour

  hagi no shita-ha wo Of the leaves and shrubs

  mite no mazu Changes in season,

  hito no kokoro no A man's heart may also prove

  aki zo shiraruru. As fickle as the autumn.

  NKBT, vol. 28, p. 282 (no. 1352). The hagi, usually translated as ‘bush clover,’ is not green all the year around. Therefore, I have rendered it in more general terms. Cf. note 197, kuzu no ura-ha no, ‘when the leaves begin to turn.’

  165 ‘The Milky Way shimmered,’ etc. Ginga kage kiegie ni, etc.: see note 231 and Bishop, Colloquial, p. 91.

  166 ‘The sound of the waves in the bay seemed as if surging round the very place where he stood’ Ura nami no oto zo koko moto ni tachi kuru yō nari: cf. The Tale of Genji, p. 246; and NKBT, vol. 15, p. 38.

  167 ‘Take a last look’ Tada [1, 14a] miru.

  168 ‘Southern window’ Minami no mado: the place of honour for guests. See also note 421.

  169 ‘Covered his face with his sleeve’ Sode wo mote omote wo ōi: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, pp. 92, 101, n. 7-8.

  170 ‘My poor efforts’ Seikyū no tsutome: a Chinese expression referring to the preparation of food; cf. ‘Ai-ch'ing chuan,’ in New Tales for Lamplight, 3, 21b, and Kokuyaku, p. 101; derived ultimately from the dynastic history, Hou han shu. See Uzuki, Ugetsu, p. 151.

  171 ‘Your sincere hospitality’ Kentei ga makoto aru aruji-buri wo [1, 15b].

  172 ‘I am not a being of this mortal world’ Ware wa utsusemi no hito ni arazu: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 92. But the Japanese gloss, utsusemi, may be traced to verses in the imperial anthologies and the Man'yōshū (e.g., no. 24). See Akinari, ‘Kinsa,’ Zenshū, 11, 60.

  173 ‘Convincing me of the advantages’ Rigai wo tokite: interpreted according to a Japanese commentary on Water Margin, published in 1757. See Nakamura, NKBT, vol. 56, p. 55, n. 22.

  174 ‘Retainers who were of faithful heart and served as his claws and fangs’ Fukushin sōga no ie no ko: from the Shih Ching; cf. Waley, The Book of Songs, pp. no, 118.

  175 ‘The castle’ Ōgi: archaic gloss inspired by examples such as ōgi no yama, Man'yōshū, NKBT, vol. 5, pp. 298-9 (no. 1474). See also Uzuki, Ugetsu, pp. 156, 165.

  176 ‘Remained until today’ Kyō ni itarashi- [1, 16a] mu.

  177 ‘A man cannot cover,’ etc. Hito ichi nichi ni, etc.: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 92.

  178 ‘Plate offish’ Namori: na was the word for fish as a food; uo meant fish in the river or sea, as Motoori Norin
aga pointed out in Kojikiden, in Motoori Norinaga zenshū (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1968), X, 136.

  179 ‘Didn't keep his promise’ Chikai no tagō [1, 16b] wo.

  180 ‘A man confined in prison,’ etc. Rōri ni tsunagaruru hito, etc.: cf. Bishop, Colloquial, p. 93.

  181 ‘Known neither for loyalty,’ etc. Chūgi no kikoe [1, 17a] naku, etc.: cf. ibid., p. 94.

  182 ‘Samon rebuked him’ Samon [1, 17b] iu.

  183 ‘A warrior ought not to show concern for material things’ Shi taru mono wa fūki shosoku no koto tomo ni ronzu bekarazu: more literally, ‘ . . . ought not give thought to matters of wealth and position or disappearance and appearance,’ echoing Akana's remark on p. 112. (See note 143).

  184 ‘Kung-shu Tso, of Wei’ Gi no Kōshukuza: in the wood-block text, Koshukusa; chief minister to King Liang, of the state of Wei, in China, during the Period of Warring States. His biography appears in the Shih chi {Records of the Grand Historian).

  185 ‘Shang Yang’ Shōō: famous legalist philosopher; also known as Lord Shang. He later served as the chief minister of the State of Ch'in, and his ideas and policies contributed greatly to the conquest of the other kingdoms and to the unification of China.

  186 ‘Replied Tso’ Shukuza iu: Kung-shu is a compound surname, which Akinari apparently did not understand. I have taken editor's liberty.

  187 ‘Avoid harm’ Gai [1, 18a] wo nogaru.

  188 ‘Amako [1,18b] Tsunehisa.’

  3 The House Amid the Thickets

  189 Title: In the wood-block text, Asachigayado. The title calls to mind especially The Tale of Genji. After the death of his mother, the infant Genji was taken to live with his grandmother. Aged and sunk in despair, she did nothing to her home, and ‘everywhere the weeds grew high,’ and the wild autumn gales added to the melancholy. ‘Great clumps of mugwort grew so thick that only the moonlight could penetrate them,’ and here young Genji spent his early years. The emperor, remembering the grand mother ‘in the house amid the thickets’ and lamenting that the youngster remained in such a sorry place, hoped to find some means of bringing the boy to court, and he wrote,

  Kumo no ue mo They who live at court

  namida ni kururu Themselves may break into tears

  aki no tsuki At sight of the autumn moon,

  ikade sumuran But what of someone who dwells

  asajifu noyado In the house amid the thickets?

  The motif for Akinari's tale may be found most specifically in a passage in ‘The Palace in the Tangled Woods’: ‘Do you suppose, young man, that if she were not waiting day and night for this famous prince of yours, she would still be living in this wilderness?’ Akinari's treatment of the universal theme of the forsaken wife also bears close comparison with ‘Ai-ch'ing chuan,’ in New Tales for Lamplight, and its early modern Japanese adaptations in kanazōshi, ukiyo-zōshi, andyomihon literature. See The Tale of Genji, pp. 11-14, 318; and NKBT, vols 14, p. 41 and 15, p. 154. See also, New Tales for Lamplight, 3, 14a-23b; and Kokuyaku, pp. 94-103.

  190 Shimōsa, etc.: near the Guhōji temple, in the city of Ichikawa, in Chiba. The place name appears in what may be called the Mama poems in the Man'yōshū, which figure in the final section of the tale and are found in NKBT, vols 4, pp. 206, 207 (no. 431-3); 5, pp. 416, 417 (no. 1807-8); 6, pp. 416, 417 (nos. 3386-7); see also NGSK, pp. 190-1, 223-4, 278-9.

  191 ‘Ashikaga dyed silk’ Ashikaga some no kinu: a product for which the vicinity around Ashikaga, in southwestern Tochigi Prefecture, had long been famous; mentioned, for instance, in the Tsurezuregusa. See Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 177; and NKBT, vol. 30, p. 363.

  192 ‘Sasabe agreed quite readily’ Sasahe ito [2, lb] yasuku ukegaite.

  193 ‘Though deeply distressed by the uncertainty of her own future’ Azusa-yumi sue no tazuki no kokoro-bosoki ni: azusa-yumi, literally, ‘birch-wood bow,’ a pillow-word for a number of related expressions, including sue, ‘end,’ or ‘outcome.’ The word tazuki means ‘livelihood.’ N.B. Man’-yōshū, NKBT, vol. 6, pp. 284-5 (no. 2985).

  194 ‘My heart is sure to wander lost among the moors and mountains’ Kokoro no, no ni mo yama ni mo madou bakari: hakari, in the wood-block text; cf. Kokinshū,

  Izuku ni ka No matter where I go

  yo wo ba itowan To get away from it all,

  kokoro koso My weary heart

  no ni mo yama ni mo Is sure to wander lost

  madou beranare Among the moors and mountains.

  NKBT, vol. 8, p. 293 (no. 947).

  195 ‘I shall pray with all my heart for your good health’ Inochi dani to wa omou mono: cf. Kokinshū,

  Inochi dani I shall pray

  kokoro ni kanō With all my heart

  mono naraba For your good health -

  nani ka wakare no And then what fear will parting bring

  kanashi karamashi And what grief need we suffer?

  NKBT, vol. 8, p. 197 (no. 387).

  196 ‘Drift, as if on floating wood’ Ukigi ni noritsu mo: cf.

  Iku kaeri Now how many times

  yuki kō aki wo Can it be I've come and gone,

  sugushi tsutsu Like the autumns that pass,

  ukigi ni norite And drifting as on floating wood,

  ware kaeruran Shall I ever come back again?

  The Tale of Genji, p. 348 (my translation); and NKBT, vol. 15, p. 199.

  197 ‘When the leaves begin to turn, in the fall, I'll come back’ Kuzu no ura-ha no kaeru wa kono aki nam beshi: in the wood-block text, kusu; the phrase, kuzu no ura-ha no, is a joshi, or poetic introduction, for kaeru, which means both ‘to turn,’ as the leaves, and ‘to return,’ as a husband or lover. Cf. note 164, hagi no shita-ha wo, ‘Of the leaves and shrubs.’

  198 ‘Please have courage while you wait’ Kokoro-zuyoku machi [2, 2a] tamae.

  199 ‘Cock-crowing land of Azuma’ Tori ga naku Azuma: wood-block, Atsuma; Azuma, ancient name for the eastern part of Japan, and tori ga naku, a pillow-word for it; both appear frequently in the Man'yōshū, e.g., see note 246.

  200 ‘In the summer of that year,’ etc. Kotoshi Kyōtoku no natsu: according to Western chronology, AD 1455.

  201 ‘Lord Shigeuji and Governor Uesugi’ Shigeuji Ason, Kanrei no Uesugi: Ashikaga Shigeuji (1434-97) and Uesugi Norizane (1411-66), who were bitter enemies and shared power in the Kantō area. In 1454 Shigeuji killed Norizane's son, and consequently the shogun permitted the Uesugi family with appropriate reinforcements to attack Shigeuji. This they did, as described in the tale, forcing him to withdraw eastward and set up a new base. See Kamakura ōzōshi, pp. 695-705; and Go-taiheiki, in Tsūzoku Nihon zenshi, vol. 6, pp. 252-4.

  202 ‘She wrote,’ etc. To [2,2b] kakuyomeredomo.

  203 Verse: cf. Kokinshū,

  Osaka no At Osaka Barrier

  yū-zuke tori mo The songbird of evening

  waga gotoku Must also be in love,

  hitoya koishiki And just as I myself now grieve,

  ne nomi nakuran Must weep and cry in vain.

  NKBT, vol. 8, p. 210 (no. 536).

  204 ‘Shogun Yoshimasa’ Kyōke: literally, ‘the Kyoto house’; Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435-90), during whose administration the disastrous Ōnin Wars took place. He is remembered not for valour or political skill but for his patronage of art and his taste for luxury, and especially for the Ginka- kuji, or ‘Silver Pavillion,’ his hermitage in the eastern hills of Kyoto.

  205 To no Tsuneyori, etc.: (1401-94) warrior and poet descended from the Chiba family of Shimōsa, where his ancestors held the To manor (in the district of Katori).

  Shimotsuke is the present-day Tochigi. Gujō (in the province of Mino), is now the name of a district in Gifu Prefecture. See Kamakura ōzōshi, pp. 702-3.

  206 Chiba no Sanetane: a member of the branch of his family that remained loyal to the Ashikaga shogun during these disturbances. With Tsuneyori, he helped oppose Shigeuji's bid for power in the Kantō region.

  207 ‘Eight Provinces’ Hasshū: those of the ancient Kantō region, namely Sagami, Musashino, A
wa, Kazusa, Shimōsa, Hitachi, Kōzuke, and Shimotsuke (prefectures of Kanagawa, Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaragi, Tochigi, and Gumma).

  208 ‘Throughout the wretched world there was great destruction’ Asamashiki yo no tsuie nari keri: as described in Kamakura ōzōshi, p. 703.

  209 ‘Soon sold all’ Nokori-naku kōeki [2, 3a] seshi.

  210 ‘Centre of a raging battle’ Kanka michimichite: an expression found in ‘Ai-ch'ing chuan,’ in New Tales for Lamplight, 3, 20a; and Kokuyaku, p. 101.

  211 ‘Cho Lu’ Takuroku: scene of a famous battle in ancient China during the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor, described in the Records of the Grand Historian.

  212 ‘Lovely Kiso hill’ Kiso no misaka: where the Nakasendō post road passed through the high mountains between Gifu and Nagano (see note 18). Mi- is a poetic prefix meaning ‘lovely,’ or ‘beautiful,’ as in Man - yōshū, NKBT, vol. 6, pp. 414-5 (no. 3371).

  213 ‘New barriers had been set up here and there,’ etc. Tokoro-dokoro ni shin-seki wo suete, etc.: cf. similarity in wording and situation to the tale ‘Yūjo Miyagino,’ in Otogi bōko, p. 200.

  214 ‘Musa, in the province of Ōmi’: now, the city of Ōmi-Hachiman, in Shiga. This area is famous for its Ōmi merchants, who in Akinari's day assiduously travelled about the country selling cloth and other goods and accumulating great wealth.

  215 Kodama [2, 4b] Yoshibei; wood-block, Kotama.

  216 ‘Second year of Kansho’ Kanshō ninen: the year 1461 in the Western world.

  217 ‘The Hatakeyama brothers,’ etc. Kinai Kawachi no kuni ni Hata-keyama ga dōkon no arasoi: In 1460 Hatakeyama Mochikuni's real son, Yoshinari, and his adoptive son, Masanaga, began a war of succession, and other powerful families became involved. Around this time when one dog barked, ten thousand others joined in, and before a semblance of order was restored, warriors from many provinces participated in the fighting. See Varley, Ōnin War, pp. 88-95, N.B. p. 91; and Go-taiheiki, pp. 255-7.

  218 ‘Here I am . . . living’ Mi no nani wo ta- [2,5a] nomi.

  219 ‘Fields that grow the grass of forgotten love’ Wasuregusa oinuru nobe ni: cf. Kokinshū,

  Sumiyoshi to It's a good place to live,