[165] He quotes a Zen text.
[166] Iwa, “rock,” also means “not speak.”
[167] Some actors, says Ōwada, here write in the air with their fan; but such detailed miming is vulgar.
[168] An allusion to the cherry-trees at the Kiyomizu-dera.
[169] Bamboo-strips rubbed together to produce a squeaking sound.
[170] A Chinese couplet quoted from the Shih Jēn Yü Hsieh (“Jade-dust of the Poets”), a Sung Dynasty work on poetry which was popular in Japan.
[171] Masse here means, I think, “future generations,” not “this degraded age.”
[172] When an angel is about to die, the flowers of his crown wither, his feather robe is stained with dust, sweat pours from under the arm-pits, the eyelids tremble, he is tired of his place in heaven.
[173] The sacred bird of heaven.
[174] Izanagi and Izanami.