Footnote 52: [(return)]
The mountains in the moon are supposed to resemble a hare in shape. Hence there is a fanciful connection between the hare and the moon.
Footnote 53: [(return)]
Momo means a peach, and Tarô is the termination of the names of eldest sons, as Hikotarô, Tokutarô, &c. In modern times, however, the termination has been applied indifferently to any male child.
Footnote 54: [(return)]
The country folk in Japan pretend that the pheasant's call is a sign of an approaching earthquake.
Footnote 55: [(return)]
See the Appendix on "Ceremonies."
Footnote 56: [(return)]
See the note on the word Inkiyô, in the story of the "Prince and the Badger."
Footnote 57: [(return)]
A shower during sunshine, which we call "the devil beating his wife," is called in Japan "the fox's bride going to her husband's house."
Footnote 58: [(return)]
Tengu, or the Heavenly Dog, a hobgoblin who infests desert places, and is invoked to frighten naughty little children.
Footnote 59: [(return)]
This last crime is, of course, now obsolete.
Footnote 60: [(return)]
The story, which also forms the subject of a play, is published, but with altered names, in order that offence may not be given to the Hotta family. The real names are preserved here. The events related took place during the rule of the Shogun Iyémitsu, in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Footnote 61: [(return)]
A Buddhist deity.