[20] Hakoné Mountain has now become a resort of tourists and a place of summer residence.
[21] Fear of evil spirits which probably lived in the wild, and of robbers who certainly did.
[22] Aoi, or Futaba-aoi. At the great festival of the Kamo shrine in Kioto the processionists crowned their heads with the leaves of this plant, so it must have been well known.
[23] Mount Fuji was then an active volcano.
[24] The Princess was Sadako, daughter of King Sanjo, afterwards Queen of King Goshujaku [1037-104]).
[25] Lacquered boxes, sometimes of great beauty, containing india ink and inkstone, brushes, rolls of paper.
[26] Plum-trees bloom between the first and second months of the old calendar.
[27] By pestilence. People were often attacked by contagious diseases in those days, and they, who did not know about the nature of infection, called it by the name of "world-humor" or "world-disease," attributing its cause to the ill-humor of some gods or spirits.
[28] In those days windows were covered with silk and could not be seen through.
[29] Fujiwara-no-Yukinari: One of the three famous calligraphers of that time.