[47] This "court fashion" of sending rolls of silk as presents from the Emperor or Empress prevails to-day, one thousand years later.
[48] This person was the second son of the Prime Minister; therefore the Queen's brother or half-brother and uncle of the Crown Prince.
[49] The island of Horai; Japanese Elysium, a crystal island of eternal youth and felicity, supposed to exist in mid-ocean. A miniature presentation of this island is used on festal occasions as the emblem of eternity, or unchangeableness.
[50] The Prime Minister wished to arrange a marriage between his eldest son and the Prince's daughter. The authoress's cousin had adopted the Prince's son.
[51] This incident has for some reason become very famous and artists have used it as a subject for pictures. One of these is now hanging in the Imperial Museum in Tokyo.
[52] Poems were written on oblongs of crimson, yellow, gold, or other paper according to the feeling of the writer. Nowadays oblong poem papers can be bought anywhere, but they are generally white or gray with gold decoration.
[53] The King's visit was made October 16, 1008.
[54] It was de rigueur for ladies to conceal their faces with fans.
[55] The left side is the more honourable position, but this time the King sat at the right side because perhaps they could not move the Queen's dais.
[56] A special effect of brilliant shining produced by beating the silk.