Shakō:—all unlucky, except at noon.
[8] This statement also implies that a professional diviner has been consulted. The reference to the direction, or bōgaku, can be fully understood only by those conversant with the old Chinese nature-philosophy.
[9] Lit. "thrice-three-nine-times-wine-cup."
[10] At a Japanese wedding it is customary to avoid the use of any words to which an unlucky signification attaches, or of any words suggesting misfortune in even an indirect way. The word sumu, "to finish," or "to end"; the word kaēru, "to return," (suggesting divorce), as well as many others, are forbidden at weddings. Accordingly, the term o-hiraki has long been euphemistically substituted for the term oitoma ("honourable leave-taking," i.e. "farewell"), in the popular etiquette of wedding assemblies.
[11] "I felt a tumultuous beating within my breast," would perhaps be a closer rendering of the real sense; but it would sound oddly artificial by comparison with the simple Japanese utterance: "Ato ni wa futari sashi-mukai to nari, muné uchi-sawagi; sono bazukashisa bisthi ni tsukushi-gatashi."
[12] From sato, "the parental home," and kaëri, "to return." The first visit of a bride to her parents, after marriage, is thus called.
[13] Aigasa, a fantastic term compounded from the verb au, "to accord," "to harmonize," and the noun kasa, "an umbrella." It signifies one umbrella used by two persons—especially lovers: an umbrella-of-loving-accord. To understand the wife's anxiety about being seen walking with her husband under the borrowed umbrella, the reader must know that it is not yet considered decorous for wife and husband even to walk side by side in public. A newly wedded pair, using a single umbrella in this way, would be particularly liable to have jests made at their expense—jests that might prove trying to the nerves of a timid bride.
[14] She means the great Buddhist temple of Kwannon,—the most popular, and perhaps the most famous, Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
[15] In the Ōkubo quarter. The shrine is shadowed by a fine grove of trees.
[16] That is to say, "It was agreed that we should all go together to see the flowers." The word hanami ("flower-seeing") might be given to any of the numerous flower-festivals of the year, according to circumstances; but it here refers to the season of cherry blossoms. Throughout this diary the dates are those of the old lunar calendar.