NAMES OF OBJECTS AND OF OCCUPATIONS ESPECIALLY PERTAINING TO WOMEN
| Ayakoor } | "Damask-pattern." |
| O-Aya[61] } |
[61] ] Aya-Nishiki,—the famous figured damask brocade of Kyōto,—is probably referred to.
| O-Fumi | "Woman's Letter." |
| O-Fusa | "Tassel." |
| O-Ito | "Thread." |
| O-Kama[62] | "Rice-Sickle." |
[62] ] O-Kama (Sickle) is a familiar peasant-name. O-Kama (caldron, or iron cooking-pot), and several other ugly names in this list are ' names. Servants in old time not only trained their children to become servants, but gave them particular names referring to their future labors.
| O-Kama | "Caldron." |
| Kazashi | "Hair-pin." |
| O-Kinu | "Cloth-of-Silk." |
| O-Koto | "Harp." |
| O-Nabé | "Pot,"—or cooking-vessel. |
| O-Nui | "Embroidery." |
| O-Shimé | "Clasp,"—ornamental fastening. |
| O-Somé | "The Dyer." |
| O-Taru | "Cask,"—barrel. |
The following list consists entirely of material nouns used as names. There are several yobina among them of which I cannot find the emblematical meaning. Generally speaking, the yobina which signify precious substances, such as silver and gold, are æsthetic names; and those which signify common hard substances, such as stone, rock, iron, are intended to suggest firmness or strength of character. But the name "Rock" is also sometimes used as a symbol of the wish for long life, or long continuance of the family line. The curious name Suna has nothing, however, to do with individual "grit": it is half-moral and half-æsthetic. Fine sand—especially colored sand—is much prized in this fairy-land of landscape-gardening, where it is used to cover spaces that must always be kept spotless and beautiful, and never trodden,—except by the gardener.