[32] In Japanese poetry the cuckoo’s rare cry in the moonlight is treated as particularly sad and dismal.
[33] A species of epic, or heroic ballad, sung to the accompaniment of the lute, or biwa, which has always been the music of the Japanese soldier.
[34] A Buddhist priest.
[35] Kwanon is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. Bato-Kwanon, or the Horse-headed Kwanon, is the special patroness of horses. In the country districts one may see rude images of Bato-Kwanon set up by the roadside, to which horses are brought and offerings made by their masters in their behalf.
[36] The ken measures about six feet.
[37] Japanese proverb: The frog in the well knows not the great ocean.
[38] Kimi ga yo, the national hymn, which may be roughly translated thus:—
May our Lord’s dominion last,
Till ten thousand years have passed
And the stone
On the shore at last has grown
To a great rock, mossy and gray.
[39] The words tokkwan, translated “final assault,” and this word, Tokkan, meaning the war-cry, belong close together in thought as in sound. The “Tokkan!” which has been retained in the translation, is onomatopoetic, and gives force to the words that immediately follow it.
[40] “Medetashi!” Glorious!