[3] Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, vol. 35, pt. 4. 1908.
[4] Primitive and Mediæval Japanese Texts, p. 399.
[5] History of Japanese Literature, p. 207.
[6] The land and sea breezes, which blow regularly only in fine weather.
[7] Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, vol. 38, pt. 3, p. 174.
[8] Page 39—This piece in the current original is called Motome-zuka, which means, the “Sought Tomb.” In older versions it was previously called Otome-zuka, meaning the “Maiden’s Tomb,” by which name the story was also known in the Yamato Monogatari (“Tales of Japan”), written nearly a thousand years ago. Otome and motome sounding so similar in Japanese, and, as the two men came seeking the tomb, the name was changed in the text of the Japanese Nō, but as the older name both has priority and is more euphonious I revert to the older title.
This piece is one of the eleven most important utais, and the Shite’s part is a particularly difficult one to chant.
[9] The long lines are translations of the “words” in the play. As these words are not ordinary prose it seems better not to put them into English prose from which they are so remote. (See p. [33].)
[10] Page 40—The original reads:—Ikuta on Ono no asakazeni nao saekaeru tamoto kana. Here the meaning is very confused, the word for sleeves (tamoto) following in the Japanese mind from kaeru (which means to turn) in saekaeru (it is cold).
[11] Page 40—This brings a picture to mind of the contrast between city and country life. An old institution among the well-to-do people of the capital is to make a pleasure picnic for the gathering of the young green shoots in very early spring. It was a general custom to eat the “seven greens” on the seventh day of January each year, and the poor people in the country hamlets make it one of their slender sources of revenue, to gather these green shoots early in January, for the city market.