Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: The Yōshi

Fig. 1: 私き
やア今日帰
ると直に住
けへをねが
つて。

Yonehachi finishes her monologue (finally):

"If I return [home] today, I'll immediately ask [permission] to change houses (fig. 1)."

「私き」 is an alternate form of the modern 「 私」 that we've encountered before (see fig. 3).

Fig. 2: 婦多
川へでも行
て辛抱して
おまはんの
身を少しも
樂にさせ申
てねへヱ
トしんじつ
見へし女の
いぢ男はし
ゞうふさい
でゐる

「けへる」 is clearly an alternate form of 「帰（かえ）る」. This also helps to explain 「住けへ」— it's just 「住み替える」, or "to change one's residence". 「ねがつて」 is of course 「願って」— "to desire".

"Even if we [have to] go to Futagawa or somewhere, I will endure it if it makes things a little more comfortable for your body [health], OK?" the woman [Yonehachi] said, and showed her true obstinacy, [at which] the man [Tanjirou] continued to keep [his mouth] shut (fig. 2).

First of all, we encounter the place name Futagawa （婦多川）. As explained here, it is just another name for Fukagawa （深川）, which is itself a former ward of the old Tōkyō City. It can be found in the modern day ward of Kōtō ward, which is made up of Fukagawa and Jōtō, another former Tōkyō City ward.

We see the odd calligraphed form of 「身」 from last time (see fig. 4) again here. Note how this time it has the reading 「み」, which made it quite easy to determine which kanji it was.

I wasn't entirely sure about how to transcribe the part I've got as 「させまして」, particularly the 「まし」. I couldn't think of anything else that made grammatical sense, but it seems like there might not be enough space for a 「し」. Edit: as Matt has suggested in the comments below, what I thought was 「まし」 is likely the kanji 「申」. The meaning is unaffected by this change, but the reading would be 「させもうして」.

In the togaki (see fig. 5), we see 「見へし」. This is the shimo-nidan "ya"  verb 「見ゆ」 in the continuative form （見へ） followed by the auxiliary verb 「き」 in the attributive form （連体形）. The auxiliary verb 「き」 has an irregular conjugation, in which the attributive form is 「し」. It is used to indicate personal past or recollection （体験回想）.

I wasn't entirely sure about the kana 「く」 in the left column of the togaki. However, nothing else fit the context, and 「久」 had the closest-looking kuzushiji form of all the parent kanji for 「く」.

「ふさいで」 is derived from the verb 「塞（ふさ）ぐ／鬱（ふさ）ぐ」, which means "to feel depressed", or "to mope".

Edit: as suggested by Matt in the comments below, what I read as 「ご」 is more likely 「ゞ」, meaning that 「しゞう」 (which would be read as 「しじゅう」 in modern Japanese) is most likely 「始終」, meaning "continuously" or (more literally) "from start to finish". This would then suggest that the meaning of 「塞ぐ」 is likely an alternate one — "to shut up" or "to close (one's mouth)".

Fig. 3: よね
「ヱモシそ
して養子
に

"Huh, then as for the house that adopted you as a son-in-law, well (fig. 3), why was it that its fortune suddenly collapsed, huh?" Yonehachi asked (fig. 4).

I wasn't entirely sure about the beginning of fig. 3 (the 「ヱモシ」 part), so if that looks wrong, let me know.

Fig. 4: ど
うした訳
で急に身
代がたゝ
なくなつ
たのであ
りますヱ

In fig. 3, we also see the term 「養子（ようし）」, which refers to an adopted son-in-law. As explained in this book, the yōshi system of adoption came into play in those families who wanted to prevent the extinction of their family name/lineage, or those families who felt their biological sons did not possess the competence necessary to adequately preserve and propagate that legacy. In such situations, a suitable man would be adopted into the family by having one of the family's daughters marry him. He would change his last name to that of his adoptive family, move into that family's house, and be removed from the koseki （戸籍）, or family registry, of his old family and added to that of his new family (this was essentially the same process regularly followed by women when they married into their husband's family). Individual yōshi might have risen from poor backgrounds to a place of sufficient prominence in society, or they might be sons from wealthy families who were not the firstborn, and thus had no responsibility (or right) to their own family's legacy.

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 5)

Fig. 1:
暫ク在
テ佛虛
空ヨリ
難陀阿
難羅睺
羅等ヲ
引将テ
來リ給
ヘリ

Last time, Śuddhodana was miraculously cured of his illness. Continuing the story:

暫（しばら）ク在（ありまし）テ、仏、虚空（こくう）ヨリ難陀・阿難・羅睺羅等ヲ引将テ来（きた）リ給ヘリ。

 After a while had passed, the Buddha, leading Nanda, Ānanda, Rāhula, etc. from the empty sky, arrived (fig. 1).

I was a little confused about the meaning of the sentence in fig. 1. 「ヨリ」 here functions as a grammatical equivalent to 「から」 in modern Japanese, so I based the translation on a literal interpretation of that. However, that seems a little off.

Fig. 2: 先
ツ大王佛
ヲ見奉テ
涙ヲ流シ
給フ事雨
ノ如シ

The meaning of 「虚空」 wasn't entirely clear either. On the one hand, it has the secular meaning of "empty sky" or "empty space". But it is also the Chinese translation （漢訳） of the Buddhist term Ākāśa (Sanskrit: "आकाश"). Perhaps there is some special significance here related to that meaning. Then again, the word might just have been selected because of the religious nature of the story, even though the meaning here is intended to be the first one I mentioned.

The pattern seen with the verb 「給フ」 at the end of fig. 1 is the same as that seen at the end of fig. 8 in this post (see the explanation there).

先ヅ大王、仏ヲ見奉（たてまつり）テ、涙ヲ流シ給フ事雨ノ如シ。

First, the Great King, seeing the Buddha, shed tears, as if it were raining (fig. 2). 

Fig.3: 合掌
シテ喜給フ
事无限シ

There's not much to say about fig. 2. Just keep in mind that 「給フ」 is in the attributive form （連体形） here, rather than the predicative form （終止形）. The two forms just happen to be identical in appearance, since 「給フ」 is a yodan verb.

合掌シテ喜（よろこび）給フ事限リ无シ。

[Śuddhodana] pressed his hands together, and his joy was limitless (fig. 3).

As indicated above, the word 「合掌」is a common Buddhist hand gesture, also known as añjali (Sanskrit: "अञ्जलि").

Fig. 4:
佛父ノ王
ノ御傍ニ
在シテ本
経シ説
給フニ

Additionally, in fig. 3, we see the same 「給フ」 as in fig. 2 (i.e., in the attributive form).

仏、父ノ王ノ御傍（おそば）ニ在（ありま）シテ本経（ほんぎょう）ヲ説（とき）給フニ、大王即（すなは）チ阿那含果（あなごんか）ヲ得給（たまひ）シ。

The Buddha was at his father's side and preached the main sutra, at which (fig. 4) the Great King immediately achieved anāgāmihood (fig. 5).

Fig. 5:
大王即チ
阿那含果
ヲ得給シ

I got pretty confused about fig. 4. First of all, there seems to be something missing between 「本」 and 「経」 in the original script, given the amount of blank space there. But they form a word together anyway, so I'm not entirely sure that's actually the case. Even if nothing is missing, though, what exactly is the "main sutra"? It seems to be a general term (i.e., doesn't refer to a particular sutra), so perhaps some more context is necessary here.

Edit: as Matt has suggested in the comments, this could be 「本生経」, or the sutras expounded by the Buddha during his lifetime. However, there is no definitive evidence/proof of that.

In fig. 5, we see the term 「即チ」, usually written as 「すなわち」 nowadays. Whereas the modern Japanese meaning is restricted to "that is" or "i.e.", in the premodern language, it also had the meaning "immediately". Given the context, that meaning seemed most appropriate.

Finally, we see the term 「阿那含」, which is a Buddhist ateji term meaning anāgāmi, or a person who has reached the third of the four stages of enlightenment. From the comments below by Matt, the suffix 「果」 indicates attainment of enlightenment as a result of Buddhist practice.

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: A Fleeting Existence

Fig. 1: 今日ま
じやア我慢して
居たけれど。

Fig. 2: おま
はんの宅は
知れるし。

A quick post today, continuing our story of Yonehachi and Tanjirou's conversation from last time:

"Until today, I had been patient, but (fig. 1) [now] I know where you live as well (fig. 2), and so...," [Yonehachi said], looking around the neighborhood as tears spilled into her lap (fig. 3).

In fig. 1, we see the expression 「まじや」 (pronounced 「まじゃ」), which is just a dialectical contraction of 「までは」, as seen in modern Japanese.

Fig. 3: そして
マアトあたりを
みまはしなみだを
ひざにこぼしながら

In fig. 3, note how the 「ながら」 portion at the end is separated from the rest of the text; it is on a new line in the original text.

Fig. 4: 此様
なはかない
形身になつ
てゐさつし
やるのを見て

"Seeing [you] in this fleeting state [of existence], so weak and fragile (fig. 4), why do [I wonder] if you will even be in this house tomorrow?" (fig. 5)

In fig. 4, we see the same kanji pattern for 「こんな」 as seen in fig. 3 of this post.

I had difficulty parsing 「形丸」, as it doesn't show up in any of the dictionaries I've checked. The furigana 「なり」 can apply to just 「形」, but since the 「り」 is to the right of 「丸」, I assumed that this was an irregular reading, where 「なり」 applied to both kanji. This fits with the following kana「に」, which combines with 「なり」 to create the particle 「なりに」.

Edit: with the help of an anonymous commenter and Matt, I was able to clear this up. First of all, the kanji after 「形」 is actually 「身」. I'm not sure how I could have figured that out a priori, but it looks quite similar to some examples in online databases, such as this one. Also, there is an occurrence of this same kanji in another few lines, where it is clearly labeled as having the reading 「み」.

Fig. 5: どふ
してあすこ
の宅に居
られます
ものか。

The meaning of the word is the same as that of 「なり」: "state". One reason for using kanji was to more clearly delineate word beginnings/endings, so the reader wouldn't get lost in a sea of kana. But also, 「形身」, which has no meaning of its own (even in premodern Japanese), was possibly a kakikae of 「肩身」 (or perhaps just an orthographic error), which has the dual meanings of "body" and "image you present to society/strangers". Thus, there are three different meanings to this word, all of which contribute to the overall interpretation of the sentence, a literary technique that is reminiscent in some ways of the rhetorical device this blog is named after.

Finally, 「ゐさつしやる」 is read as 「いさっしゃる」, as explained for fig. 4 of this post.

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 4)

Fig. 1: 而ル
程ニ淨飯王ノ宮

The tale now takes a bit of a twist:

而（しか）ル程ニ浄飯王ノ宮、俄（にわか）ニ朝日ノ光ノ差（さし）入（い）タルガ如ク金ノ光リ隙（くま）无く照（てり）耀ク。

 While they were doing that, King Śuddhodana's palace (fig. 1) suddenly shined brilliantly with a gapless golden light, as if the light of the morning sun had entered it (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: 俄ニ
朝日ノ光ノ
差入タルカ
如ク金ノ光
リ隙无ク照
耀ク

At the beginning of fig. 1, we see 「而ル程ニ」, which can actually be treated as one phrase （接続）. According to the Nihongo Kokugo Daijiten, it's equivalent to the modern Japanese phrase 「そうしているうちに」 — "while doing that". The first example given along with the definition is actually from another sentence in Konjaku.

Edit: from Chris's explanation in the comments, 「而ル」 is a contraction of 「しか」 (an archaic 「そう」) and 「ある」. 「程ニ」 is equivalent to 「内ニ」.

Edit 2: I initially had the reading for 「隙」 as 「すき」, but as Matt suggested in the comments, this is more likely read as 「くま」. Moreover, there are no real examples of 「すきなく」 that I could find online, whereas there are plenty of examples for 「くまなく」.

In fig. 2, note the irregular okurigana usage with 「差入タル」. Once again, the "internal" kana — such as the 「し」 in 「差し入れ」 — is not present. This can also be seen in the fig. 2 with 「照耀ク」. You also see "light" written in two different ways in the same figure — 「光」 and 「光リ」.

Note that the same 3-kana arrangement pattern that has been seen  in previous sentences was observed again with 「タルカ」, with the dakuten for 「ガ」 omitted again.

Adding the okurigana 「シ」 after 「如」 was a hard decision. The Suzuka Manuscript scan provided by Kyoto University has a relatively low DPI, particularly when compared to the National Diet Library's scan of Shunshoku Umegoyomi. The area of the manuscript where the okurigana would be expected to appear seems to have been damaged. Although there are no clear indications of a kana there, there is a bit of a smudge on the right side of the blank space between 「如」 and 「金」. The presence of such a large blank space between the two kanji was also convincing.

Edit: as Chris has pointed out in the comments, it would make more grammatical sense to have 「ク」 here, and not 「シ」, so that the verb is in the continuative form （連用形）, as it is followed by another clause.

Fig. 3: 其ノ時
淨飯王ヲ始テ

其ノ時ニ、浄飯王ヲ始テ、若干（そこばく）ノ人驚キ怪シム事限リ无シ。

At that moment, King Śuddhodana, and (fig. 3) many other people as well, were amazed, and the awe was limitless (fig. 4).

Fig. 4: 若干
ノ人驚怪シ
ム事无限シ

I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret the 「始テ」 in fig. 3, so I kind of guessed that he woke up. I was a little tripped up by the 「ヲ」 that comes before it, and I'm still not entirely sure how it fits in.

Edit: as Matt has explained in the comments, 「Xを始め（て）Y」 is a pattern that means ""Y, including X". Also, 「怪しむ」 likely has its older meaning of "wonderment" or "awe" here.

The meaning in modern Japanese of 「若干」 is "some" or "few", and the reading is 「じゃっかん」. However, there is also the archaic meaning of "a lot" or "many" (see definition #3), with the reading 「そこばく」 (among others; I just picked this reading because it was the first one listed).

Note how I added a 「キ」 after 「驚」 in the modified version above. This is because, unlike with 「如ク」 in fig. 2, I didn't feel that there was enough evidence of the presence of a 「キ」 in the original text. There doesn't seem to be that much space between 「驚怪」, nor any signs that there might have been an okurigana there (except for some damage to the manuscript in that region).

「怪シム」 is a single verb; the 「ム」 is not an auxiliary verb or anything like that.

Finally, we see the Chinese-origin pattern 「无限シ」 resurface. It was encountered previously in fig. 3 of this post.

Fig. 5: 大王
モ此ノ光ニ
照サレテ

大王モ此ノ光に照（てら）サレテ、病ノ苦（くるしビ忽チニ除のぞきテ、身ノ楽（たのし）ビ限リ无シ。

The Great King was also illuminated by this light (fig. 5), [his] suffering from disease was suddenly removed (fig. 6), and his joy was limitless (fig. 7).

Fig. 6: 病ノ
苦ヒ忽チニ
除テ

Of interest in fig. 5 is 「照サレテ」, where 「照サ」 is the imperfective form （未然形） of 「照ス」 ("to illuminate"), 「レ」 is the continuative form （連用形） of the auxiliary verb 「る」, which has the passive （受身） function here. 「テ」 is, of course, the continuative particle.

Fig. 7: 身ノ樂ヒ
无限シ

In fig. 6, we see 「苦ビ」, which is just an alternate form of 「苦しみ」. Same goes for 「楽ビ」 in fig. 7.

At the end of fig. 7, we see the 「无限シ」 pattern from fig. 4 again.

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 3)

Fig. 1: 然レハ
后大臣等此ノ
思惱フ程ニ

This part turned out to be fairly straightforward, so this post will be short.

然（さ）レバ后・大臣等、此ノ事ヲ思悩（おもひなや）ブ程ニ、仏ハ霊鷲山（りょうじゅせん）ニ在（ましま）シテ、空（くう）ニ父ノ大王ノ病ニ沈（しずみ）テ、諸ノ人此ノ事ヲ歎キ合ヘル事ヲ知（しり）給（たまひ）テ、難陀・阿難・羅睺羅等引将ひきいテ、浄飯王ノ宮ニ行キ給フ。

That being the case, while the queen, the cabinet ministers, etc. were worrying about this (fig. 1), the Buddha was at Vulture Peak, and in the emptiness, he was depressed because of his father's, the Great King's, illness (fig. 2). Knowing that many people had been lamenting this fact together (fig. 3), with Nanda, Ānanda, Rāhula, etc. leading (fig. 4), they went to King Śuddhodana's palace (fig. 5).

Fig. 6: Vulture Peak (location, image source)

Fig. 2: 佛
ハ靈鷲山
ニ在シテ
空ニ父ノ
病ニ沈テ

The first thing to note in fig. 1 is the yodan verb 「思悩ブ」, which has the same meaning as the modern verb 「思い悩む」, as stated in the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten （日本国語大辞典）. In fact, it cites this particular sentence in its definition, along with another occurrence in Konjaku, so the 「ブ」 ending may be an idiosyncrasy of Konjaku.

Fig. 3: 諸
ノ人此ノ
事ヲ嘆き
合ヘル事
ヲ知給テ

Continuing on to fig. 2, we encounter Vulture Peak, the literal translation of a mountain known in Sanskrit as "गृध्रकूट" ("Gṛdhrakūṭa"). The kanji name is another meaning-based translation （意訳）, since 「霊鷲」 means vulture. I couldn't find a definitive source for this definition, but that's what the Japanese Wikipedia page says, and the word for vulture written in kanji is 「禿鷲」, so the 2nd kanji match. The name comes from either (a) the shape of the peak being vulture-like (see fig. 6) or (b) the presence of many vultures there.

The verb 「在シ」 looks similar to the instance of 「在（あり）マス」 observed last time (see fig. 2), but note that this time there is no 「マ」 in the okurigana, so it is more likely the verb 「在（ましま）ス」, which is just an honorific version （尊敬語） of 「有る」 or 「居る」 — so it ends up having essentially the same meaning as  「在ありマス」.

The word 「空（くう）」 has this reading because it is a Buddhist term that has the meaning of "emptiness", or "Śūnyatā" ("शून्यता" in Sanskrit). Finally, note that 「沈テ」 is a case of irregular kana usage — one would expect the 「み」 to be part of the okurigana.

Fig. 4: 難陀
阿難羅睺羅
等引將テ

In fig. 3, we see the phrase 「嘆キ合ヘル」. 「嘆き」 is the continuative form （連用形） of 「嘆く」, while 「合ヘ」 is the realis form （已然形） of the yodan verb 「合フ」. 「ル」 is the attributive form （連体形） of the auxiliary verb 「リ」, which takes on the resultative （結果の存続） function (i.e., "had been") here.

Fig. 5:
淨飯王ノ
宮ニ行キ
給フ

「知給テ」 is comparable to fig. 5 of the previous post in terms of missing okurigana when using the honorific auxiliary verb 「給フ」.

In fig. 4, we encounter several familiar names, followed by the phrase 「引将テ」. I wasn't sure what to make of this, but since 「引き」 is read as 「ひき」 and  「将る」 is an alternate way of writing 「率（ひき）いる」, I decided to go with
「引将（ひきい）テ」, with the same meaning as 「率いる」: "to lead a group". This is primarily speculation, though.

There's not much to say about fig. 5 in terms of grammar, but note how parts of the original text are quite faded/missing, particularly the first character. This is a situation in which context is very important when determining the missing characters. Fortunately, in this case it was a proper name that we had encountered before.