Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: The Yōshi (part 2)

Fig. 1: 主「さ
れバサ。今
さら考て見り
やア。

Fig. 2: やつ
はり鬼兵へ
が。先の番
頭の松兵へ
となれ合て

Last time, we found out about Tanjirou's stint as a yōshi. Now we get into the details of what actually happened to him:

Master [Tanjirou]: "Well...when I think about it now (fig. 1), after all, Kihei was conspiring with the previous head clerk, Matsubei (fig. 2), and as soon as the door was closed, being fully aware of [the state of] the household assets, [he] immediately [made] me a yōshi (fig. 3)."

In fig. 1, we see the phrase 「今さら」, which is of course the same as 「今更」. In this case, it specifically has the first definition listed on Tangorin: "now", including the parenthetical "after such a long time".

At the beginning of fig. 2 is 「やつはり」. This is equivalent to 「やっぱり」. There's just a large 「つ」 and a 「は」 without a handakuten. The meaning stays the same.

Fig. 3: 直に
戸を塞身上
を承知でお
れを急養子。

Some online sources have suggested that Kihei is written here as 「鬼兵へ」, rather than 「鬼兵」. However, I don't see that being true (at least with this manuscript), since then the bottom of 「兵」 would be missing from the script.

Edit: as Chris has suggested below, his kuzushiji dictionary suggested that this is actually 「兵へ」. The bottom radical in 「兵」 is essentially omitted. This applies both for Kihei （鬼兵へ） and Matsubei （松兵へ）, in fig. 2 and 6.

Fig. 4: そ
んなこと
は露しら
す。這入
て見れば
借金の。

Also note the use of the phrase 「なれ合」 — this is equivalent to 「馴れ合い」, which can mean "conspiracy".

"[I] knew very little [about all] that. When I entered the family (fig. 4), I also married the mountain (fig. 5) of debt (fig. 4), and so (fig. 5), for that reason, I also had Kihei (fig. 6) stamp a 100 ryō (fig. 7) coin and gave it to my adoptive family, but it turned out to be a waste [of money] (fig. 8)."

In fig. 4, we see the kanji 「露」. Although the common meaning is "dew", it can also mean "a small quantity" （「わずかなこと」）.

Fig. 5: 山
も縁つく
とふそて
と。

We also see the pattern 「しらき」. I wasn't entirely sure about having 「き」 at the end, but nothing else made sense grammatically. I couldn't figure out which kanji this kana would be derived from, though. If it is actually 「き」, in grammatical terms it would be the predicative form （終止形） of 「き」, an auxiliary verb that indicates that the preceding verb is in the personal past. Since the preceding verb has to be in the continuative form （連用形）, I'm not sure why it's 「しら」 (the original verb presumably being 「知る」), but perhaps it's using a non-yodan conjugation (I don't have my dictionary with me, so I can't check).

Edit: as Chris explains below, the kana after 「しら」 is actually 「す」, derived from the kanji  「須」. This is a little confusing because the dakuten have been omitted here. The correct way to read this is 「しらず」, which is the imperfective form （未然形） of the verb 「知る」 followed by the negative auxiliary verb 「ず」, in its predicative form （終止形）.

Fig. 6: 思つ
たゆへに鬼
兵へにも。

There is also an irregular form of 「入る」 — 「這入る」. Both are pronounced 「はいる」.

At the end of fig. 4 is the word 「借金（しゃっきん）」, which is read as 「しゃくきん」 here instead, but retains its meaning.

In fig. 5, we see the phrase 「縁つく」, which is equivalent to 「縁づく」, also written as 「縁付く」 — "to marry".

Fig. 7: 判を
おさせた
百両の。

In fig. 7, we see the term 「おさせた」, which is the past tense and causative form of 「押す」. This word appears to have been formed according to modern Japanese grammar. Once again, it may be that the author switches back and forth when going from narration (classical) to dialogue (modern). This particular instance occurs while Tanjirou is speaking, so the modern form was used.

The kanji 「両」 refers to a premodern Japanese currency, the ryō. As mentioned in that article, 100 ryō would have been a very significant amount of money, particularly for someone as poor as Tanjirou (perhaps he became poor as a result of wasting all this money).

Fig. 8: 金も
養家へいれ
仏事。

The phrase 「いれ仏事」, also written as 「入（い）れ仏事（ぶつじ）」, refers to pointlessly throwing money at something （「むだな出費」）. It's very interesting how dakuten are included for the furigana 「ぶつ」, but excluded for 「事」, which has its furigana written as 「し」, rather than 「じ」.