Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: The Yōshi (part 3)

Fig. 1: それから宅へ
出入もならず。

Fig. 2: 音信
不通とさ
れたのは。
みんな此方
がふつゝか
ゆゑ。

Things have been very busy over the last month, but I finally got a chance to write another post. Also, it's gotten to the point now that most of the time for creating a post is spent constructing the annotated images, such that my translations sit in Google Docs for a while before I get around to actually putting up the corresponding post. Hopefully I can come up with an easier/faster solution for annotation at some point - it would certainly allow me to post much more often.

Today we continue to learn about Tanjirou's misfortunes:

"From then on, [I] didn’t even go to and from the house (fig. 1). The break in contact was entirely because of my incompetence (fig. 2)."

Fig. 3: また
そのうへに
養子先の身
上はふんさ
んして。

 The only thing to note in fig. 1 is the pattern 「ならず」. It can likely be parsed as 「なら」, the imperfective form （未然形） of 「なる」, followed by the negative auxiliary verb 「ず」. As explained in this dictionary entry, the meaning is equivalent to the modern Japanese 「でない」 or 「ではない」.

In fig. 2, we see the phrase 「音信不通」, meaning "break in contact" or "having no communication with". Note that 「みんな」 here actually means "everything" (paraphrased as "entirely" in the translation above), rather than "everyone". That particular meaning is listed in Tangorin as a secondary entry.

Fig. 4: まだ後日
にはこれがある
と。

We also see the word 「ふつゝか」, which means, among other things, "inexperienced" or "incompetent". Finally, 「ゆゑ」, equivalent to 「ゆえ」 in modern kana or 「故」 in kanji, means "reason"/"cause".

"And on top of that, the assets that didn’t come from [my] adoption were dispersed (fig. 3). Later, saying 'I have this,' (fig. 4) the clerk Matsubei [produced a bond] for 500 ryō he had lent to Hatakeyama-sama (fig. 5). [He said that] he would give this to me in return [for giving him]  (fig. 6) 70 of the remaining 100 ryō of [the funds from the adoption that were] dispersed (fig. 7). He said he would give it to the others later, (fig. 8) [but] saying he was going to [the capital] Kyoto [lit. ascending], he disappeared (fig. 9)."

Near the end of fig. 3, we see the word 「ふんさん」.  This is most likely the word 「ぶんさん」（「分散」 in kanji) with the dakuten missing. It means "scatter" or "disperse".

In fig. 8, we see the verb 「登る」, which has a literal meaning of "to ascend", but can also refer to the act of going to the capital. Remember that Umegoyomi is set during the late Edo period, when Kyoto was still the official capital of Japan. As the novel itself is set in Edo, we can assume that Matsubei has absconded to Kyoto. This claim is strengthened by the fact that 「登る」 is preceded by the place name 「上方」, which referred to the "Kansai region (esp. during Edo period)".

The rest is fairly self-explanatory, but one word to note is 「其身」(in fig. 9), which literally means "body". In this context, I used the pronoun "he" instead in the translation.

Fig. 9: 其身
は上方へ登
るといつて
行方なく。

Fig. 8: 後は他の
者へつかはし
ますといつて

Fig. 7: 分散
残りの百両は。
私が七十両。

Fig. 6: この証
文はおまへ
に上ますそ
の代り。

Fig. 5: 言て番
頭松兵へが。
畠山さまへ出
してある五百
両。