Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (Volume 28-31)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1900 Excerpt: ... Some few Shintoists did likewise. A Shinto priest of the SunGoddess's temple at Ise, named Arakida Moritake (14721549), a contemporary of the just-named father of epigrammatic poetry, specially distinguished himself; but his compositions, and indeed all those of this early age, retained a strong comic tinge. The composers themselves, despite their ecclesiastical character, were much given to eccentric frolics, and to all the sans-gene of a semi-Bohemian life. To their honour be it added that, while fun counted in their eyes for a great deal, money counted for nothing at all. Yamazaki Sokan is said to have lived on ten cash a day, and to have had no other furniture in his cell than a single kettle. The prettiest of his verses that has survived is the following, which is worthy of the later, classic age: --(16) Koe nakuba Sagi koso yuki no Hito-tsuranc But for its voice, the heron were A line of snow, and nothing more. How often has not this subject been treated by the Japanese painter, as a delicate symphony in white! But, as already remarked, almost all his compositions verge on the comic, for instance this one, comparing, not inaptly, the posture of the frog to that which a Japanese assumes when squatting respectfully, with his hands stretched out on the mats to address a superior: --(17) Te wo fsiiite Ufa moshi-aguru Kawazu kana Note the polite word masiii-aguru, used in addressing a superior. Oh! 'the frog, with its hands on the floor, lifting up its voice in song! Puns were much sought after, as in Yo ni fnru wa Sara ni s//iffiirc no Yadori kana, where furu has a doubL-signification: --firstly, construed with yo, it means dwelling in the world, while secondly construed with shigure, it means a shower falling, so that the entire sense meant to be co...