Vocabulary

stick used to drive off birds (during the New Year's procession)

song sung by children during the New Year's bird-driving procession (later adopted by door-to-door musicians)

Taoist sexual alchemy (supposed to prolong the practitioner's life)

Taoist sexual alchemy (supposed to prolong the practitioner's life)

long illness that will not heal

buildings on the east and west side of the southern pond (in traditional palatial-style architecture)

mud wall with a roof

latticed shutters (in traditional Japanese and Chinese architecture)

curtain separating a central room from the aisles around it (in palatial-style architecture)

urine sampling; urine collection

one's own Buddha statue

hall or room where a private Buddha statue or ancestor tablets are kept

building on the greater palace grounds used by the emperor for viewing horse racing, horseback archery, etc.

room with a sunken hearth

building for observing horse racing, horseback archery, etc. (sometimes specifically that used by the emperor on the greater palace grounds)

building where one keeps oxcarts and other conveyances inside a private estate

low-class prostitute who was kept in a sort of cage at the front of the establishment (Edo period)

low class licensed prostitute (Edo period)

prostitute of the lowest class (Edo period)

offering a gift (to a superior)

influential vassal; powerful retainer; powerful courtier

workshop

archery ceremony; ceremony related to archery

sitting outdoors

kitchen

priest's flapper made from the tail of a large deer; long stick with the tail of a large deer attached

thatched hut

hot summer air

difficult breathing; heavy breathing; gasping

unfired clay figurine

curtained sleeping platform in shinden-style residences (used by people of high rank)

pent roof built atop the stairs of a shrine or temple

pent roof built atop the stairs of a shrine or a building in a classic aristocratic villa

interior closed room with heavily plastered walls in a Heian palace

partitioning screen

partitions in a Japanese house (e.g. screens, sliding doors, etc.)

almsgiving because of faith

imperfect (Buddhist) training; imperfection in one's (Buddhist) training; incomplete training; poor training

Taoism and Buddhism

young male servant; page