Vocabulary

more and more; increasingly

to breathe

welcome (new year, new spring, etc.)

early morning (before the break of dawn)

sparsely growing cogon grass; short cogon grass

morning cold; morning chill

brake van; guard's van; caboose

drink of black tea mixed with coffee

Osaka Incident (plot by Oi Kentaro and the Liberal Party to support a Korean uprising; 1885)

Osaka Conference; meeting held by the leaders of the Meiji Restoration in Osaka to discuss the formation of a representative assembly (January-February, 1875)

castle on the plains

castle on a hill in the plains; flatland-mountain castle

special Nara-period administrative division for areas containing a detached palace (Yoshino and Izumi)

Four Home Provinces (Yamato, Yamashiro, Settsu, and Kawachi; made obsolete in 757)

Treaty of Shimoda (1855); treaty initiating official relations between Russia and Japan

Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875); Russo-Japanese treaty in which Japan exchanged Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands

metal terminal

urasuji; side fork

inspector (of the Dazaifu)

triangular sink tidy (usu. used to strain waste)

Kagutsuchi; fire deity who burned to death his mother Izanami during childbirth (and was therefore beheaded by his father Izanagi)

draft of magazine's content (a table showing the allocation of each page)

Kagutsuchi; fire deity who burned to death his mother Izanami during childbirth (and was therefore beheaded by his father Izanagi)

Kagutsuchi; fire deity who burned to death his mother Izanami during childbirth (and was therefore beheaded by his father Izanagi)

Kagutsuchi; fire deity who burned to death his mother Izanami during childbirth (and was therefore beheaded by his father Izanagi)

Amaterasu Ōmikami (sun goddess)

Amaterasu Ōmikami (sun goddess)

lord; god; goddess; honorific title for deities (and high-ranking people)

Okuninushi; deity of magic and medicine later viewed as equivalent to Daikokuten and celebrated at Izumo Grand Shrine

Okuninushi; deity of magic and medicine later viewed as equivalent to Daikokuten and celebrated at Izumo Grand Shrine

Okuninushi; deity of magic and medicine later viewed as equivalent to Daikokuten and celebrated at Izumo Grand Shrine

Okuninushi; deity of magic and medicine later viewed as equivalent to Daikokuten and celebrated at Izumo Grand Shrine

tenshō ōban; oval gold coin struck by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1588

many gods; many deities; many kami

Izumo mythology

ichibubankin; Edo-period rectangular gold coin worth one quarter ryō

copper coin (Edo period)

doctor fish (Garra rufa); nibble fish; kangal fish; reddish log sucker

plover on the riverside; plovers near a river

flocking plovers; flock of plovers