So here is a list of some of the terms, names, and titles referenced in the story, with their meanings. I'll put a link to this post at the bottom of each bit of the story as it goes up, over the course of the next few months.
Note:
Japanese grammar does not contain the notion of pluralization for nouns. The
same word refers to both a single instance and multiple instances. So in the
past Japan had one shōgun; in this story there are two shōgun.
Ashigaru:
Literally “light
foot”, these are irregular infantry recruited from amongst the rural (and
sometimes urban) poor.
Bo:
Wooden staff (Hiroki’s
preferred weapon), about six feet in length.
Bakufu:
The samurai government.
Bugu bugyō:
Arms master (literally “weapons administrator”), a position in a samurai
government.
Bushi:
Warrior. Warriors as a class were called buke. All samurai in this period were
officially bushi, but not all bushi were samurai (see Ashigaru, above, and
Samurai, below).
Cha:
Tea. This is fermented (black) leaf-tea, as opposed to green leaf-tea, which
wasn’t
introduced until a later period. There was
a green tea in this period, but matcha (powdered green tea) was used
exclusively in the cha-no-yu, the “tea ceremony”.
Do:
Armoured cuirass, to protect a warrior’s torso.
Dono:
A term of respect applied to a superior personage. Think “milord” or “lord”.
Fundoshi:
Loincloth. Basic underwear for both sexes.
Geta:
Wooden sandals with high “teeth” similar to those of western pattens. The teeth
lifted the sole of the sandal above the ground and so these sandals were very
useful in wet weather.
Gunbai/Gunsen:
“War
fan”. Made of metal and used for signaling but can also serve as a weapon.
Hakama:
Trousers, of a broad skirt-like cut. Worn over kimono by warriors, both when at
home and when out on campaign.
Hinin:
“Outcaste”
or “non-person”. People charged with handling profane or polluting tasks such
as dealing with death (removing dead bodies, for instance). The word eta is
sometimes used to name outcastes; as it literally means “much filth” it is not
a good word to use.
Hokke:
“Lotus”.
A term sometimes used to describe Nichiren Buddhists.
Hokke-ji:
A woman’s
temple in Nara founded by a member of the Hokke branch of the Fujiwara family.
Not to be confused with the Lotus sect.
Hokkeshū:
“Lotus
School”. Another term for the followers of Nichiren.
Ji:
“Temple”.
Applied as a suffix to the temple name. Sometimes a hyphen is used. To refer to
“Hokke-ji Temple” or “Shōkokuji Temple” is redundant; “Hokke-ji” or “Shōkokuji”
is sufficient.
Joro:
Prostitute, especially one catering to lower classes. The role Katsumi is
trying to escape.
Kabuto:
Iron helmet worn by samurai. (Ashigaru wore a simpler helmet, called jingasa,
that could also be used as a cooking pot.)
Kami:
Spirit, deity. Used to refer to the indigenous gods of Japan.
Kana:
“Women’s
writing”. A phonetic syllabary (as opposed to kanji, which used Chinese
characters to write down Japanese sounds) introduced around the Heian period
(late eighth century).
Katana:
Long-sword, specifically a long single-edged blade of gentle curvature,
intended to be worn in a scabbard thrust through the sash (obi) with the edge
facing upward.
Kimono:
Literally “thing
to wear”. Generally used to refer to the robe-like long-sleeved clothing worn
by most people in the pre-modern period.
Kuge:
Literally “royal
family”, the word is used to describe the nobility gathered around the emperor.
Machi:
Originally a block of the capital’s street grid. Eventually it came to mean “town” or “city”
as well.
Miyako:
“Capital”.
The term often used to name Kyoto, especially by its inhabitants.
Mon:
Family crest, embroidered or printed on the clothing of samurai to show the
identity of the clan they belonged to or were in service to.
Naginata:
A pole-arm, pretty much obsolete in the Sengoku Jidai but once popular with
warrior monks and female fighters. It consisted of a medium-length shaft topped
with a long, broad, curving blade.
Ōnin
no Ran: Literally “Disturbance of Ōnin”. A civil war
that began in the Ōnin era (1467 CE) and lasted a decade, during which much of
Kyoto was destroyed by the combatants.
Onryō:
Literally “vengeful
spirit”. A type of ghost believed able to have an impact on the physical world
as a means of gaining vengeance for wrongs done to the person while alive.
Rōnin:
Literally “wave
man”. A samurai without a lord and so adrift in society. During the Sengoku
Jidai the word did not have quite the pejorative quality it had a hundred years
later.
Sake:
Literally “liquor”.
A beverage made by fermenting the starches in rice. Sometimes translated as
“wine” or “rice wine”, though the fermentation process has as much in common
with beer as it does with wine.
Seppuku:
Literally “cutting
belly”. A very slow and painful form of suicide in which the belly is slashed
open using a dagger. Could be performed as a final gesture of loyalty to a dead
lord or defeated cause—or as a form of capital punishment.
Shōgun:
Supreme military commander. The formal title is Sei-i Taishōgun, “supreme barbarian-quelling
general”. Think of the Roman office of Dictator, but on a more-or-less
permanent basis.†
Shugo:
Military governor of a province. Largely powerless by the time this story takes
place.
Tabi:
Socks with a split toe to allow them to be worn with sandals.
Tachi:
Long sword. The blade was more curved than that of the katana, and it was worn
with the edge facing down. An older style of weapon than the katana.
Tantō:
A long dagger (or an abbreviated short-sword) carried as a secondary weapon by
warriors and as a defensive weapon by warrior women.
Tatami:
Soft mat (a core of rice-straw encased in soft rushes) used as a
floor-covering. Originally individual mats were used as seats on wooden floors;
during the Sengoku Jidai a process was underway by which entire floors were
covered in tatami.
Tennō:
Literally “heavenly
sovereign”, usually translated as emperor (or ruling empress).
Waraji:
Straw sandals. The most common footwear.
Yari:
Lance. The primary battlefield weapon of a warrior in this period. Sometimes
translated as “spear”,
but yari were never thrown, so I prefer the word “lance”.
*Hell's bells, my mother complained about how hard it was to deal with the character names in A Poisoned Prayer and A Tangled Weave. And those characters are French. I have never even thought of sharing Sowing Ghosts with her.
†This isn't the place for a discussion on Japanese pronunciation, but I do feel compelled to point out that the letter "u" in the Latin rendering of Japanese is always pronounced with a long sound. So we don't say sho GUN, we say sho GOON. No matter what Richard Chamberlain says about it.
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