Sowing Ghosts Glossary 4

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This is the final listing of the Japanese words for objects/titles used in the novel. (Yeah, I rather stretched this out. No, you wouldn't have enjoyed me dumping it all on you at once.)

Tomorrow, if you're still with me, we'll start something new. In the meantime, on to entries for S-Z (well, Y if we're being picky).



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.

Samurai: Literally “to serve” or “to accompany and wait upon”. Usually used as a synonym for “warrior” with the understanding that the warrior in question can trace his or her origin to nobility or gentry.

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. (During the Edo period, short-swords were used in preference to daggers.

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 under way by which entire floors were covered in tatami.

Tennō: Literally “heavenly sovereign”, usually translated as emperor (or ruling empress).

Wakashū: Literally “youth”, though in practice “adolescent boy”. Wakashū wore a specific hairstyle and were considered eligible subjects for same-sex desire on the part of warriors.

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”.

Characters    Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3    Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6
Chapter 7    Chapter 8    Chapter 9    Chapter 10    Chapter 11    Chapter 12    Chapter 13    Chapter 14
Chapter 15    Chapter 16    Chapter 17    Chapter 18    Author's Note    Glossary