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Page 24
Tokonoma ni
Ik�shi tachiki mo
Taor�-keri;
Yanari ni yama no
Ugoku kak�mono!
[_Even the live tree set in the alcove has fallen down; and
the mountains in the hanging picture tremble to the quaking
made by the Yanari!_[50]]
[Footnote 50: The _tokonoma_ in a Japanese room is a sort of
ornamental recess or alcove, in which a picture is usually hung, and
vases of flowers, or a dwarf tree, are placed.]
X. SAKASA-BASHIRA
The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into
_saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or
pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the
original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say,
with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in
the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder
was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind,
because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would
moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and
open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every
house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber,
and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people.
Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs
of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to
contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how
to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the
carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied.
Saka-bashira
Tat�shi wa tazo ya?
Kokoro ni mo
Fushi aru hito no
Shiwaza naruran.
[_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have
been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._]
Hidayama we
Kiri-kit� tat�shi
Saka-bashira--
Nanno takumi[51] no
Shiwaza naruran?
[_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence
brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work
can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been
done?")_]
[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signify
either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus
two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was
fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was
so fixed with malice prepense.]
U� shita wo
Chiga�t� tat�shi
Hashira ni wa
Sakasama-goto no
Ur�� aranan.
[_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it
will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]]
[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_,
"up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity,
contrariety, adversity, vexation.]
Kab� ni mimi
Arit�, kik� to ka?
Sakashima ni
Tateshi hashira ni
Yanari suru oto!
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