another the windows slide past us. Kyuichia€™s face grows smal .
Then as the last third-class carriage is passing me, another face appears at the window. Gazing disconsolately out is the bearded visage of the wild mountain monk, under his brown felt hat. His eyes and Namia€™s suddenly find each other. The chugging train is picking up speed, and in another instant the wild face is gone. Standing there in a daze, Nami continues to stare after it, and astonishingly, her face is flooded with an emotion that I have never until this moment witnessed therea€”pitying love.
a€?Thata€™s it! Thata€™s it! Thata€™s what I need for the picture!a€ I murmur, patting her on the shoulder. At last, with this moment, the canvas within my own heart has found its ful and final form.
Notes
CHAPTER 1
1 . By my eastern hedge: A verse from the poem a€?Drinking Wine,a€? by the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming (365-427), a work famous for extol ing the natural world and the calm heart divorced from the troubles of human life.
2 . Seated alone: A verse from the poem a€?House in the Bamboo Vil agea€? by the Chinese poet Wang Wei (699-759).
3 . Hototogisu or Konjikiyasha: Hototogisu, written by Sosekia€™s contemporary Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927), depicts the tragedy of a tubercular woman separated from her beloved husband by her feudalistic family. Konjikiyasha, by another contemporary, Ozaki Koyo (1867-1903), also depicts the sorrows of love. Both novels were immensely popular.
4 . no more do they . . . peace and tranquillity: In Chinese legend a fisherman takes his boat upstream and wanders into a grove of flowering plums. There he discovers the tranquil realm of the Taoist sages, which has no contact with the mundane world.
5 . Shichikiochi or Sumidagawa: Shichikiochi is an anonymous Noh play that dramatizes the story of a loyal retainer prepared to sacrifice his child to save his master. The Noh play Sumidagawa, by Zeami (c.1364-c.1443), portrays a woman crazed by grief at the abduction of her child; she travels to the distant river Sumida in search of him.
6 . Basho . . . composed a haiku on it: Basho (1644-94), the famous Edo-period haiku poet, wrote this haiku: a€?Plagued by fleas and licea€”/and here is my horse peeing/right by the pil ow.a€?
7 . haori: A haori is a short coat worn over Japanese dress.
CHAPTER 2
1 . a Hosho School production of the Noh play Takasago: Hosho, one of the five schools of Noh performance, had its theater in the Kanda district of Tokyo. Takasago, by Zeami, is one of the most famous Noh plays. Its protagonists are an old couple who are the spirits of two pine trees.
2 . bush warblers: These birds have a sweet cal that poetical y evokes spring.
3 . the mountain crone of Rosetsua€™s painting: A famous painting by the Edo- period painter Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-99) depicts the mythic wild-haired old woman of the mountains ( yamamba ).
4 . the war: The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.
5 . in Izena€™s ears: Hirose Izen (1652?-1711) was a disciple of the haiku poet Basho. He spent much time on journeys composing.
6 . Suzukaa€™s far pass: Suzuka Mountain is on the border between present-day Mie and Shiga prefectures. The Suzuka Pass was renowned as a difficult place on the old Tokaido road between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) and often appeared in travel poems.
7 . it is not in fact my own poem: Sosekia€™s friend the poet Masaoka Shiki (1867- 1902) wrote a haiku that differs in only one word.
8 . the takashimada style: an elaborate high coiffure worn by a bride.
9 . Ophelia in Millaisa€™s painting: The English painter John Everett Mil ais (1829- 96), in his famous Ophelia, depicted her floating down a river among flowers. Although Soseki describes the hands as folded, they are not so in the painting.
10 . As the autumna€™s dew . . . this brief world: A poem found in the ancient poetry col ection Manyoshu (mid-eighth century) was said to be composed by a girl torn between two lovers. The legend told here is a local variation loosely based on this story.
11 . the magic feather cloak . . . demand that I return it: In the Noh play Hagoromo ( The Feather Cloak), based on a folk legend, a fisherman finds an angela€™s feather cloak cast aside on a beach while she bathes, but he returns it to her when she pleads that she cannot fly back to heaven without it.
CHAPTER 3
1 . Boshu province: In the southern part of present-day Chiba prefecture.
2 . a€?Bamboo shadows . . .a€?: This quotation comes from a wel -known col ection of epigrammatic sayings, Taigentan, by sixteenth-century writer Hong Zieheng.
3 . Kosen . . . Mokuan: These seventeenth-century priests of the Obaku sect were renowned for their cal igraphy.
4 . Jakuchu: Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) was famous for his paintings of creatures and plants.
5 an Okyo gives us the beauty of a ghost: Maruyama Okyo (1733-95) famously painted the ghost of a woman in diaphanous robes.
