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poetical synonym for Osaka is properly the river-mouth, as its etymology shows, naniwa meaning ‘dangerous waves.’ The bar of the Osaka river had the same evil reputation in ancient times that it has unhappily deserved too well in our own day. Several days were now spent in dragging their vessel laboriously against the strong current of the river. A fast day occurred on their way up it, which Tsurayuki had this time the satisfaction of keeping properly by abstaining entirely from fish. On the 12th, they reached Yamazaki, from which place a carriage (i.e. one of the bullock-carts in which kuges rode) was sent for to Kioto, and on the evening of the 16th they left Yamazaki for the capital. Tsurayuki was greatly delighted to recognize the old familiar landmarks as he rode along. He mentions the children’s playthings and sweetmeats in the shops as looking exactly as when he went away, and wonders whether he will find as little change in the hearts of his friends. He had purposely left Yamasaki in the evening in order that it might be night when he reached his own dwelling. I translate his account of the state in which he found it.
“The moon was shining brightly when I reached my house and entered the gate so that its condition was plainly to be seen. It was decayed and ruined beyond all description—worse even than I had been told. The heart of the man in whose charge I left it was in an equally dilapidated condition. The fence between the two houses had been broken down so that both seemed but one, and he appeared to have fulfilled his charge by looking in through the gaps. And yet I had supplied him by every opportunity with the means of keeping it in repair. To-night, however, I would not allow him to be told this in an angry tone, but in spite of my vexation offered him an acknowledgment for his trouble. There was in one place something like a pond where water had collected in a hollow, by the side of which grew a fir-tree. It had lost half its branches, and looked as if a thousand years had passed during the
