Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 11 of 100

Riding an Arrow Through Clouds

大吉 Dai-kichi, Great good fortune

有禄興家業

文華達帝都

雲中乘好箭

兼得貴人扶

A stipend raises the family's estate.

Literary brilliance reaches the imperial capital.

Among the clouds, riding a good arrow,

and helped along by a person of standing too.

What this lot says

Income lifts a household, and fine writing carries all the way to the seat of the empire. Then comes a strange picture of someone mounted on an arrow high in the clouds. A person of rank steadies the rider at the end.

Dai-kichi, Great good fortune, is printed for this lot in the book. Home, capital and sky are all reached in four lines, and the grade is as high as the arrow.

Through present-day eyes, the verse shows talent traveling farther than its owner expected, with someone else adding lift. Who has been carrying your work into rooms you have never entered?

A lot is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.

The printed text

No differences from the 1684 printing are recorded for this lot.

Credits

The verse and grade were read from the two scanned printings named here. The title, translation and reading are our own and modern.

Our own English. The kana commentary printed under each verse in the old books was not read.