Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 25 of 100

Carriage After the Dead Tree

吉 Kichi, Good fortune

枯木遇春生

前途必利亨

亦得佳人箭

乘車禄自行

A dead tree meets spring and lives.

The way ahead is sure to go well.

Also gained: the fair one's arrow.

Riding a carriage, the stipend comes along of itself.

What this lot says

A lifeless tree revives when spring touches it, and the road forward is called favorable. An arrow from a beautiful person is received, an image we cannot explain with confidence. The verse ends with someone in a carriage and income moving along without effort.

Printed in the book above these lines is Kichi, Good fortune. Revival comes first and ease of movement follows, and the grade agrees with both.

By today's lights, the verse imagines a return to life that makes later steps oddly simple. What has started to move by itself since something dormant woke up?

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.