Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 54 of 100

Eclipse Over the Long Sky

凶 Kyo, Bad fortune

身同意不同

月蝕暗長空

輪雖常在手

魚水未相逢

Bodies together, minds apart;

the moon in eclipse darkens the long sky.

Though the wheel is always in the hand,

and still fish and water have not met.

What this lot says

Two people stand side by side and want different things. The moon goes into eclipse and the whole sky dims. A wheel stays in someone's hand, wheel being the plainest sense of a word that may also point back to the moon's round disk. Fish and water, which belong together, still have not found each other.

The book of 1813 prints Kyo, Bad fortune, while the printing of 1684 gives Kichi, Good fortune, so the two printings differ on this lot. With the light covered and the pairing unmade, the images lean toward the harsher of the two.

Seen from the present, the image is of people who share a room, a team or a plan and pull toward different ends. What is already in hand in such a situation, and what is still missing even so?

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

Where the 1684 printing differs

  • Grade: 1684 printing has 吉.

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.