Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 72 of 100

Fruit After Hard Frost

吉 Kichi, Good fortune

戸内防重厄

華菓見分枝

嚴霜纔過後

方可始相冝

Indoors, guard against repeated misfortune;

flowers and fruit are seen on separate branches.

Only once the hard frost has just gone by

can things begin to go well together.

What this lot says

A warning opens the verse, directed at trouble recurring within the household. Blossoms and fruit then appear on branches of their own. After severe frost has passed the poem says matters can begin to fit.

Printed as Kichi, Good fortune, in the book, this lot places its good after the cold. The fruit is already visible in the second line, while the fit between things waits for the frost to end.

On a modern reading, this might be a household or a team in which things are growing, just separately, through a cold period. What would need to thaw before those separate parts could work together?

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.