Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 92 of 100

Arrow from the Blue Sky

小吉 Sho-kichi, Small good fortune

自幼常爲旅

逢春駿馬驕

前程冝進步

得箭降青霄

From childhood, always a traveler;

meeting spring, the fine horse is proud.

On the road ahead it is right to step forward;

you get an arrow that comes down from the blue.

What this lot says

This is someone who has been on the road since youth. When spring arrives, the horse is strong and spirited. Going forward is called fitting, and an arrow drops from the clear sky and is received.

Sho-kichi, Small good fortune, stands in the book's printing, and the images stay lively with an odd gift at the close. Printings differ on this lot, with a note giving Kichi, Good fortune, to one edition and Han-kichi, Half good fortune, to another.

From where we stand today, this might be a person long used to moving on who finds that a new season has restored some energy. What might an unexpected thing falling from above be asking of someone so accustomed to leaving?

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.

Marginal note as printed: 大本作吉 / 百籖作半吉

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.