Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 97 of 100

Mist Over the Storied House

凶 Kyo, Bad fortune

霧罩重樓屋

佳人水上行

白雲歸去路

不見月波澄

Mist shrouds the many-storied house;

a fair one walks along the water.

White clouds on the road going home:

the clear moonlit waves cannot be seen.

What this lot says

Fog wraps a tall building of several floors. A beautiful person moves along the water. White clouds lie over the road back, and the moon's reflection on the clear waves is out of sight.

Nothing violent happens in these lines, and they meet the book's printed Kyo, Bad fortune, through what they hide. The house, the way home and the light on the water are all withheld.

A present-day reader might think of a time when neither the place one lives in nor the road back to it can be seen clearly. What do you still know about a thing when the view of it is gone?

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.

The 1813 printing is cut so that the second character looks like 罟. The text here follows the 1684 printing, 罩.

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.