さわらびの譜 | Week 1

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1
Week 1 3 Oct 2026
Chapters 1 and 2
End page 32
Total pages 25
Last Week none
Next week Week 2
Home Thread さわらびの譜

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2

I figured I’d go through and pull out all the proper names and so forth; this has ended up quite long and I have hidden the less relevant bits under details tags so it looks less intimidating :slight_smile:

Chapter One

Chapter one hits you in the first few pages with a blizzard of historical names and references which are probably never going to come up again and so are pretty safely skippable. I have pulled up a little info from Wikipedia below for them. The author doesn’t really expect you to know this stuff in advance in most cases, but I always find sentences packed with historical names a bit painful to read anyway. I hope the notes might help a little.

I have spoiler-tagged the details for the character names, but not all the historical stuff (which I don’t think is particularly spoilery).

The list of actual book characters is thankfully much shorter and I list them separately and first.

People

Name Reading Notes
有川 ありかわ a samurai family
将左衛門 しょうざえもん father
吉江 よしえ mother
伊也 いや older sister (18)
初音 はつね younger sister (16)
扇野藩 おうぎのはん fictional clan the author used as a setting for several of his novels
磯貝八十郎 いそがいやじゅうろう clan archery instructor
樋口清四郎 ひぐちせいしろう samurai who won the archery competition
新納左近 にいろさこん samurai from Edo who has recently begun lodging with the Arikawas (25)
粕谷一斎 かすやいっさい Confucian scholar who recommended 新納
千賀谷左京大夫春家 ちがやさきょうのだいぶはるいえ head of the Ougino clan, currently in Edo but due to return to the clan territory soon. 左京大夫 here is a title, coming between the surname 千賀谷 and first name 春家.

Historical notes

These are just some bits of background information that I thought might be helpful if you’re not too familiar with this period of Japanese history.

When are we?

The novel is set at some point in the Edo period, which is the period when the Tokugawa shogunate had complete control of the country, from about 1600 to 1868. The social and governmental system was pretty stable over this time period, so it doesn’t make much difference exactly when in it we are. I find that historical fiction set in this period mostly uses it as a backdrop for storytelling, and don’t have a lot of “cameo appearance by real historical figure you’re supposed to recognize” or “real historical event affects the plot” (much as Westerns use their setting for storytelling and don’t need the reader to be familiar with the exact details of the expansion of the US frontier in the 19th century). A vague idea of a society with samurai, merchants and peasants, with feudal domains and a central shogunate, should be good enough.

勘定奉行

Head of the financial/accounting offices of the clan. This is a pretty important position that 将左衛門 holds. Each individual clan has near-complete autonomy within its territory, and it taxes the peasantry on their rice crop, carries out public works, pays levies to the central shogunate authorities, and hands out a stipend to every samurai. So its finances are the local government finances, effectively. If the domain is small or doesn’t have much productive land (or there’s a bad harvest) then making ends meet can be tricky.

参勤交代

Every clan lord is required by the shogunate to spend alternate years in Edo (and their wives and children must remain permanently in Edo), so they’re not even in their own lands much of the time. This policy was set up as a precaution against rebellions.

Archery traditions

These are all real historical traditional schools of Japanese archery, so the author is showing off that he has done his research by listing them all. I think they are highly unlikely to be plot relevant except for the first two. Wikipedia has a chart of 日置流 development which shows the relationships between the various subschools: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Hekiryu_keizu.PNG

Table of archery schools
Name Reading Notes
日置流雪荷派 へきりゅうせっかは tradition and sub-grouping the Arikawa family is in
大和流 やまとりゅう tradition currently used to teach Ougino samurai
武田流 たけだりゅう
逸見流 へんみりゅう
小笠原流 おがさわらりゅう
秀郷流 ひでさとりゅう
吉田流 よしだりゅう another name for 日置流
印西派 いんさいは another 日置流 sub-grouping
出雲派 いずもは ditto
道雪派 どうせつは ditto
寿徳派 じゅとくは ditto
左近衛門派 さこんえもんは ditto
大蔵派 おおくらは ditto
山科派 やましなは ditto

Historical people and other references (also unlikely to be plot relevant)

Table of historical names and notes
Name Reading Notes
日置弾正正次 へきだんじょうまさつぐ founder of the 日置流. Probably a late 15th century warrior, but Wikipedia says not much is known of him and some people believe he was a mythical figure rather than a real person
近江 おうみ modern Shiga prefecture (the one with Lake Biwa, near Kyoto)
六角佐々木 ろっかくささき clan who were lords of Oumi
吉田出雲守重賢 よしだいずものかみしげかた (1463-1543) military commander and archer who popularised the 日置流/吉田流. (出雲守 is another “title in the middle of the name”.)
源頼義 みなもとのよりよし (988-1075) Heian era samurai lord and warrior
源義家 みなもとのよしいえ (1039-1106) son of 頼義, and a renowned warrior
吉田六左衛門重勝 よしだろくざえもんしげかつ (1514-1590) founder of the 雪荷派
豊臣秀次 とよとみひでつぐ (1568-1595) daimyo; nephew of the more famous 豊臣秀吉 とよとみひでよし
島原藩松平家 しまばらはんまつだいらけ Shimabara clan / Matsudaira family, lords of the area around Nagasaki
森川総兵衛秀一 もりかわそうべえひでかず (1631-1701) founder of the 大和流
加賀藩前田家 かがはんまえだけ Kaga clan / Maeda family (lords of what is now Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures)
吉田大蔵 よしだおおくら Archer who served the Maedas. Full name (if I have not misread the web pages I found) 吉田茂氏 よしだしげうじ. Not to be confused with the modern-day singer 吉田大蔵 よしだだいぞう.
源平の屋島の戦い げんぺいのやしまのたたかい Battle of Yashima, 1185; the “shooting a fan” incident is a famous scene in the Tale of the Heike and depicted in art like https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Battle_of_Yashima_Artwork.jpg
那須与一 なすのよいち 12th century archer famous for that fan shot
源義経 みなもとのよしつね (1159-1189) commander on the Minamoto side at Yashima

Chapter Two

Only one new character, and rather less of the historical references, thankfully:

People

Name Reading Notes
山科五郎右衛門 やましなごろうえもん go-between for the engagement

Other notes

Table of chapter 2 historical names and references
Name Reading Notes
書院番頭 しょいんばんがしら 山科’s job. The encyclopaedias describe this as a (fairly high ranking) post in the shogunate government in Edo, but from context this must be an equivalent job in the local clan, not the shogunate one
通し矢 とうしや annual archery contest held in Kyoto. Wikipedia has an English language rundown if you’d rather not wade through the Japanese one in the book: Tōshiya - Wikipedia – the photo of the roof beam stuck full of the remains of arrows is pretty cool
三十三間堂 さんじゅうさんげんどう Buddhist temple in Kyoto whose very long main wooden hall holds a thousand statues of Kannon. Popular tourist attraction today; if you’ve been to Kyoto you may well have visited it. https://www.sanjusangendo.jp/
崇徳上皇 すとくじょうこう (1119-1164); 75th emperor of Japan, retired from the throne 1142
蓮華王院 れんげおういん formal name of 三十三間堂
後白河法皇 ごしらかわほうこう (1127-1192) 77th emperor
平清盛 たいらのきよもり (1118-1181) military leader who established the first samurai dominated government and became de-facto ruler of Japan in 1167
吉田五左衛門 よしだござえもん a contest winner
尾州 びしゅう another name for 尾張国, in the west of modern Aichi prefecture
星野勘左衛門 ほしのかんざえもん (1642-1696) a contest winner
紀州 きしゅう another name for 紀伊国, in modern Wakayama and Mie prefectures
和佐大八郎 わさだいはちろう (1663-1713) a contest winner and record setter
東大寺大仏殿西回廊 とうだいじだいぶつでんにしかいろう Part of the Toudaiji temple in Nara. The main hall houses a very large statue of the Buddha. This is another “if you’ve been a tourist in Japan maybe you’ve visited” location: 大仏殿 - 東大寺
江戸深川 えどふかがわ a district in Edo
3

I finished the first introductory week.
The names were way less of a problem than I initially thought. The tables you made and reading up a tiny bit on the archery backround helped quite a bit I think. But additionally the names are mostly all introduced in context with Furigana, so I don’t think I was every confused what the word is about (place, person, archery school etc, etc…)

On the other hand the dialogues put up quite the challange. I’m used to having to look up a decent chunk of words in descriptive passages, but I think I had even bigger problems with the dialogue. By the end I got decently used to all the さよう’s, and had looked up the one or two unfamiliar grammars (even with N1, I’ve never seen 参りとうない before). And I hate それがし as a pronoun. I always want to read it as それ が し。。。

Thoughts

I think the first two chapters managed quite well to set the scene. The stories about famous archers, e.g. the one about shooting down some dinner and resigning directly after, and all the descriptions make you feel like you are right there. You immediately understand the honor, duty and tradition of the archery profession.

I also quite liked the short aside of how the 雪荷派 name came to be. Funny that at that time somene decided something was important enough to just give it some silly new name and everyone went along with it. (reminds me of some happenings in recent times :eyes: )

I think I like the father so far. Altough the last few sentences of chapter 2 indicate he and 左近 are sheming something. I’m interested in what exactly they are planning. Some kind of meeting during the 御前試合, but for what purpose.

I’m not too sure on the sisters relationship for now. They are just too different. But I did feel kinda sad for the younger sister that was looking forward to the meeting and actually seems to think fondly of 樋口 as well. Her older sisters apology for interfering in the 縁談 talks wasn’t even sincere :frowning: .

I’ll be honest, when reading the synopsis I thought we would follow much more the POV of 伊也 but it seems more like we will follow the whole 有川 family unit as a whole.

I’m kinda lucky for my 2 weeks of vacation at the moment. I’ll for sure be able to follow the first 3 weeks. I question if I can keep up with the pace after that, though. Time will tell if I get more comfortable with the word choices in that time frame.

4

Yes, I thought these first two chapters did well in setting things up and giving us a taste of what I suspect will be the main themes of the story: archery, romance and intrigue.

Yes, 伊也’s behaviour was definitely not fair on 初音. But I think it’s a little harsh to say her apology wasn’t sincere – I think it was sincere (given she isn’t somebody who makes a habit of apologising), just that her feelings of sympathy for her sister weren’t why 伊也 was feeling emotionally worked up at that point.