They finally got me - I checked the English to see if Yuru’s fake surname was a mix of Hana’s and Dera’s like I thought, and it’s not (just Hana’s surname)! I just couldn’t find a translation for バレ(barred? forbidden?). Looks like I also got Left’s line 追われるより追う方が性に合っている way wrong - that one was tough.
This week’s reading covers up to just after the four-minute mark of the anime’s fourth episode.
Oof, this one’s a wordy one.
One of the things I love about this series is the specific things that Yuru is astounded by in the modern world, and how much he just takes in stride. The guy’s not stupid, just sheltered - he might not know what a flush toilet is, but once the concept has been explained to him, he can use it just fine. (Gotta say, though, while I’ve certainly heard the concept of “turn the lights off when you leave a room”, I can’t say I’ve often heard it applied to public toilets.)
Page 151, so, four hundred years ago puts the events described in the early 1600s, and for anyone somewhat familiar with Japanese history, that should be ringing some bells - 1603 marks the Siege of Osaka, considered by most to be the last stage of the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate and the final end of the Warring States period.
Right’s passing mention of an earlier war involving the north and south could either be a reference to the Nanboku-cho Period of the mid 1300s, which followed the Kenmu Restoration and lead to the establishment of the Muromachi Shogunate, or else (he said, with less confidence), the Genpei War of the late 1180s, which lead to the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate.
Page 158, fourth panel, 石, even though it’s spelt “stone”, was a measure of volume used for rice, approximately 180 litres, considered the amount of rice that would feed one person for a year. In the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was also used as a measure of the production capacity of land governed by daimyo - each daimyo would be assigned territory of with specific koku amount by the Shogun. The more koku you had, the more prestige. 10,000 was considered the lower bound for being a daimyo, and aside from the Shogun’s personal holdings, the largest ever recorded was the Maeda Clan’s Kaga Domain, with around 1,025,000 koku.
Page 159, I probably don’t need to mention this, but 群玉県 is a portmanteau of 群馬県 and 埼玉県. I wondered if it was a real word meant to describe that whole area in the same vein of 京阪神 for the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe region, but the only other usage of the term that Google’s coming up with is a racing game called JDM: Japanese Drift Master. It’s available on Steam.
This is clearly the start of a new scene - why not end a page earlier?
At long last, all the mysteries have been made clear.
I’m pretty sure most or all of the Tsugai pairs reference either some part of Japanese folklore (yokai especially) or else an aphorism or yojijukugo.
Also, the individual names are generally related, too, at least to each other. Hana’s pair, 虎鉄 and 二郎, are both the names of ramen restaurant chains.
