(鑑賞物として接したい)
I’m afraid I just don’t understand what this sentence is saying. This should be on the first page of the chapter.
それだけでい一枚の絵のようである。天というものは、人に人非ざる美を与えることもあるのだから罪深いものだ。
The bolded feels like it should be at least a part of a set phrase or something, but I don’t think I was able to find anything that quite matched it.
いいように使おうとも、まったく効力がない。
This is after 壬氏 is thanking the 女官 for letting him borrow his office. What is the いいように referring to here? The rest of the sentence seems to be referring to the power of 壬氏’s smile/face.
ちょいと御手水に行こうものなら、四半時は必要となる。
So the furigana given for the bolded is さんじゅっぷん, which makes sense with the sentence, but I’m curious how 四半時 matches with that. Research tells me that 四半 would mean a quarter of something (side note: how does 四半 = one quarter?), so 四半時 should be 15 minutes, right? How does that square with さんじゅっぷん?
作っている最中、暇人宦官が来て自分のも作れと言ってきた。
So just to be clear here, is this a random eunuch(s) who happen to be free, or 壬氏?
意匠が派手なのに服に着られることがないのは、玉葉妃だからであろう。
So I’m pretty sure I understand the gist of this sentence: 玉葉 can pull off the normally-flashy ensemble because she’s her, but the more I try to break down the sentence to reach that meaning the more tangled up I get. 意匠が派手なのに (Even though the design was flashy) + 服に着られることがないのは (the fact that she hadn’t worn the clothing before?) + 玉葉妃だからであろう (probably because it was 玉葉妃).
She wants to interact with him as if he was just a decorative object. That comes from her making a long comparison with other things that have only decorative values (for instance jewelry). Basically, he should just look pretty and shut up. Sadly, he is broken (from her point of view), so that only leaves him with “shut up”.
(You had a typo in the first sentence, but that’s irrelevant). Yes, that’s from 人に非ざる(なり). Sadly the author put one 人 too many, but it still means “beyond the real of humans/otherworldly” (beauty, in this case).
“As (ように) you are told (いい, that is, 言い)”
He is thinking that women should be like that (like the 後宮長). (His smile) should be enough to have them do as he says. But it doesn’t work at all (on 猫猫). He is then wondering if his look is just not that good.
That’s because you don’t know the old time unit 一時 which is equal to 2 hours (one day being 12 units to match the Chinese zodiac). We talked about it with seanblue (no tag because that would be spoilers) during week 3.
1/4 of 2 hours is 30 minutes. The furigana are here to help the majority of people who do not know (or remember about) that unit.
壬氏. And the 従者 mentioned in the next sentence is of course 高順.
The fact that the clothes aren’t wearing her.
When you are wearing clothes that are too flashy/too high in social status for you, the clothes are the one wearing you.
Ah, excellent, thank you as always @Naphthalene! Lots of good facts here; 一時 being two hours in particular is very interesting. I need to up my smack-talking radar for these 壬氏 pop-up sentences, haha; if he and 猫猫 are in a scene together, she’s probably thinking something rude. XD
So fun fact: I believe this is the first time I’ve seen その + number.
Ch. 16 Qs
おそらく、後宮内で華やかさにおいて壬氏に見劣りしないのは、玉葉妃くらいだろう。
So between 壬氏 and 玉葉, this sentence is saying that 玉葉 doesn’t actually lose to 壬氏 in the obviously gorgeousness department?
唇とまなじりに紅を入れているだけであとはすっぴんだ。化粧のうちに入らないだろう。
I’m familiar with Vない + うちに (before verbing, before verb happens); is this a case of that, but just flipped, or is there a different meaning?
（あー、適当にはいはい言っとけばよかったかな）
What point of grammar is the っとけ?
娼館の一部屋、道に面するところに薬局を構えているため、変わった趣向の針見世だと勘違いされることもあった。世の中、色物を好む輩も少なくない。
So these sentences come as 猫猫 is explaining to 壬氏 why she paints her face with freckles. I’m afraid the first sentence I just can’t understand. The 色物 afterwards I can tell is euphemistic for something, but I’m not sure what due to my difficulty with the sentence before.
今さらどうでもよくなったわけだが、いきなり素顔になるのも時機がわからず、そのままでいただけにすぎない。
Is the highlighted supposed to be いた + だけ + にすぎない, or いただけ + にすぎない?
為政者に完璧を求めるのは無意味だと猫猫はわかっている。
What’s the meaning of the highlighted? Is 為政者 referring to 壬氏 or someone/something else?
売ったらそれなりの値になるだろう。
The thing’s selling price being referred to here is the 簪 that 壬氏 gave 猫猫. I’m supposing that the hairpin would fetch a nice price if she sold it, but I’m not 100% sure what that bolded is doing there, or how it works.
Despite all the questions, I had a pretty good time with this chapter. I’m pretty much constantly on the lookout for potential hints of romance, so this chapter was very good to me.
Well, just in the gorgeousness department, but yes, and that it’s just (くらい) her. Even 梨花 isn’t good enough, I guess.
(Not part of your questions, but I love the juxtaposition of 高順 saying 猫猫 has an insolent look and her point of view where she says she is careful to contain her expression… what would it be if she did not… )
It’s not a grammatical structure. It’s literally what it says (what she did doesn’t enter the realm of make up).
It’s the contraction of っておけ. 言っておけば in this case.
I’m not sure if she is saying that out loud, since it’s just narration but anyway, she is indeed explaining her situation. Her 薬局 (well, the one of her おやじ) is actually part of a brothel (as in, it is part of the building) but the entrance is separate and connects directly to the street. 変わった趣向の張見世 (careful, you had a typo here ;)): a weird harimise (a place to display prostitutes)
勘違いされることもあった: it has been confused with. (So, by extension, she would have been confused for a prostitute by being there). The next sentence just says that there are people with weird “tastes” (since they find 猫猫 attractive… that being said, despite all her affirmations, external points of views kinda point towards her being actually attractive without the freckles and stuff).
That one. She just remained like that, with no particular reason beyond inertia.
“Requesting perfection from the lawmakers/rulers.” She believes it’s not possible, so there’s no point in requesting it.
“Rulers” include him here, due to his attitude.
It’s just それなり (fair) の 値(price). Like, it would fetch a fairly good price.
I do not have time to finish the chapter right now, I’ll finish later today.
Thanks for the non-tag before. I’m still not quite following this, so I wanted to follow up.
Definition of 一時:
昔の時間の単位。今の約2時間。
Definition of 半時:
一時 (いっとき) の半分。現在の約1時間。
Following typical modern Japanese patterns (e.g. 五分 = 5 x 分 = 5 minutes), I would expect 四半時 to be 4 x 半時 = about 4 hours. Now, given that I know the answer (that it’s 30 minutes) I can work backwards to the fact that 四半 should be treated as 1/4 here, but can 四半 be used this way in general or just in this case? Can I generalize it to things like 三半, 八半, etc.? It seems like in modern Japanese, people would say 四分の一 or something along those lines rather than 四半, but maybe I’m mistaken on that.
I’ve only read chapter 15 so far, but it had an absurd amount of fake furigana. I don’t know if I can explain how much I hate this. When I read a free copy of the first volume of 約束のネバーランド years ago, this type of furigana was a major reason I decided to not read subsequent volumes (besides the fact that it was boring after the first chapter).
This same thing shows up on the first page of the whole book.
You can use it in general. I’ve heard 四半世紀 (25 years) and 四半斤 (~150g). 四半 has its own entry in the dictionary too.
I don’t think so. At the very least, I can’t find anything about those. I feel like 四半 was imported from Chinese back in the Olden Days™ rather than just following a pattern like 3分の1
Yes. I’ve only seen 四半 used as part of a word rather than standalone. It’s definitely dated.
(one day being 12 units to match the Chinese zodiac). We talked about it with seanblue (no tag because that would be spoilers) during week 3.
The narrative tone is great as well. 
I’m still not quite following this, so I wanted to follow up.