koban; small oval gold coin used in the Edo period; oval; elliptical; small size (of paper)
depreciation; decline; fall; slump
prices of commodities; prices (in general); cost-of-living
rise (in price or value); appreciation; advance
Tokai region of Honshu (incl. Aichi, Shizuoka, Mie and southern Gifu prefectures)
very great; enormous; serious
diversion; appropriation (e.g. of funds); misappropriation; re-use (e.g. old computer parts); recycling
agency; commission; reception (of guests); conveyance (of messages)
administration by close advisers; kitchen cabinet
shamisen; samisen; three-stringed Japanese lute
puppet operator; puppet manipulator; puppeteer
art; craft; accomplishment; artistic skill; technique; performance
to join; to be put together; to combine; to unite; to fit; to close (e.g. of a wound)
Japanese puppet theatre in which recited narrative and dialog is accompanied by a shamisen (forerunner of bunraku)
to swell; to rise; to bulge; to rouse; to get excited
Japanese puppet theatre (theater); bunraku
great (i.e. great-grandson, great-grandmother)
one's heart; the mind; inner feelings; inmost thoughts; true motives
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724)
one's youth; early life; one's early days; one's early years
high-ranking noh actor; head of a school of noh performance; high ranking courtesan (esp. in Yoshiwara) (Edo-period); jōruri narrator; manzai narrator; female role actor in kabuki; low ranking priest in a Shinto shrine
Kaga (former province located in the south of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture)
(arch.) sudden; (arch.) abrupt; (arch.) stupid; (arch.) foolish; attaining enlightenment in one effort (without ascetic practices, etc.)
raising an army; launching business
public performance; exhibition in a foreign country
performance (of a play, opera, etc.); staging; presentation
gidayū (type of reciting used in the puppet theater)
gidayū ballad drama (narrative accompanied by a shamisen used in the bunraku puppet theater)
to be popular; to come into fashion; to be prevalent; to spread widely (e.g. disease); to flourish; to thrive
present day; modern times; recent times; early modern period (in Japan, usu. from the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II)
very popular; highly favoured
double suicide; lovers' suicide
sewamono (Edo-period drama about contemporary life)
dramatization; dramatisation
exclusive; attached to; specialist
antique; historical object; pre-Meiji period drama; period piece