Liner Notes

Volume 15: Firefly's Wish

• iseebi, tai, unagi- Lobsters (ise-ebi), sea bream (tai), and freshwater eel (unagi) are seafood that often symbolizes a festive occassion in Japan, especially lobsters and uncut sea bream (more on that later).
  
  
• dosu- A dagger. It usually refers to the type in the wooden sheath -- you know, the one that in modern day you often see yukuza guys carrying around to chop off fingers and such.
  
  
• Mago Ni Mo Ishou- Mago (written horse-child) is the driver of a pack of horses. So literally, this turns out to be "A costume even for a pack of horse drivers" with the implied sentence-ending "makes them look good." This proverb means that anyone can look good with the right outfit/makeup.
  
  
• kenki- I don't think I did this justice the first time around. The concept of "chi" is always hard to describe - it's something that resembles someone's living/breathing presence. In the case of "sword chi," which I said as "sword spirit," it's the chi that you get from a swordsman with his sword drawn - more like something that you feel both from the swordsman and his sword. Or something like that...
  
  
• Jinrikisha- Literally translated, it's a "human-powered car."
  
  
• Aritomo Yamagata- I totally forgot to cover him in Vol 1. In real life, Yamagata (1838-1922) was the first that created the Japanese national army (which got disbanded in WWll). He had tremendous political power as well as military power, and he was one of the higher-ups during the war between Japan and the Soviets. He also served as Prime Minister at some point as well.
  
  
• Kenwadan- The "First Harmony Group" just didn't read right to me in the subtitles.
  
  
• zouri- Japanese sandals that can be made from many materials including straw, tree bark, and leather. The difference between a zouri and a waraji (Vol. 13) is that you have to tie down a waraji (like Soujirou was doing), while a zouri is a slip-on like beach thongs.
  
  
• Nata-Nata- A sound effect that I take to mean as a slow poke, usually used when extremely fat characters walk in their slow gait..And that's probably why Sanosuke thought it was appropriate for the overly lazy dog.
  
  
• Zen wa isogeu- "Good should hurry." Basically, do good things right when you feel like doing them and don't wait. Sometimes this proverb is followed by "aku wa nobeyo." -- in other words, "delay evil."
  
  
• Atama ni hana go saita- Though I translated it as "losing your marbles," literally it means "flowers bloomed in your head." In any case, Yahiko is asking whether or not Karou has finally lost it because all she was doing in the preview (so far) was chuckling (and daydreaming about her married life with Kenshin.)
  
  
• Tanabata- Tanabata is a festival day like the festival for girls (momo no sekku AKA hinamatsun, March 3) and the festival for boys (tango no sekku AKA kodoma no hi, May 5) in which Altair and Vega can be seen across the Milky Way from each other and thus people go out and watch the stars. Altair (Hikoboshi) and Vega (Orihime) even have human counterparts with the romantic "they only see each other once a year" story as a bedtime tale. This holiday celebrated since the Hora era (710-794) but it really caught on among the general populace in the Edo era (1600-1867). The festival itself involves an offering made in the garden and putting up a bamboo tree with tanzaku (sheets of colored paper) with short poems as decorations in hopes of improving one's poetic skills. In modern day Japan, the tradition remains in a different way --nowadays, you write your wishes and put them up in hopes of them coming true.
  
  
• Kasutera- Correct spelling is "Castilla." A relatively dense sponge cake made usually made with flour, sugar, eggs, and millet jelly. It is said that the origin is a sponge cake baked in Spain's Castilla region that was imported into Nagasaki by Potugese merchants -- this is backed up by the fact that some of the best kasutera in Japan are made by companies based in Nagasaki.
  
  
• Ato wa na to nare yama to nare- "The rest can be fields or mountains for all I can care" would be how I would literally translate it. Basically, it means that you're going to give up and don't care what happens next.
  
  
• Okashira-tsuki- A fish that is "okashira-tsuki" is fully intact (i.e. it still has its head and tail - looks completely whole). A fish in this condition is usually used in holy sacrifices and to celebrate special occasions (such as New Year's Day). Considering that the sea bream (= tai) is a relatively expensive (high class) fish in Japanese society for some reason I don't know of, "tai no okashira-tsuki" (i.e. a completely intact sea bream) is a very special dish in Japanese feasts.
  
  
• konnyaku- Though I said "yam cake" its actually a curdlike cake made from the starch of a "konjak," known to most western-speaking nations as "devil's tongue" though I don't think most western-speaking nations use it as a food source. In any case, konnyaku is basically tasteless (as illustrated by the various "konnyaku-based jelly" health foods) and is low in calories (and thus often used as diet food), often used in traditional Japanese stews and hot-pot dishes. It's very blueberry.
  
  
• Kenga no koumyou- "A wonderful incident from an accident." Basically this proverb points to something that was done in error that provided something good to happen as a result when you least expect it. In our case, Sanosuke is pointing this out as Kenshin getting punched (the accident) leads to the ring coming off of Kaoru's hand (the good incident.)