Glossary

== A ==
Adauchi - Revenge killing. It was accepted practise in the Edo period to kill the person who had killed one's lord or relatives. If the case was strong, the authorities would turn a blind eye to the killing.
Adauchi shamenjô -
Anego -
annya - A working prostitute. There was a thriving sex industry in Edo-period Japan, and scores of different words to describe the different varieties of sex workers.
ashigaru - A foot soldier in the employ of a daimyô. Lowest of the warrior ranks.
== B ==
bakkaku - The goverment.
ban - A local policeman, much like a sheriff.
bangashira - Commander of the guard. Each han had a standing guard - the ban - of samurai to protect the lord and castle. The ô-bangashira was the supreme commander of the guard, the general of the han army.
bantô -
Benten - One of the seven gods and goddesses of good fortune popular among the common people, a folk version of Buddhist Boddhisatva, a manifestation of one aspect of the Buddha's nature. In this case, a boddhisatva of mercy and compassion, usually depicted as female.
bôhachi, kutsuwa - The Japanese Yakuza specialise in different underworld activities, gambling and protection scams to prostitution. Bôhachi and kutsuwa were Edo-period terms for yakuza dealing in organized prostitution.
bokutô - a wooden practice sword.
bôzu -
bu - Approximately 3 millimetres.
bugi - The martial arts, the arts of war. Restricted to the samurai class under the Tokugawa shogunate's strict social controls.
buke - A samurai household.
bushi - A samurai. A member of the warrior class.
bushidô - The way of the warrior.
== Currency ==
cho - Old unit of measurement. Approximately 109 metres (119 yards).
crucifiction -
currency - mon - A copper coin.
kan - A bundle of 1000 mon.
monme - A silver piece.
ryô - a gold pice, worth 60 monme or 4 kan.
== D ==
dai-metsuke - Chief inspector. The supreme inspector of the shogunate, the Herbert Hoover of the Tokugawa power structure.
daikan - The primary local representative of the shogunate in territories outside of the capital of Edo. The daikan and his staff collected taxes owed to Edo and oversaw public works, agriculture, and other projects administered by the central government.
daikansho - The office of the daikan.
daimyô - A feudal lord.
danzai - The samurai's right to put to death anyone who insulted their honor.
deiri - A fight between rival yakuza gangs. From their clothes, speech, and greetings, it is clear that the house of Jizô are yakuza. In the Edo period, yakuza were a common part of the landscape, running houses of gambling and prostitution. As long as they did not overstep their bounds, they were tolerated by the authorities, a tradition little changed in modern Japan.
dono - A term of respect for a higher ranking official or aristocrat. A more common term of respect among civilians is sama, indicating more respect than the most common san.
dôtanuki - A battle sword, literally, "sword that cuts through torsos."
== E ==
Edo - The capital of medieval Japan and the seat of the shogunate. The site of modern-day Tokyo.
== F ==
The Forty-Seven Ronin - In one of the most famous stories in Japanese history, forty-seven loyal retainers of a lord forced to kill himself because of the schemes of an enemy dedicated their lives to avenging him before commiting ritual suicide at his grave.
fudai -
fudasashi -Merchant houses specialising in rice. They loaned gold to han governments, loans secured by the han's projected rice revenues.
funai -
== G ==
"Gaté gaté paragaté parasamgaté" - The closing mantra of prajnaparamita Hridadaya, The Heart of Perfect wisdom Sutra, one of the central texts of zen Buddhism. The sutra is in Sanskrit, and is chanted today in Zen temples around the world.
giyaman - From the Portugese "diamente," or diamond, the tool used to make cut-glass containers.
go-daishi-biraki -
go-dô -
go-inkyo -
go-yo -
go-yô - Literally, "official business." Police and posses carried "go-yo" lanterns when searching for criminals, identifying themselves as law enforcers. A shouted "Go-yo!" could be the Edo equivalent of "Halt! Police!" for a metsuke, or "Make Way!" for an official procession.
gomen - "Forgive me."
gozumezu - The horse-and-ox headed demons of meifumado.
gundai -
gundai kansho -
== H ==
haiku -
han - A feudal domain.
hannayatô -
hansatsu -
hanshi - Samurai in the service of a han.
haori - Half-coats.
hatamoto - Daimyô considered utterly loyal to the ~Tokugawa clan, with the right to meet the shôgun face to face. Their title, "standard bearers," came from history, when the warriors who would be promoted in peacetime to hatamokoto had been the most trusted allies of Tokugawa Ieyasy, the first of the Tokugawa shöguns.
hikyaku -
hina - Elaborate dolls, traditionally displayed in the spring for the Girl's Day festival.
Ando Hiroshige -
Hokurikuro -
hollyhock crest - Each samurai family had a family crest considered synonymous with the clan itself. The Tokugawa clan crest was a three-leafed hollyhock. To point one's sword toward the shogun's crest was to point your sword toward the shogun himself, an unforgivable act of treason.
honjin -
hôzuki -
honmaru - The Large, central keep of a Japanese castle.
== honorifics ==
- Japan is a class and status society, and proper forms of address are critical. Common markers of respect are the prefixes o and go, and a wide range of suffixes. Some of the suffixes you will encounter in Lone Wolf and Cub:
chan - for children, young women and close friends
dono - archaic; used for higher-ranked or highly respected figures
sama - used for superiors
san - the most common , used among equals or near - equals
sensei - used for teachers, masters, respected entertainers, and politicians
== I ==
Iga-yashiki - There were two main ninja clans in Japan, from the Iga and Kôga regions respectively. The ninjas served the shogunate. The Iga ninja served the shogunate. The Iga-yashiki (residence) was their base in Edo.
ihai - A Buddhist mortuary tablet. The death name of the deceased, given after they have passed away, is written on the tablet, which is kept at the family temple or altar. No-ihai were placed on the grave, uchi-ihai on household altars.
ikki -
== J ==
jigoku-tabi - Literally, "a journey to hell. When yakuza would go ask allies to help them in a fight.
jin -
jingi -
jitte-mon -
jizô - Local deities
jô -
jôdai - Castle warden. The ranking han official in charge of a daimyô's castle when the daimyô was spending his obligatory years in Edo.
johakyû -
juku - Way station. The major byways through Japan during the Edo period had way stations a day's walk apart with inns, tea houses, and other facilities for the traveller. The names of these old way stations still remain in many Japanese cities.
== K ==
kabuki -
kaiken - A dagger kept inside the kimono for self-defense. Common among the wives and daughters of samurai.
kaishaku - A second. In the rite of seppuku, a samurai was allowed death with honour by cutting up his own abdomen. After the incision was complete, the second would perform kaishaku, severing the samurai's head for a quick death. The second was known as a kaishakunin.
Kamigata -
kan - 
kannenbutsu - Literally, "cold prayers." There were many kinds of itinerant monks in Edo-period Japan, travelling the land as part of their religious discipline and relying on the handouts of the faithful. It was also a useful dishuise for those with more than religion on their mind. Kannenbutsu were known for their penance in the chill of the coldest nights.
Kannon - Buddhist goddess of mercy.
kansho -
Kantô -
karô - Elders, usually the senior advisor to a daimyô, the lord of a han. Since the daimyô was required to alternate each year between life in his castle in the han and his residence in Edo, the capital and the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was usually an Edo-karô (Edo elder) and a kuni-karô (han elder), who would administer affairs in Edo or in the han when their lord was away.
kasezue -
ken - Old unit of measure. Approximately five feet.
kenkyaku -
kenshiyaku - The shogunate official present at an execution to confirm the death of the person to be killed.
kimeban - Board on which prison rules were written.
kintaro -
kô -
kôgi go-yô - The shogun's business.
kogi kaishakunin -
kôgi kaishakunin - The Shogun's official executioner and kaishkunin (see kaishaku).
- The shogun's own second, who performed executions ordered by the shogun.
koku - 1. A bale of rice. The traditional measure of a han's wealth, a measure of its agricultural land and productivity.
2. standard time unit in the Edo period. Approximately two hours long, further sub-divided into three equal parts.
kômori - A bat.
Kongming - A famous general and tactician who lived during the warring states period in ancient China, born 181 A.D., died 234 A.D.
kubi -
kuramoto - Merchant houses. Under the Confucian social order imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, merchants ranked a lowly fourth in Japan's four-strata caste society. But, in fact, by the middle edo period the merchant class had gained tremendous wealth and power by managing the assets of the han and selling han rice and other products. Many han fell deeply into debt to the big merchant houses.
kurobiki, shubiki -
kutsuwa, bôhachi -
kyôjô-mochi -
== M ==
machi-bugyô - The Edo city commissioner, sombining the post of mayor and chief of police. A post held in monthly rotation by two senior Tokugawa vassals, in charge of administration, maintaining the peace, and enforcing the law in Edo. Their rule extended only to commoners.
mage -
makura-sagashi -Literally, a pillow searcher. A wandering thief who preyed on other travellers, stealing their valuables from under their pillows as they slept.
manji -
meido - The afterlife. The land after death. Believed to be a place of darkness. Only a few Buddhist sects described a division between heaven and hell.
meifumadô - The Buddhist hell. The way of demons and damnation.
Meireki -
metsuke - Inspector. A post combining the functions of chief of police and chief intelligence officer.
monme - Unit of currency. Worth 1/60th of a ryô gold piece.
mu - Nothingness. A crucial concept in Zen Buddhismm and a goal of all the martal arts. Clearing the mind of all extraneous thoughts and connections, to exist wholly in the moment, freed of all attachment to life and the worldound you.
mudra -
== N ==
Nagamaki - A two-handed spear-like weapon taller than a man, with a short shaft and a long, curved blade. Similar to the more common naginata, which had a longer shaft.
Nagashi-tôrô -
naginata - a two-handed weapon taller than a man, with a long, curved blade. The less-common nagamaki was similar with a shorter shaft and longer blade.
namu - From the Sanskrit "namas" : "take refuge in the Buddha." A common prayer for the dead.
namu amida butsu - One of the most common of all Buddhist chants, calling for mercy in the world to come.
nanban - Westerners were known as "southern barbarians," after the first traders reaching Japan from the south. By the Edo period, Portugese, Spanish, and Duth adventurers, traders and missionaries were active across Asia.
nô -
== O ==
o-bangashira -
ô-bangashira - The supreme commander of a han's standing guard (or ban) of samurai, charged to protect the lord and castle.
o-niwaban - "One in the garden." A ninja. The secret agents of the shogunate, heard but never seen.
ô-metsuke -
O-Sadamegaki - Short for Kujigata O-Sadaega, the concordance of shogunate laws, compiled in 1742.
obi - The often-arnate bolt of fabric used to tie a kimono closed.
Ogami Mountain - Mountain of the great gods. The Chinese characters are different from those used in Itto Ogami's own name, "to pray, to perceive, to see," but have a similar pronunciation. It is also a play on "okami," or "wolf."
ogamu - To pray.
onibôchô - "Demon knife."
Ôsaka Castle - The largest castle outside of Edo, originally built by Hideyoshi Toyatomi, the first unifier of Japan.
Ôta Dôgan - (1432-1486) Japanese military strategist and castle designer, a retainer of the Uesugi clan. He designed the original Edo castle.
oyabun -
== R ==
ri - Old unit of measurement. Approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 miles).
Rikudô Gofu - A talisman of the Six Paths. Used to curse on's enemies.
Rôjû - Senior councilors. The inner circle of councilors directly advising the shogun, the Rôjû were the ultimate advisory body to the Tokugawa shogunate's national government.
rôjû -
Rongo -
rônin - A masterless samurai. Literally, "one adrift on the waves." Members of the samurai caste who have lost their masters through the dissolution of han, expulsion for misbehaviour, or other reasons. Prohibited from working as farmers or merchants under the strict Confucian caste system imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, many impoverished rônin became "hired guns" for whom the code of samurai was nothing but empty words.
ryô - A gold piece.
ryû - Often translated as "school." The many variations on swordsmanship and other martial arts were passed down from generation to generation to the offspring of the originator of the technique or set of techniques, and to any deishi students that sought to learn from the master. The largest schools had their own dôjô training centres and scores of students. An effective swordsman had to study the different techniques of the different schools to know how to block them in combat. Many ryû also had a set of special, secret techniques that were only taught to school initiates.
== S ==
sai - The name of the riverbanks of the river Sanzu, that divides the land of the living from meido, the land of the dead. Legend has it that the souls of the dead children would pile rocks on the riverbanks of sai (sai-no-kawara) to pray for their parents.
Sado island -
Sakai - A famous trading port, now largely absorbed by the city of Ôsaka, but at the time the industrial powerhouse of Japan.
sakki - The palpable desire to kill, directed at another person. Sometimes called blood lust. Based on the concept of ki, or energy, found in spiritual practices and Japanese martial arts like Aikido. These body energies can be felt beyond the physical self by the trained and self-aware.
sakazuki -
Sakushû - A town in what is today Okayama prefecture.
sankin kôtai -
sanpin -
sanshita -
Sanzu-no-kawa - The river Sanzu, the Japanese equivalent of the river Styx. On their way to the afterlife, the dead must take boats across the river Sanzu.
satoiri ninja - Ninja in the sato (homeland). In addition to the ninja based in Edo, the shogunate placed ninja undercover in the various han of rival lords. These moles would monitor dissident han and gather evidence that could be used to blackmail or dissolve a han when it stepped out of line.
sengoku - The period of "Warring States" in Japanese history, which lasted from 1467 to 1615.
seisatsu yodatsu - Under the four-caste social system imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, the samurai class had the unquestioned right to kill thode in lower castes, often for the smallest of insults and infractions.
seppuku - The right to kill oneself with honour to atone for failure, or to follow one's master into death. Only the samurai class was allowed this glorious but excruciating death. The abdomen was cut horizontally, followed by an upward cut to spill out the intestines. When possible, a kaishakunin performed a beheading after the cut was made to shorten the agony.
shaba - Yakuza divided the world between the shima ("island"), the world of the Yakuza, and shaba, the normal world.
shaku -
shidô -
"Shikii-uchi gomen kômurimasu"
Shikyô -
shima - 1. The zone of death.
2. See shaba.
shinjû -
shinobi - Ninja. The yama-metsuke work undertcover, unlike the dai-metsuke in Edo.
shubiki, kurobiki -
sô-metsuke - another name for "ô-metsuke." The senior law-enforcement officer of the shogunate, reporting directly to the the rôjû senior councillors who advised the shogun.
sokushitsu -
suemono-giri -
sun -
Sun Tzu - The great 500 B.C. chinese military strategist, author of the classic Sun Tzu Bingfa ("The Art of War").
== T ==
Takama-ga-hara - A heavenly land of bounty in Japan's indigenous Shintô religion.
Takeda shido - Bushido, the way of the warrior. Takeda Shingen was one of the most feared warlords of the sengoku period of warring states that ended with the ascendancy of the Tokugawa. If he had not been felled by illness, Takeda, not the Tokugawa, might have unified Japan.
tenryô -
Tôkaidô - The most important of the Edo-era travel routes, connecting Edo with the "kamigata" region of Kyôto and Ôsaka. Now traversed by freeways and high speed "bullet" trains.
Tokugawa - The Tokugawa clan, the warlord family that unified Japan following its victory at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and ruled until 1867 from its castle in the city of Edo. The period is commonly known as the Edo period. The shogun was both the head of the Tokugawa clan and the head of the Tokugawa bakufu - the shogunate government - that ran bational policy and kept the often unruly han at heel.
tono - Lord, daimyô. Sometimes used as a form of address, as in tono-sama.
tôrô -
toseinin - Literally, "rootless one," one who travels the world. A euphemism for a wandering yakuza.
toshiyori -
Tsukada -
== W ==
Wajo - A term of respect for a high priest or the head of a temple.
Wakadoshiyori -Junior Councilors. The Tokugawa shogunate was a hybrid government, both a national government empowered by the emperor to govern the nation as a whole, and a daimyô government like that of any han. The council of wakadoshiyori junior councilors was the highest advisory body to the shogun on matters affecting the clan, rather than the nation as a whole.
== Y ==
yakuza - Japan's criminal syndicates. In the Edo period, yakuza were a common pert of the landscape, running houses of gambling and prostitution. As long as they did not overstep their bounds, they were tolerated by the authorities, a tradition little changed in modern Japan.
yoko-metsuke - A local inspoector, reporting up the chain of command to the o-metsuke in Edo.
== Z ==
zanbatô - The mythical horse-slicing stroke used by Ogami Ittō.
zankanjô - A confession. Vendettas were an accepted form of vigilante justice in the edo period. While the killers knew the penalty for their act was death, they could exonerate their reputations after death with a zankanjô explaining their actions.
zegen - Procurer. Prostitution was legal in the Edo period, and the procurer was an essential link in the chain. Impoverished rural families would sell daughters to zegen, who sold them in turn to urban brothels.