Commentaries

Ashura-chō 阿修羅帖 五 [第五卷]

(The Ashura Notebook, Volume 5), 1921

Japanese Transcripts and English Translations of Translated Commentaries for the Annotated Volume 5

Transcriptions of Translated Commentaries, Volume 5

Translation and transcription of Tsukamoto Yasushi's commentary on Sketch 401: Wilson Goes to France

Turn over the signboard (banner) of justice and humanity, and you'll find an anti-Japanese agitator.

— Juntei [followed by Arabic rendering of Tsukamoto]

正義人道の大看版裏を返せば排日屋

— 灌亭 توكاموتو

Translation and transcription of Sakai Toshihiko's commentary on Sketch 403: Ebert Falls, Liebknecht Rises

“E” or "L"*—the rise and fall of individuals is of little consequence. Though “L” was killed, the German Communist Party is steadily expanding its influence. And the Third International is on the verge of sweeping the world. Japan, however, is an exception. You may rest assured.

— Sakai Toshihiko

* "E" and "L" stand for Friedrich Ebert, head of Germany’s provisional government, and Karl Liebknecht, a founder of the German Communist Party.

エといひ、リといひ、個人の興亡は大した問題でない．リは殺されたが独逸共産党は着々として勢力を長ばしている。そして，第三インターナショナルが世界を風靡しかけている。但し、日本は外だ。御安心あるべし。

— 堺利彦

Translation and transcription of Yasugi Sadatoshi's commentary on Sketch 408: Lenin Is Captured, Bound, and Imprisoned

Though their colors may differ, black and red, why would foxes from the same den ever quarrel?

The Great Powers, unable though they wish to slay the demon, are perhaps [watching] a fixed losing sumo match for Trotsky.

— March 1921, Yasugi Sadatoshi

黑と赤いろはかはれど 同穴の狐がなんで喧嘩 しやうぞ

鬼退治したくも出來ぬ 列國は負けた相撲をト ロツキイかな

一九二一年三月 八杉貞利

Translation and transcription of Song Byung-jun's commentary on Sketch 417: King Yi Is Dead

The colors of Mount Cangwu*

— Song Byung-jun

*A poetic allusion to the death of a monarch. Cangwu is the mountain where the legendary Chinese Sage-King Shun is said to have died and been buried during a tour of his southern territories. 

蒼梧山色

— 宋秉畯 

Translation and transcription of Itō Chūta's commentary on Sketch 418: The Five Great Powers Confer on Peace Terms

USA: “We are not the masters of the people, but their servants.”

UK: "Indeed." 

France: "Quite so."

Italy: "Is that so?……”

Japan: "..." (Silence)

— Chūta

米

「我々は國民の主人にあらずしてその臣僕で御座るぞ

英

「なる程

佛

「御だ

伊

「ヘー……

日

「……

— 忠太

Translation and transcription of Hasegawa Seiya's commentary on Sketch 420: The Former German Crown Prince Becomes an Employee of an Automobile Company

He had fancied himself destined for “a place in the sun,”

but instead, he has tumbled into a most unlikely place.

Still, it is less backbreaking than being in the blacksmith’s shop.

And once one has sunk to this point,

there will probably be no one left

to reproach him for once mouthing

grand phrases like "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

That is some comfort, at least,

though dealing with the aftermath of all the “Donnerwetter!”

is enough to make one despair.

(Based on the former Crown Prince’s speech)* 

— Hasegawa Tenkei

*Hasegawa appears to have extracted the three quotes from the former Crown Prince's writings and speeches, though they did not originate with him. The phrase "a place in the sun," was famously coined by German Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow and later used by Kaiser Wilhelm II regarding German colonialism and Germany's "rightful" place as an imperial power. "Dulce et decorum..." is a classical line from Horace’s Odes, used widely as World War I patriotic shorthand. Finally, "Donnerwetter!" is a common German exclamation that appears throughout the Crown Prince's own writings. 

a place in ths [sic] Sun の積りでゐた

ところが、とんだ場所へ落込んで

しまった、しかし鍛治屋にゐるよ

りも骨は折れない、また。此處ま

で成り下ると、曾つて Dulce et
decorum est pro patria mori と大

言壯語したことも敢て咎める人も

あるまいから安心だが、Donner
wetter の後始末には閉口する

(前皇太子の演説を基として)

— 長谷川天溪

Translation and transcription of Aoyagi Atsutsune's commentary on Sketch 422: The Chinese Delegation Gets Carried Away

Wearing hakama like that, when it doesn’t suit them in the least—what a joke. Though they do nothing but squabble among themselves, they still seem to think, ‘Well, we’ve got a ridiculously useful old gentleman backing us, one who’s very good for our purse.’ They’d better watch their step a little. Yet all the while they shrink into themselves and mutter under their breath, ‘That bow-and-beg policy comes before everything else—we can’t abandon it, not even for some fool’s life …’ Well, well.” 

— Aoyagi Atsutsune

柄にもねえ袴なんかつけやがって

チャンチャラ可笑しいや。始終内

輪揉めばかりしてやがるくせに、

から見えたつてこちとらにはふと

ころ都合の馬鹿にいゝおぢさんが

ついてるんだ。少しは足元に氣をつけろい

ハ―公のいのちにはかへられぬ

拝み倒し主義が、何より……と
口の内身を縮めて

マア〈〈

— 靑柳篤恒 

Translation and transcription of Andō Masazumi's commentary on Sketch 424: The Question of the Abolition of Racial Discrimination

"The Three Realms are mine, and all the sentient beings within them are my children."*

— Andō Tecchō

*taken from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3, Parables

三界は我有也

その中の衆生は皆我子也

— 安藤鐵腸 

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 425: Draft Covenant of the League of Nations Completed

Within no-thingness is an inexhaustible treasury; there are flowers, there is the moon, there are towers and terraces.*

— Sojinkan [seal]

*A Buddhist-themed verse attributed to Su Shi, a Chinese Song Dynasty literatus and official. 

無一物中無盡藏

有花有月有樓臺

— 楚人冠 [印]

Translation and Transcription of Watanabe Tetsuzō's commentary on Sketch 432: America's China Policy Plan

Chinese Cuisine:

If you get in our way,

you “Jap”—you Japanese hungry ghost—

we’ll first cook you in the Pacific.

— Tetsuzō

支那料理

邪魔立てすれば

日餓鬼[ジャップ]めを

 大平洋に

先づ料理せむ

— 鐵藏

Translation and transcription of Ogawa Heikichi's commentary on Sketch 433: The Forty-First Diet

One battle — the treacherous ringleaders are toppled;

 A second battle — the enemy's courage runs cold;

 A third battle — the time is drawing near;

Our officers and men, hair bristling against their helmets in righteous fury.

When shall all under heaven be settled?

Then with a gallon of wine I’ll drown my pent-up feelings.

Third month of Shin'yū [1921], copied from an old composition,

—  Ogawa Heikichi signing as Shazan

一戰倒姦首

再戰敵膽寒 

三戰期在近 

將士髪衝冠 

何當定天下

斗酒澆胸肝

辛酉三月録旧作

— 射山小川平吉

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 434: Japan Is Excluded

If I need something, I will clap my hands.

— So[jinkan]

用があつたら
手を
鳴らし
ます

— 楚[人冠]

Translation and transcription of Hoshijima Nirō's and Kiyose Ichirō's commentary on Sketch 435: Radical Thought

If by ‘radical thought’ one means Bolshevism, is it really something this frightening?

— Hoshijima Nirō

 After staring at this picture for several minutes, I do not feel it to be frightening in the least. I keep looking at it, thinking I might derive some sort of impression from it, but no feeling of fear arises at all. Indeed, perhaps what is called ‘radical thought’ may be something like this.

— Kiyose Ichirō

過激思想がボルセヴヰーキーと云ふ意味であればこんなに怖いものでしようか。

— 星島二郎 

此畫を凝視する事數分、少しも怖い様に思はぬ。何かの感興を得やうと考へ更に注視を續けるが、怖いといふ感は少しも起つて來ぬ、——蓋、過激思想といふものもこんなものかも判らぬ。 

— 淸瀨一郞

Translation and transcription of Ōyama Ikuo's commentary on Sketch 436: The Racial Equality Proposal Rejected: Japan Trampled Underfoot

What is truly frightening is international prejudice, but international prejudice is no more than the shadow of “nationalism.” Those who kick, and those who, having been kicked, burn with a desire for revenge—both alike are possessed by the demonic spirit called “nationalism,” are they not? What ought to be cursed is this evil god itself. And the henchmen of this demon are swarming in every country. Do not carelessly fall into their trap and let the demon stick out its red tongue in triumph.

Beware! Beware!

— Ōyama Ikuo

恐ろしいのは國際的偏見だが、國際的偏見は『國家主義』の影にすぎない。蹴る人も、蹴られて復讐心に燃える人も、共にこの『國家主義』といふ魔心に憑かれて居るのではないか？ 呪ふべきはこの魔神である。しかもこの魔神の手先はどこの國にもうよ〱するほどゐる。うつかり彼等の術中に落ちて魔神に赤い舌を吐かせないぞ。

御要心！ 御要心！

— 大山郁夫

Translation and transcription of Itō Chūta's commentary on Sketch 438: The True Intentions of the Great Powers

England: "I'd like to outmaneuver America."

America: "What an easily played bunch."

France: "Damn those British and Americans!" 

Italy: "As long as we get Fiume, that's plenty."

China: "There’s nothing like opportunistic plundering amid the chaos."

Japan: "We knew how this would go from the very start."

— Chūta

英　「米を出し抜てやりたいものだ

米　「興じ易い連中だ

佛　「英米の畜生めが

伊　「フューンが取巻くば澤山だ

支　「火事泥主義に限る

日　「ドーセ始から分つて居る

— 忠太

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 439: The Peace Conference

Which morsel of meat?

— Sojinkan [seal]

との 一臠の肉 

— 楚人冠 [印]

Translation and transcription of Kinoshita Toshio's commentary on Sketch 440: The Siberian Railway Management Issue

Old Man America [Uncle Sam] speaks:

"Thanks for all your hard work! But this is quite enough for your share. Even if I went to the trouble of giving you the choice cuts—the head or the torso—you wouldn't be able to digest them anyway."

It was a classic case of "great pains, no gains"—laboring in vain. What mocking treatment from Old Man America! For a time, "Sunrise Taro" [Hinode Tarō] (a satirical stand-in for Japan) was choked with tears of grief and indignation.

However, looking back now, it turns out this was actually a stroke of luck. Had he clumsily accepted the head or the body of the fish, given the recent indecisive and half-baked political climate, Japan’s railway experts would have been at a total loss on how to "cook" such a dish.

Not only would the bones and meat have been reduced to a total mess, but eventually, there would have been no choice left but to inflict deep wounds upon both the people and the nation itself.

March 10, 1921

— Kinoshita Toshio

米爺の日く

『御苦勞〱。だがお前の分け前は これで澤山だ。胴身や頭では折角 遣ってもお前にはこなし切れまい』 

骨折り損の草臥れまうけ。サテモ馬鹿 にした米爺の仕打と。日の出太郎は一 時悲憤の涙に咽んだものゝ。今となっ ては結局之が仕合せ。なまじ胴身や頭 を貰うて然も近頃の不徹底な風向では 日本の鐵道家も料理の仕方に困らう。 骨も肉も滅茶〱にして仕舞はなけれ ばならないばかりか。やがてその身そ の國を傷くるの外はあるまい。 

大正十年三月十日 

— 木下淑夫

Translation and transcription of Sakai Kuraki's commentary on Sketch 443: Germany Is Summoned to the Peace Conference

The Kaiser— As sad as a weeping willow, The peony flower.

— a senryū by Kuraki　

カイゼルや水楊かなし 牡丹花

　の川柳　久良岐

Translation and transcription of Fukuchi Nobuyo's commentary on Sketch 445: Mei Lanfang Arrives

All beings, blinded by illusion , see only madness in the flowers; as they bloom and fade, their affliction worsens . Realizing the garland is not their true self , they might as well play among the masters

Written by Mei Lanfang

Whence does such a celestial flower come from

— Fukuchi Nobuyo

衆生眼病見狂華

發華殘病轉加悟

得華鬘非我相不

妨遊戲浄名家

梅蘭芳書

似此天花從何而來

— 福地信世 

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 446: Italy Withdraws from the Alliance

Orlando of Italy is throwing a massive tantrum. France tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. Britain was left dumbfounded. America stuck out its tongue. Japan is thinking "Huh?" and "What?" quite a lot. This is a perfect example of the saying, "A fool’s deliberation is like taking a nap."

— Sugimura

イタリーのオルランドー大に
ダゞをこねる。フランスがとめ
て見たが應じない。イギリスは
あつけに取られた。アメリカは
舌を吐いた。日本はハテナ〱
と大分考へてんだ。下手の考休
むに似たりとは是だ。

— 杉村

Translation and transcription of Kamio Mitsuomi's commentary on Sketch 447: The Qingdao Question

We paid the sacrifice

and took what we gained —

what are you babbling about,

you blind fools? 

I ask you, do not disgrace the mission!

— parodic inscription by Mitsuomi

Kamio [seal]

犠牲拂ふて

取りたるものを

何にを抜かすか

この瞎漢

請君莫辱使命

— 光臣狂題

神尾 [印]

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 449: Wilson the Kaiju (Strange Beast)

Three faces and six arms*

— So[jinkan]

*The idiom 三面六臂 derives from Buddhist iconography of multi-faced, multi-armed deities, especially Ashura, and figuratively denotes extraordinary capacity or tireless activity. 

面 面 面

臂 臂 臂

臂 臂 臂

— 楚[人冠]

Translation and transcription of Honda Seiroku's commentary on Sketch 450: Wilson's Ideals

China
"The backing is appreciated, but if you lift and push me up that much, my neck will be in danger." 

Japan
"It is cruel to trample us down just like you did with Italy."

France
"If you stretch your hand out that far, I have no choice but to fall backward."

Britain
“Let us wait until
the Red Ogre wears himself out from rampaging.”

— Seiroku

支那 尻押ハ有リ難イガソー持上テ押シテハ首ガアブナイ

日本 伊太利ト同ジニ踏ミ付ケルノハヒドイ

佛 ソー手ヲ延バサレテハ後ロニ倒レルヨリ仕方ガナイ

英 赤鬼ガアバレクタビレル迄待タウ

— 靜六

Translation and transcription of Tagawa Daikichirō's commentary on Sketch 451: Tokyo City: A Hell of Screams, Struggle, and Scorching Misery

There is a proverb that says, “Pray for something as large as a staff, and receive only something as small as a needle.” For Japan to have a city in this condition as its foremost metropolis, and nonetheless still count itself among the so-called Five Great Powers of the World, must be a case of the exact opposite—praying for a needle and being granted a staff.

What a fortunate country. What an unfortunate citizenry.

— Tagawa Daikichirō

諺に棒ほど希うて針ほど叶ふ
といふことがある。日本がこん
なやうな都會を日本第一の都
會としてゐながら、それでも尚
所謂世界五大強國の一であり
得ることは、あべこべに針ほど
希うて棒ほど叶へられた類で
あらう。幸運な國である。不幸
な市民である。

—  田川大吉郞

Translation and transcription of Kanō Jigorō's commentary on Sketch 452: Japan-Italy Cooperation

As though brought together by chance, like drifting duckweed.

— Seishōan shujin

宛然萍逢

— 靜勝庵主人

Translation and transcription of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 453: Anti-Japanese Riots in Beijing

If you are going to give something anyway, it is best to give it without making them wait.

If, after making even a dog sit up and beg, you keep teasing and tormenting it in this way, even a dog is bound to become angry. And once it is angry, it coming to bite you is only a matter of course.

— So

どうせやるものならば
ぢらせずにやるが宜し、
ちん〳〵をさせてから
などいぢ〳〵いたし
居らば、犬でさへおこつ
てしまふべし。おこつた
ら噛みつきに来るは當
然の事なり。

— 楚

Translation and transcription of Kokubu Tanemori's commentary on Sketch 454: The Crown Prince’s Coming of Age

His radiant, sun-like bearing grows grander with his years;

His noble promise and firm resolve rise like a towering mountain.

Amid the fullness of lush spring, paulownia blossoms grace his capping ceremony,

As the imperial purple sun and auspicious clouds vie in radiant splendor,

We joyfully celebrate his coming of age. 

— Saitō

[top seal beneath signature] — Kokubu Tanemori

[bottom seal beneath signature] - Saitō

昭陽風度與齡
金岐嶷剛如仰岳
蓬春熟桐花加
紫日卿雲競彩
祝成年

— 犀東

國府種德[印]

犀東 [印]

Translation and transcription of Michiharu Mishima's commentary on Sketch 455: The Japanese, Habitual Practitioners of Racial Discrimination

— Mishima Shōdō

Since the racial equality proposal will be accepted or rejected by the great majority of influential white people, if one says that [the Japanese representative] therefore acts with elaborate courtesy toward those white people, then, from the perspective of the white people themselves, he must surely think he can find some excuse for his behavior: worshipping their fools and idiots alike, and fawning upon their thieves and fraudsters without distinction. Furthermore, he must surely think that the qualification and authority to stand as a representative of the colored races is obtained precisely by scorning and insulting his fellow people of color.

Rather than regarding it as an honor to have brought the racial equality proposal before the world stage — and then looking about him only to shoulder the disgrace of its failure — how many times more truly honorable would it be if he were first to abolish racial discrimination within his own heart, letting that heart shine with a full and satisfied love for all humanity?

While his mouth proclaims racial equality, to the right he snaps and bites, to the left he flatters and fawns.

— 三嶋章道 

人種無差別案は、大多数の有力なる白人 によりて採否されるが故に、それらの白 人に叮嚀になすなりと云はゞ、白人とし てみれば、馬鹿も白痴も崇拝し、泥棒も 詐欺にも阿諛せんとする彼の行動に、云 ひぬけが出来ると彼は思ふなるべし。而 して又、有色人種の代表たるの資格と權 威は、其同類の有色人種共を輕蔑侮辱す る事によりて得らるると、彼は思ふなるべ し。

人種無差別案を世界の舞臺に提出した る事を名譽と心得て四邊を顧りみて被 失敗の不名譽を荷はんより、先づ、彼 自身の心の中に人種差別を撤廢して、 人類的の愛に心を輝かし滿足せむこ と、そも幾倍の、眞の名譽ぞや。

その口に人種無差別唱つゝ、

右にかミ〳〵左にぺに〳〵

Translation and transcription of Uchimura Kanzō's commentary on Sketch 456: The Establishment of a Jewish Country

 In reply to your letter. There is an old poem which says:

“If one takes them up, they bring sorrow;
if one does not take them up, one is of no account.
The thing that ought to be cast away
is the bow and arrow.”

Thus, to win is a loss, and to lose is also a loss. What ought to be abolished is today’s military armament. I myself am an anti-war advocate. 

Respectfully,

June 23, Taishō 10 [1921]

— Uchimura Kanzō

拝復、古歌に有之と

取れば憂し取らねば物の數

ならず、捨つべき者は弓

矢なりけり

と、勝つも損、負けるも損、

癈すべき者は今日の軍備

に有之候、小生は非戦論者

に有之候、敬具 

大正十年六月廿三日

— 内村鑑三

Translation and transcription of Ubukata Toshirō's commentary on Sketch 459: Armenians Open Graves and Eat the Dead

Snakes live by swallowing frogs, and cats live by catching mice.
Only human beings live by making food of their own kind.

— Toshirō

蛇は蛙を呑み猫は
鼠を捕つて生きて
ゐる
唯人間ばかりは互
に同類を食物にし
て生きてゐる

— 敏郞

Translation and transcription of Funakoshi Mitsunojō's commentary on Sketch 461: Germany's Difficulty in Signing

To stamp the seal, yet unable to stamp it; unable to stamp it, yet having to stamp it.

— Isen

押すに
押されず
押されずに
押す

— 夷川

Translation and transcription of Tokutomi Iichirō's commentary on Sketch 463: The Breakup of Turkey

How pitiable is the moon, wandering aimlessly through the sky.

Now, like a fish on a cutting board (its fate lies in the hands of others.)

Year of Metal-Rooster (1921) Spring Day

— inscription by Sohō

可憐天迷月今作爼上魚

辛酉春日

— 蘇峯題

Note on the seals appearing in the commentary.

Upper right gourd-shaped seal reads fukeiken (不恵軒).

Lower left upper square-shaped seal reads i (豬).

Lower left bottom square-shaped seal reads sohō (蘇峰).

Translation and transcription of Tokugawa Iesato's commentary on Sketch 464: Tochigiyama Wins with a Perfect Record

A pillar of the contemporary sumo world

Early spring, Taishō 10, year of the Metal-Rooster (1921)

— Seigaku

現今斯界之重鎮

大正辛酉初春

— 静岳

Note on the seals appearing in the commentary.

Upper right, rectangular-shaped seal reads benevolence (keishō 惠昌)

Lower left, upper square-shaped seal reads Iesato (家逹)

Lower left, bottom square-shaped seal reads Tokugawa-shi (德川氏)

Translation and transcription of Suzuki Bunshirō's commentary on Sketch 466: Recognition of the Omsk Government

The ambassadors and envoys of the Allied Powers
rushed off to Omsk;
and the news of their recognition of the Omsk Government
rang out like a celebratory bell
for the restoration of the Russian Empire—
but only for a moment.

Snow-covered Siberia suddenly
turned blood-red and Bolshevik;
and Supreme Ruler Kolchak,
beneath the freezing skies of Irkutsk,
was stripped stark naked
and cruelly shot to death.

Having won, the Allied Powers had no further use for him;
they all withdrew from Siberia.
Yet what remains is the resentment of a hero
who died in defeat—
deeper and longer-lasting
than the waters of Lake Baikal
or the flow of the Angara River.

— Bunshirō

聯合國の大使等
オムスク〱へと駈けつけて
オムスク政府承認の報道は
露帝國復興の祝鐘の如く
響いたのも束の間

雪のシベリアは忽に
血みどリに赤化して
最高執政官コルチャックは
イルクーツクの寒天に
眞っ裸にされて銃[慘]殺さる

勝てば用なき聯合國
皆シベリアを引揚げたが
殘るは敗死の英雄の怨
バイカルの水アンガラの流れよりも
永へに深く長し

—文史朗

Translation and transcription of Oka Asajirō's commentary on Sketch 468: The Tragic Struggle for Survival

The slope that humanity is currently descending is a cliff on the left, impossible to climb; the right is a precipice, and there is no hope of survival should one fall. Down that path, many different peoples are descending as they push and shove against one another... 

(A passage from Monmon to Jiyū [Anguish and Freedom]) November, Taishō 8 (1919)

— Oka Asajirō*

*In November 1909, Oka wrote his theory of the decline and extermination of humankind in his essay "The Future of Humanity." Monmon to Jiyū, a collection of his essays, cited in the closing to his commentary above, would be published in 1921.

人類が今下りつゝある坂路は左は絶壁で攀ぢ登ることは出来ず、右は断岸で落ちれば助かる見込みは無い。其所を多くの異なつた民族が押し合ひながら下りて行く…

（「煩悶と自由」中の一句）

大正八年十一月

— 丘淺次郞

Translation and transcription of Hayashi Kiroku's commentary on Sketch 469: Anti-Japanese Riots in Shanghai

Though one brushes them away, the anti-Japanese flies will not depart — swarming on in confusion. What, in truth, is the meaning of it all?

Whether one knows it or not: someone who curses East Asia is secretly pulling the strings behind it, smiling quietly to himself alone.

Late Spring, Year of the Shin-yu (1921)

— Hayashi Kiroku

拂へども去り難き排日の蠅、紛々果して何の意ぞ

東亞を呪ふ者密に操りて獨り微笑せるを知るや知らずや

辛酉晩春

— 林毅陸

Translation and transcription of Itō Bunkichi's commentary on Sketch 470: A Dreadful State of Society

There is, in this world, many a "Chūbei-san" dearer than money — and yet there is also many a man who holds his money dearer than his own life. Such is the way of the world.

— Bunkichi

金より大事な

忠兵衛さんも

あれば

命より大事な

金を持つ

人もある

世の中なら

— 文吉

Translation and transcription of Itō Chūta's commentary on Sketch 472: The Question of Relief for the Middle Class

Translation and transcription of Terashima Seiichirō's commentary on Sketch 474: Peace Restored?

Races are born into inequality.
To make them equal
is the work of human power,
of wisdom, and of the heart.

— Kendō

人種ハ不平等ニ
生レ来レリ之ヲ平等
ニナスハ人ノ力ナリ智
ナリ心ナリ

— 乾堂

Translation and transcription of Narusawa Kinbei's commentary on Sketch 475: China Refuses to Sign

Weaklings are forever using their tails* to make themselves look strong.

— Reisen

* a demeaning reference to queue-wearing figure depicting China

よわむしは

とかくシッポで

強さをこね

— 玲川

Translation and transcription of Nagashima Ryūji's commentary on Sketch 476: Japan, Viewed with Jealousy by the Powers

The situation of the powers regarding our country with jealousy has reached its extreme in the attitudes of both the United States and China. The only way to reverse this situation is for us ourselves to completely renew our own mindset and practices.

— Nagashima Ryūji

我國二對スル列國嫉視ノ形勢ハ米支両國ノ態度ニ於テ共ノ極ニ達シタ此ノ形勢ヲ一轉スル途ニ我自ラノ心理竝形式シ一新スルノミデス。

— 長島隆二

Translation and transcription of Baba Tsunego's commentary on Sketch 477: Marquis Saionji Sets Out on His Return Journey

Our plenipotentiaries who attended the Paris Peace Conference had everything stripped from them by foreign highwaymen. Yet, when they returned home, our magnanimous people bestowed upon them new brocade garments.

— Baba Tsunego

巴里講和會義に臨みたる我全權は 全ての物を外國の追剝に取られたり 然かも彼等が歸朝するや、 寛大なる我國民は彼等に新らしき 錦の衣服を與へたり

— 馬場恒吾

Translation and transcription of Suzuki Umeshirō's commentary on Sketch 479: The Wealthy Donate Money to Tokyo City

If they had only maintained the mindset they had during the rice riots,

society would not be cursing the wealthy.

— Donten

米騒ぎの時の
心をたもちなば
世は金持を
呪はざらまし

— 呑天

Translation and Transcription of Yokoyama Katsutarō's commentary on Sketch 480: Strikes Occur One After Another

At a single glance, one cannot help but instantly sense a "warning to the world."  Ah, in recent times the human heart has gradually turned toward danger and bitterness, and the rise of desperate struggles for existence stems, first and foremost, from the fact that harsh and overbearing men of property, relying on the position and rights protected by the system of private property, abuse them to plunder unjust profits. When workers resist capitalists, it is because the capitalists themselves have provoked it; the workers are doing no more than fighting back in self-defense. Very likely, from now on, the center of all problems will be labor disputes. Look—what is it that our fellow human beings, who have nothing to rely upon but the strength of their own God-given bodies, are crying out for and demanding? A warning to the world!

— Yokoyama Katsutarō

一瞥「警世」を直感せざるを得ず。あゝ、近時人心漸く險惡に赴き悲愴なる生活運動の擡頭し來れるは、一に專橫辛辣なる有産者が私有財産制度の保護に依る地位と權利を濫用して不當の利益を掠奪するに起因する。勞働者が資本家に反抗するは資本家自らこれを挑發しなさしむるの罪で勞働者は自衛上應戰するに過ぎないのである。恐らく今後凡ての問題の中心は勞働爭議であろう。見よ、天資の體力以外何ものも頼むもののなき吾人の同胞が叫び且つ要する所のものは何んであるか、警世！

— 橫山勝太郞

Translation and transcription of Ayai Tadahiko's commentary on Sketch 482: Fight Between Blacks and Whites in America

The copper-colored native [Native American] looking on:
“Are you on the side of the Blacks, too?”

The yellow immigrant:
“The whites, after all, were originally nothing more than lodgers in your land. But lately they have grown arrogant and have been bullying others indiscriminately, so I have been loudly advocating the justice of racial equality.”

Copper:
“Idiot — it’s nothing but lip service with you.”

— Master of the Muboku-an 

傍觀せる銅色土人 「君もクロの味方か 

黄色移民 「シロも元來は君の所の居候のくせに　近頃増長して矢鱈に佗のものを苛めるから僕は大に人種平等の正義を鼓吹してる

銅 　「馬鹿野郎 キサマは口先許りだ

— 無墨庵主人 

Translation and transcription of Shōno Danroku's commentary on Sketch 483: Our Second-Class Passengers as Seen by Foreigners

When I look at my own face reflected in the mirror, I become thoroughly disgusted with it; and yet, in ordinary life, even looking as I do, I flatter myself that I am at least above average. Passengers in railway cars may each imagine that they are behaving properly, but seen from the side, their conduct is utterly disgraceful.

It is said that the Japanese are a fastidious people. Indeed, at home, there seem to be no people who spit phlegm or saliva onto the tatami of the sitting room. But inside railway cars they spit wherever they please, and, on top of that, calmly throw away fruit peels and empty lunch boxes without the slightest restraint.

The Japanese pride themselves on proper manners and etiquette. Yet in railway cars, they intimidate their fellow passengers with large shingen-bukuro [drawstring] bags and with their backsides; they expose not merely their hairy shins but even places that ought not to be shown; and making fellow passengers frown in disgust is child’s play for them. They are utterly indifferent to the inconvenience they cause others, and are quite capable of raising a drunken uproar with a bottle of Masamune sake in one hand.

Under such circumstances, it is hardly unreasonable that foreigners should turn sulky and say, “No, thank you — absolutely not,” to sharing a carriage with such ill-mannered and uncouth people. In public places, we would all do well from time to time to look at ourselves in the mirror.

— Shōno Danroku 

鏡に映った自分の顔を眺めるとつくづく愛想もつきるが ふだんはこれでも十人並以上と好い氣になってゐる。車 中のお客さん達もめいめいお行儀の好いつもりでゐるか も知れぬが、傍から見ると全く醜態だ。日本人は潔癖家 だと云ふ。成程家庭では座敷の疊の上に痰や唾を吐く人 はないやうであるが、車室内では所構はず吐き散らし、お まけに果物の皮や辨當の空箱を無闇と棄てゝ平然として ゐる。禮儀作法の正しいと云ふのが日本人の御自慢であ るが汽車の中では大きな信玄袋やお尻で隣客を脅威し、 毛脛はおろか見せてはならぬ所まで露出して、同乗者を顰蹙せしむる位の藝當はお茶の子、他人の迷惑などは我 れ關せずで、正宗の瓶を片手にドンチャン騒ぎさへやり 兼ねない。これでは外人達から不行儀無作法者との同乗 は眞平御免とすねらるゝも無理からぬこと。お互に公の 席では時々自分の姿を鏡に映して見ることにし度いものである。

— 生野團六

Translation and transcription of Den Kenjirō's commentary on Sketch 486: Meeting Between Semenov and Zhang Zuolin

Who can tell the male from the female of a crow?

— Tamagawa Chōkaku

誰知烏之雌雄哉

— 珠川釣客 

Translation and transcription of Chikazumi Jōkan's commentary on Sketch 487: This Summer's Results

How deeply moving it is

to turn my thoughts to Toribeno,

when I think of it

as the place where traces remain

of those once dear to me. (Shinran Shōnin) 

At Toribeyama,

yesterday and today alike,

smoke rises;

those who pass by gazing at it—

how long will they remain? (poem on the left)

— inscribed by Jōkan

鳥部野をおもひやるこそあはれなれゆかりの人の跡とおもへは (親鸞聖人)
鳥部山昨日も今日もたつ烟なかめて通る人はいつまて (左歌)
—常觀題

Translation and transcription of Abe Isoo's commentary on Sketch 488: Old and New Turned Upside Down

By the power of the abacus,

the warrior

is flicked out.

— Isoo

算盤の力で

武士を

弾き出し

— 磯雄

Translation and transcription of Ippei Okamoto's commentary on Sketch 489, dated September 16, 1919: Karmic Retribution

Looking at the two figures on the left, some will likely immediately imagine the following third figure. It is a drawing where a muscular worker takes back what was taken from him by a fat merchant who had a license to squeeze others dry. Its title would be “Licensed to Strike.”

It was a foreigner, Mr. Karl Marx, who said that only in this way does poetic justice come full circle. As a manga artist, I lean neither toward approval nor disapproval of this imagination.

 — Ippei Okamoto

左の二圖を見て直に次の第三圖を想像するものがあるだらう。それは腕逞ましき勞働者が絞取御免のデブ商人よりものせしものを更にものするところの圖である。題して同盟御免といふ。かくして始めて因果應報はその首尾を全うすといふものはとつ國人のカール、マルクス氏である。漫畫家たる予はこの想像に對して贊否に偏せず。

— 岡本一平

Translation and transcription of Mutō Sanji's commentary on Sketch 491: Japan on a Work Slowdown

When I wake from my dream, I feel ashamed.

The retribution for my deed is now coming to pass. 

— Sanji Mutō

怠業の日本

ゆめさめて見れは耻かしい

怠りし業のむくひはいま成りつゝ

—山治武藤 

Translation of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary on Sketch 492: The Great British Railway Strike

Even from the hand of the skilled, water leaks.

[Even the most skilled masters make mistakes]

— So[jinkan]

じやうずの手に水がもる

—楚[人冠]

Translation of Saitō Mokichi's commentary on Sketch 494: Wilson Gravely Ill (Showing Signs of Madness)

Heh, heh—Mokichi, having considered the matter, says:

In the land of the rising sun
beyond the eastern sea, there is medicine.
Sleep peacefully.
Day is day, and night is night—ah!

くす〜茂吉按じて云

東海の日いづる

國に藥あり

しづかに眠れ

日は日、夜は夜

乎

Translation and transcription of Itō Chūta's commentary on Sketch 495: The People's Demands

Reform the tax system.
Raise salaries.
Overhaul foreign policy.
Regulate prices.

— Chūta

税制を整理セよ
増俸セよ
外交を刷新セよ
物價を調節セよ

—忠太

Translation and transcription of Yamakawa Kikue's commentary on Sketch 497: The Temple Boy Recites Sutras He Was Never Taught

While living off their parents and husbands, the wives and daughters of respectable families preach self-awareness and advocate liberation, but their “woman question” is nothing more than a bourgeois diversion. The only woman truly entitled to cry out for liberation is the proletarian woman who depends neither upon husband nor parent, but lives by the labor of her own hands.

Ladies and gentlemen, do you not realize that the cry of this tenement wife is a battle cry that will overthrow your “civilization” and your “state,” and secure for all humanity a life of unfettered freedom and abundant prosperity? Only revolutionary working women are capable of liberating women from the conditions of sexual slavery and wage slavery.

— Yamakawa Kikue

親のすね、夫の脛をかぢりながら自覺を説き、解放を主張する夫人令嬢の「婦人問題」はブルジョアの遊戯のみ。夫にたよらず親にすがらず、腕一本の無産婦人こそ、解放と叫ぶ資格ある唯一の婦人なり。紳士淑女諸君よ、この裏長屋の女房の叫びこそは諸君の「文明」、諸君の「國家」を顛覆し去つて、全人類の、自由無碍にして、豐富潤澤なる生活を確保すべき、戰ひの叫びとは知らずや。性欲奴隷、賃銀奴隷の地位より女性を解放するは、ひとり革命的勞働婦人の能くするところ。

— 山川菊榮

Translation and transcription of Murayama Ryōhei's commentary on Sketch 498: Postal Airmail Flight Success

Companion of mists and clouds*

— Kōsetsu-sho

* from a poem by Bai Juyi (Bai Le Tian), a poet of the Tang Dynasty. 

烟霞侶 [Enka no ryō]

— 香雪書

Translation and transcription of Ebara Soroku's commentary on Sketch 500: The Peace Treaty Is Ratified

At home, the nation’s glory is now complete; abroad, all nations aspire to harmony.

— Soroku

内之國光

時全外之

萬邦念雍

— 素六