Chapter XXXVIII

Guarding the perimeter, one dog slaughters a spy;

Returning a summons, four men refuse a messenger

Shino listened carefully to this tale, lauding it with praise by no means superficial. Then he spoke, saying:

“Yesternight I spoke to the master and his son about the dog we kept in my house when I was an unshorn youth. Since it pleased you to be standing outside, O Holy Man, you must have heard. That great hound we named Yoshirō because he was black and white with eight great spots all over his body, except that his feet were all white. For this reason we should have called him Yotsushiro, but this wore down to Yoshirō. Later, when the dog perished, I buried him in the garden, where the following spring a plum tree that grew next to the grave bore strange fruit, eight to one set of stamens and pistils. They were what is known as the octuplet plum. Furthermore, these plums bore the characters for benevolence, righteousness, and the rest of the Eight Virtuous Acts, clearly legible thereon. As the days passed the characters faded, but the pits remain.

“Yoshirō had swallowed a bead vouchsafed to my mother as a holy gift. Of this, however, we were for years unaware, until the bead appeared suddenly from the dog’s wound and came into my hand. Now, the elements of the character for plum can also be read mokubo, or ‘Mother-Tree.’ This child’s bead and my own each came from our mothers. What is more, there was a karmic connection between the eightfold fruit of that plum and the eight spots of the dog Yoshirō that I have finally here come to understand. Not only that, those plums, and the characters for the Eight Virtuous Acts that appeared on them, were a miracle wrought by the divine spirit of Her Highness Princess Fuse, proclaiming that there were, in addition to myself and Sōsuke, six other champions, complete with similar beads and marks.

“Indeed, could my dire ailment have been healed so promptly by the lifesblood of any man and woman, were it not that of Fusahachi and Nui, whose names are the reverse of the Dog Yatsufusa? And need I point out that the shell that held that blood was an ascetic’s vessel of the Law? It must have been divine intervention by En the Ascetic. I am beset, left and right, by ways in which I owe my life, restored unto me, to this man and his wife. I regret—oh, how do I regret!—that he could not in the flesh join the Dog Warriors’ pack but must needs disappear from this world early, that he might yield place to his son! The eight characters on those plums are now faded, but the octuplet plum, and Fusahachi and his wife, contain meanings by which the name names the thing. I shall lay this pit on their grave as a sign unto future generations of their merit and virtue.

“Therefore their son Daihachi Shinbei is like a brother to me, of my own flesh and bone. If in years to come we serve Lord Satomi, and together face a field of battle, I shall surely aid this child, making a great slaughter of the enemy and yielding the merit of it to him. And should that battle go ill, then I shall cut down the enemy as they approach, or fend them off with arrowheads, and then die in his stead, thus answering the call of duty addressed to me this night by my resurrection. Again I say, Yamabayashi, your premature passing fills me with rue, and to what may it be likened? It grieves me so.”

In thinking on his friend he opened up to him his heart with such sincerity that they were like two blades without the scabbards’ walls between; and then he opened up his amulet pouch, that he ever kept next to his skin, and groped in it until he brought forth the plum-pit. He nudged open the paper in which it was wrapped and showed it to Fusahachi. Later, after this plum-pit had been planted on the couple’s grave, it sent up shoots that grew into eight saplings; and as the years passed these bore octuplet fruit, and so the local villagers all named it Fusahachi’s Plum, or the Yatsufusa Plum.

But enough of digressions. Fusahachi was so rejoiced by Shino’s uncommon sincerity of heart that he endeavored to endure his suffering enough to receive the plum-pit. Looking about him, he raised himself to his knees and said, “How wise you are, Master Inuzuka. Your philanthropy is revealed in your words. My karma from past lives may not have sufficed to make me a Dog Warrior, but what can surpass the great and unexpected happiness, my joy in this extremity, of encountering the holy Chudai, Lord Kanamari’s son, of seeing my grandfather’s crime ameliorated and my own long-cherished impossible wish granted, and what is more of seeing Daihachi Shinpei, at the age of four, be renamed Shinbei, and named Masashi, in token of him taking his father’s place?

“And so my son is a Dog Warrior. Moreover he has Inuta as his uncle and backer, and Master Inuzuka to rely on as a teacher: with such loving care what need has he to sorrow for the loss of his parents? My strange resemblance to Master Inuzuka, too, must stem from the same karma. Nor is this all, for if the ground where we are laid to rest is marked by a plum, growing from the octuplet fruit that itself symbolizes the beads, then I shall be as a supernumerary Dog Warrior. My desires are satisfied.”

As he replied, a rooster raised his voice within his pen, as if to onward prod this parting so reluctant, shattering it with cry of dawn approaching. Fusahachi inclined his ear to it. “The cock crows. The eastern sky must be growing pale. If lamenting makes us late, then I will have died in vain. Brother, O Brother, be my second—quickly now, quickly.”

Fusahachi sounded agitated, and though Kobungo could not refuse him now, still in the face of his fierce determination Kobungo found his feet stopped in their tracks, and his fists going slack; he answered, but could not stand.

Then Amasaki Terubumi addressed Fusahachi and Kobungo, saying: “Men, hear my words. Urge them on or fend them off, life and death proceed naturally according to the logic of Heaven, nor is there anything we can do about them. Long ago my father Jūrō was ordered as a messenger to Princess Fuse, when she had gone into Mount To. Straightaway he whipped his horse into a lather and pursued Her Highness the Princess, but when he came to that mountain river and tried to ford its rapids, he was swept away along with his mount, and there lost his life. Now I have received a command from my lord to seek all throughout the Eight Provinces east of the Barrier for excellent specimens of wisdom and good and martial valor, in quest of which I happened upon the priest Chudai, who has brought together, severally, four Dog Warriors, as it were the sons of Her Highness Princess Fuse, in the meeting of whom my aim to summon wise men is fulfilled.

“That being so, Yamabayashi Fusahachirō is for righteousness and courage not a whit inferior to the Dog Warriors, and though his life now end tragically, yet ’tis meet that he should be a retainer of the House of Satomi. I have here a summons from my lord. Receive it, ere you go down to your bed ne’er to rise, and your son Shinbei, though of tender years, shall be a retainer of my lord in the second generation; bonds of deep duty and gratitude shall be his. Is this not a fine thing, both for your posthumous glory and for your descendants?”

Thus he stated his desire to elevate Fusahachi. Then Fusahachi took the document from the small square stand that bore it, raised it to his forehead, and turned to look at Kobungo. “Mister Inuta, do you understand what this means? From this day forth Fusahachirō is a retainer of Lord Satomi, but he bears in his body fatal injuries. The days of his loyal service are soon to be ended. If, though, by dying in the stead of his colleague Inuzuka Shino he can save him from calamity, it will be the same as service rendered to his lord and master. It is loyalty and righteousness on a grand scale. How long will you make me suffer, knowing I cannot be saved from my wounds? Show some feeling for me: be my second.”

His was the spirit of a military man as he encouraged Kobungo to act. “Indeed,” reflected Kobungo, standing up, his sidearm in his hand.

Fusahachi flashed him a smile. “As the proverb says, as the warrior is among men, so is mercy among everything in this world.¹ Master Amasaki, my gratitude is more than I can say. I, born the son of a lowly boat captain, happily die a warrior. Now, brother, I would trouble your blade. Be my second.” He pressed his palms together and stretched out his neck.

“Understood,” said Kobungo, as he drew and leveled his blade—it flashed, and mother Myōshin cried, “Ah!” She knew a pain more unendurable than if the blade had pierced her very breast. A spray of blood like brine that breaks against a hull and then subsides, and with it slipped away her son, and she could not prevent him. Her tears were a spring, flowing into the ocean, at this sad parting after which it must be as difficult to meet again as the turtle in the rapids that hardly finds a floating spar to cling to for his life.² In order not to scream, her sleeve she clamped between her teeth, but now it ripped as through her innards tore from grief: she fell and wept.

Even Shino watched in sorrow sore, his breast in pain, and priestly Chudai stepped up beside Fusahachi and read upon him sutras, presented hymns, quietly administered the chant of the Buddha’s name full ten times o’er, and eight to match the cock’s crow, whose hen never cries, though his mother did within the dimness of her heart that lingered yet as the brandished blade flashed but did not shine, the East Sky Red,³ yet in its nest, flapped its wings in tandem with the whistling blade. Alas, the immediacy of impermanence! Was this a dream? Then when he woke, ’twould be on Death’s Mountain, in whose alpine groves the branches’ solitary blossoms were on the verge of falling—O unblemished end!

Long had Myōshin known it must be thus, but still she could not bear the thought—she sank to the floor, screaming with constricted voice, and the infant that had dozed off on her knee now awoke, startled—confused, he cast his gaze about, then stood and toddled off, saying, “There, there, Papa.” Kobungo quickly sheathed his bloody blade and sought to hide the body from view. He picked up Shino’s blood-stained hempen robe that Fusahachi brought, and spread it out to cover o’er his corpse.

The infant did not understand, it seemed; he looked around querulously and said, “Oh Mother dear, wherefore and how long will you lie there thus so all alone? Grandmother is out of sorts—let us bring her many things she likes and comfort her—oh, will you not please do this? Or else, instead, will you not suckle me?”

He peered into her dead face; he tried to place his hand so delicate upon her bosom, but Myōshin could not bear it anymore: she in a fluster pulled the child to her and held him tightly, saying, “Daihachi, well might you say these things, and yet you could call and call to them for a hundred years, and Papa would never come back; Mama would not wake up. Do not cling to them, nor say such sad things. With every word you speak my heart would burst.” Thus did she lament, and everyone folded their arms in their sorrow-dew–drenched sleeves and bowed their heads, impotent to comfort them in their grief.

Upon this scene there burst a sound from outside, a commotion of blows and voices raised in screams very near under the eaves of the inn. Everyone jumped to their feet in surprise, but Kobungo was fastest: he flew down into the dirt-floored entry and threw open the wicket, but hardly had he looked out when a man was flung in from outside like a clump of clay, hitting his head on the edge of the raised floor. There he lay dead, brains dripping from his head.

Amid the mounting astonishment, Shino was quick to take up a lamp to light Kobungo’s sight. Then who should the dead man be but Karashirō of the Saltmakers’ Beach, who had visited the previous evening?

“What is this?” Kobungo said, not understanding, but as he spoke, someone else stomped into the inn, an enemy under each arm. A look revealed this as Inukai Genpachi, and the spies he had manhandled were Mōroku of Ushigane and Kinta of Itagoki, that were Karashirō’s cronies. They were bound tightly, as by one with great strength; their eyes gazed emptily upward, and their tongues lolled as they struggled to catch their breath.

Then Shino went to the door in turn and slid shut the wicket, while Genpachi tossed his two foes to the floor, one landing atop the other; he then dragged them across his knees so that they could not move.

Genpachi turned to Kobungo, Shino, and the rest and spoke. “I went to Shiba Cove in search of medicine for the tetanus, but they said the apothecary was no longer there; he moved to Kamakura last year. Immediately I lost hope and became gloomy, thinking that if I went thence to Kamakura, no matter how I hurried I could not return before tomorrow. Mister Inuzuka was very ill: if I spent days going there and back then even if I managed to purchase the medicine, it would not save him from his dire straits, like those of a carp trapped in a wheel-rut. No, I must hurry back to Inuta’s father and him his son, and tell them what has happened, for if I talk with them, surely something else can be done, I thought to myself, and so I hied myself back hither, never stopping along the way, but adding haste to haste until, a little past the third quarter of the hour of the ox, I arrived at the gate, where I heard voices from inside, in a sore state of sorrow.

“It would not do, I thought, to intrude, not understanding what went on, and so I loitered there, thinking to enter only after I had heard enough to be certain. Thus I heard, in broad outlines, of the old proprietor’s unexpected plight, and of Yamabayashi and his wife, and of their son, of the quick and happy healing of Mister Inuzuka’s ailment, and even of the Holy Chudai and Master Amasaki. My breast would not be calm, buffeted as it was by joy and sadness, and I would enter, but again it seemed to me that, with Yamabayashi severely wounded and his wife already perished, and with Inuzuka mysteriously raised, my joining the circle would not bring life to him who must die. Then too I had certain growing misgivings, and so it seemed to me best to stay where I was until the heavens grew light, to stand guard outside. And so I leaned myself against the short fence for hitching horses and passed the time, making no sound.

“At last I saw three villains peeking through the wall separating the eaves. They had, it seemed, been hiding themselves beneath the porch and there heard all. They scratched their mosquito-bitten buttocks, wiped the spiderwebs from their faces, and came crawling out from between the buildings like toads to stand together under the eaves, where they whispered:

“ ‘Did you two hear what they said about the criminal Shino? I recognized him. Let us hurry to the Estatesman’s and make our petition, and get a little revenge for last night’s pains, and we can share out the reward at the 🌊’s edge.⁴ Now run, run!’ They then adjourned and tried to leave, but at that moment I leapt into their midst. I grabbed one of the brigands by the collar, pulled him back, and then wrenched him to the ground. This surprised and angered the other two brigands so that they brandished their fists as if they would pummel me, but I knocked their feet out from under them. While they were somersaulting, the first one was trying to get up, so I grabbed him and threw him inside. The other two had yet to learn their lesson: they tried to grapple me, so I tucked one under each arm; and so, as you can see, here they are. Not a one escaped.”

As Genpachi proclaimed his deeds in a torrent of words, Kobungo listened with deepening joy. “These three villains—their names are thus-and-such. Men with neither wife nor children are they. They like wrestling at the crossroads, but they are such unpleasant fellows that lately I have not been letting them get too close. Then yesterevening they pushed their way in here and did so-on-and-so-forth. They must have held a grudge and sneaked back to satisfy it. But it was dangerous for them to have overheard everything. Had you not been there, milord, our error must have been great at last. They have heard our secret council, and in doing so they have forfeited their lives like bugs that fly into flames in the summer. Snap the cords of their life, I pray you, and uproot any cause for misery. Quickly, now.”

In response, Genpachi, still pressing both enemies down on his knees, took a firm grip on their collarbones and twisted. They could hardly even give a cry before their voices, fragile, failed, and with blood streaming from their eyes and noses they died.

And so Genpachi pushed and piled Mōroku, Kinta, and Karashirō’s corpses into a corner and covered them until they were well concealed. Then he expressed to Shino his joy at the latter’s speedy recovery, and to Kobungo condolence on his distresses, after which he was brought face to face with Chudai and Terubumi; he also comforted Myōshin, exclaimed over the righteous deaths of Yamabayashi and his wife, and congratulated their son Daihachi Shinbei on being a Dog Warrior.

Then Kobungo whispered to Genpachi, “Mister Inukai, you say you heard the entirety of the affair while standing outside, and thus there is no need to bore you with an account of it. The heavens already grow bright, and if we dally Hodayū is sure to come upon us at the head of his troops, and that will be in all things inconvenient, even if we succeed in deceiving him with a fake head. I will take the head and go to the Estatesman’s house to rescue my father. Then I shall return. The boat you cannot help but see upon stepping outside our gate, tethered by the bridge, is our inn’s fishing-skiff. Watch, and when you are certain that the troops guarding both water and land have been dispersed, take everyone, not excepting Fusahachi’s and Nui’s bodies, on board that boat and make your retreat in secret to the Yamabayashi house in Ichikawa. You have been in this land before, milord, and must know the lay of it, so I give you this charge. Accept it, I pray.”

Genpachi nodded. “Set your mind at ease on that score. I will consult with Mister Inuzuka, and one way or another, it shall be done. Judging by how dark it is, though dawn has long broken, this morning will be foggy; it will be hard to make out shapes. That must be why the birds do not sing. This fog will not lift before midmorning. Emperor Sky and Empress Earth, it would seem, deign to aid our fellowship. Yea, late though our leaving be, there will be no obstacle to it,” said he.

At this time Chudai looked back at Terubumi and said, “Four Dog Warriors are gathered here already. Will you not give them His Lordship’s decree?”

Terubumi understood. Facing Shino, Genpachi, and Kobungo, he intoned: “As detailed in my previous oration, each of you is connected to Lord Satomi to an uncommon degree. Receive now his handwritten charge to you, firmly binding you to him in righteousness as master and followers. Accompany me back to Awa. Beyond question, you shall be received.” With this he handed each of them a written summons.

Shino and the others received these humbly and worshipfully, then returned them to Terubumi, Shino saying: “Happy are we to have such karmic bonds with your esteemed fief. Nor shall we ever accept a stipend from any other lord, though the Shogun or the Overseers themselves summon us into service. Nevertheless, there must be three Dog Warriors else, besides the five of us, and we have yet to meet them. We cannot, perhaps, with any certainty now say if these three warriors exist, but Gakuzō Sōsuke is a Dog Warrior, one of us, and yet he alone is absent from this gathering. What of that?

“He, Inukawa Sōsuke, is the only child of Inukawa Eji, who was once Estatesman for the Hōjō in Izu. His mother, I am told, was the cousin of Master Amasaki’s dear departed father, Master Jūrō. His father Eji met a violent death in the autumn of the sixth year of Kanshō, in the ninth month, and Eji’s wife and child were exiled. Sōsuke was six or seven that year, and his childhood name was Sōnosuke. His mother, in bitter hardship, took her babe in arms and made for Awa like some water-bird; her only kin there was Amasaki. Her heart was set on it, but indeed that winter, when she had come as far as Musashi, his mother suddenly passed away in the village of Ōtsuka. Thus it was that Sōnosuke was made a menial of Hikiroku, the local Estatesman; he was named Gakuzō, and remains in that house even now. He grew up in a remote country village, but he practices the martial arts, and has a plan. He is a dutiful son; moreover he values fidelity and righteousness. He is, forsooth, a champion of a sort rarely encountered. As for the others I know not, but for my part, it would be wrong to ascend into office without Sōsuke. This is how my own trivial thoughts run, and happy shall I be if you would include them in your reckoning.”

He thus refused. Then Kobungo and Genpachi spoke as one, saying, “Our wishes are the same as Inuzuka’s. Not only his aims, but ours as well, would go amiss if we did not first journey to Ōtsuka village and meet this Sōsuke face to face, and tell him of all these things. Therefore let us embark on a journey of warrior’s training. Let us each polish our martial skills, while observing the ways and weaknesses of enemy lands for the sake of Lord Satomi; it may aid him later. Yea, if there be three Dog Warriors left, besides the five of us, how can we desist until we find them? Once all eight warriors have forgathered, we will go to Awa, and we trust it will not be too late to find a reception. Your Lordship, pray keep these summonses in trust for us until that day is come.”

Thus they spoke of their aspirations, and Terubumi heard them and then exclaimed:

“How very wisely you three warriors demur. Not long ago on Cape Shiori I witnessed Mister Inuta’s great patience, and was touched by it beyond any normal thing; though there are great and brave warriors in the world, surely, I thought, none are greater than him. And now I come here and see Mister Inuzuka’s fidelity and philanthropy, Mister Inukai’s foresight and steadfastness, and I cannot say which is the elder brother and which the younger. You are all champions: world-beaters. And if this Inukawa Sōsuke is the son of Eji, who was Estatesman under the Hōjō of Izu, then he and I are second cousins. I recently passed through Hōjō, where the villagers informed me of Inukawa Eji’s untimely death and the cutting off of his house, which I thought very sad; is his son indeed safe, even now, and a Dog Warrior? This is happiness to exceed all! Hōjō was, I have heard, my father’s home country, but over the years we have become estranged even from our closer relatives there, and when we first heard news of the severance of that house this year, we could not tell if it was true or not, as is the way of a world at war. Be all that as it may: I can hardly run roughshod over the refusals of three warriors. That being so, I ought to accompany you to Ōtsuka village, meet Sōsuke face to face, and deliver to him his summons. But I would hear your opinion on the matter, worthy monk.”

He turned to Chudai in inquiry, and Chudai pondered a moment before replying: “Ōtsuka is in Musashi, and that country contains the fortress of the Ōishi Assistant in the Guards Ministry, who is a general belonging to the Ōgigayatsu Overseer. If word should make its way swiftly thence that Gakuzō Sōsuke is such a brave warrior that he is sought by the Satomi, then Ōishi’s guards will take Sōsuke into custody, and they will of a certainty never hand him over to us. Should that happen we shall have lost one of the Dog Warriors—most regretful, think you not? I am a priest peripatetic. I can go and meet Sōsuke and give him our lord’s command with none suspecting me.

“However, Mister Amasaki, if you go back to Awa knowing, as it happens you do, of four Dog Warriors, but bringing not a one of them in train, what token, what sign, will you give as you answer our lord’s command? Therefore take with you Inue Shinbei and his grandmother Myōshin. With Shinbei already in Awa, the other Dog Warriors will converge there in the end, even unbidden. As for myself, I am not undesirous of returning, once, to my home, and presenting myself to my lord, but what can I do, with the eight lost beads not yet all recovered? No, when the day comes for that desire to be fulfilled, I mean to present myself with seven Dog Warriors at my side. Therefore I think I must keep those summonses in trust for a while. Inuzuka, Inuta, Inukai: ’twould be best for you to first withdraw to Ichikawa, and then quickly make for the village of Ōtsuka, there to proclaim these things in confidence to Sōsuke. I will go there myself once I have read sutras in memory of Yamabayashi and his wife. Now follow this counsel, I pray you.”

Terubumi was greatly rejoiced at these words. He produced four more summonses, which he joined to the three he had already taken out, and handed them all to Chudai.

Then Myōshin brought Shinbei nearer Chudai and Terubumi, saying: “Uncommonly happy is it that such a babe should be summoned all the way to Awa, but is it meet for one so inconsequential as Shinbei to go there first, alone, when even these three Dog Warriors have already refused? Mercy it would have been had you proclaimed that he should go where you go, forward or back, but to summon my grandson alone—you embarrass him.”

So reasonable were her words that Kobungo, too, spoke on behalf of his nephew, saying, “Only let him be with us.” Terubumi, however, showed no sign of relenting, but rather sought to persuade them, even unto quarreling.

Then Chudai quickly restrained them, saying: “’Tis useless, a waste of time, to pursue this dialogue now. Shinbei is a juvenile, but he is also one of the Dog Warriors: the image of unicorns, descendant of dragons. He must not be left in another’s territory. It does not follow from this that he must be taken to Awa right now, but we can debate this some other time—it will not be too late. Once Bungobei has returned, may not he, as the child’s uncle, have an opinion to add? Her Highness Princess Fuse’s prayer beads were entrusted unto her by En the Ascetic, by means of his powers, and indeed from the time Her Highness was very small to the day she hid herself, the Ascetic manifested himself in visions many a time. Upon reflection, I now imagine that it was a benefice from him that Jūichirō and I, in assuming the garb of ascetics and coming to this land to try Inuta against Yamabayashi, all unexpectedly came to recognize four Dog Warriors. Therefore it is likely that his word will make itself known concerning Shinbei, which way he should go. Now time is passing quickly, though the morning fog is thick upon us. Will you not go, Kobungo, to the Estatesman’s, as I outlined?”

“Aye,” was all Kobungo answered, as he ripped the sleeves off the hempen robe stained with Shino’s blood and brought the head of Fusahachi close to him. His hands were dext’rous as he wrapped the sleeves around the head, while Myōshin, watching, wept a rain of tears her own sleeves could not hold, a rain that would not rest while rested he for whom she wept, the one whose cerements had left behind a rag, a fragment, a memento severed like his head had been, parted from his body as he now must parted be, within this world, from her and from his son, his baby, who could not yet understand it, but who clung unto Kobungo, saying, “Uncle, where do you go? Can I go, too?” Then Shino coaxingly pulled him off like a tangled cord of grief whose howls came from the selfsame passions that dogged him and Inukai, which they would leash: their gazes met; they sighed, in pain, as one.

Now Kobungo picked up his sidearm and fastened it at his waist, and then collected the head in his right hand and held it at his side. He said farewell to Chudai and Terubumi, and then whispered to Shino and Genpachi of what must come next. “Let us take these carcasses, Karashirō’s and the others’, to the inlet pool.” He spoke to Myōshin words of comfort and encouragement, and words that touched even upon Shinbei’s bead, cautioning her to “be not so bogged down in your unbearable grief that you lose it.”

Then he stood and parted himself from the multitude that stayed behind and watched him as he went, and there among them lay, alas, the bodies of those two, and he the husband was not as he once had been, for death had parted him, body from head: a mist of grief, a fog of sorrow, hung o’er ev’ry heart, and in this darkness he softly slid the gate aside and then, a bird with sodden wings, away he flew off into the distance of the morning.

End of Book IV of Volume IV of the Lives of the Eight Dogs of the Satomi

1. Perhaps a variation on a better-known proverb that runs “as the cherry among flowers, so the warrior among men [is paramount].”

2. The turtle and the floating spar are used in the Nirvana Sutra to express how rare and precious it is for a human to have the opportunity to encounter the Buddha’s teachings.

3. Another term for the rooster that crows at dawn.

4. The word the ne’er-do-wells use here is suhama, “beach” or “strand,” but with a highly unorthodox orthography. In addition to its primary meaning of “beach,” suhama also denoted a kind of tray shaped like three interlocking circles, meant to represent a beach. Instead of the characters for suhama, Bakin here inserts an outline of such a tray (also used as a house crest), and glosses it suhama. In an attempt to simulate the visual play, I have included the wave emoji and incorporated it into a verbal phrase.