Chapter X: Sakasa-Bashira

The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into _saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say, with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind, because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber, and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people. Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied.

Saka-bashira
Tat['e]shi wa tazo ya?
Kokoro ni mo
Fushi aru hito no
Shiwaza naruran.

[_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have
been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._]

Hidayama we
Kiri-kit['e] tat['e]shi
Saka-bashira--
Nanno takumi[51] no
Shiwaza naruran?

[_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence
brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work
can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been
done?")_]

[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signify either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was so fixed with malice prepense.]

U[:e] shita wo
Chiga[:e]t['e] tat['e]shi
Hashira ni wa
Sakasama-goto no
Ur['e][:i] aranan.

[_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it
will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]]

[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_, "up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity, contrariety, adversity, vexation.]

Kab['e] ni mimi
Arit['e], kik['e] to ka?
Sakashima ni
Tateshi hashira ni
Yanari suru oto!

[_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the
groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted
upside-down!_]

[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kab['e] ni mimi ari_ ("There are ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk about other people, even in private."]

Uri-iy['e] no
Aruji we to[:e]ba,
Oto arit['e]:
War['e] m['e] ga kuchi wo
Aku saka-bashira.

[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was
for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of
reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its
eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]

[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more than even a free translation can express. _War['e]_ means "I," or "mine," or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _war['e] m['e]_ (written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _war['e]m['e]_ (one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.]

Omo[:i]kiya!
Sakasa-bashira no
Hashira-kak['e]
Kakinishit uta mo
Yamai ari to wa!

[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon
the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted
upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]

[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kak['e]_ ("pillar-suspended thing") is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted, which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]