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.]

XI.  BAK[’E]-JIZ[:O]

The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jiz[:o], the savior of children’s ghosts, is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism.  Statues of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every roadside.  But some statues of Jiz[:o] are said to do uncanny things—­such as to walk about at night in various disguises.  A statue of this kind is called a Bak[’e]-Jiz[=o][56],—­meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes transformation.  A conventional picture shows a little boy about to place the customary child’s-offering of rice-cakes before the stone image of Jiz[=o],—­not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly bending down towards him.