¹ Yamanouchi is the mountainous area to the west and northwest of Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. Tadayoshi is heading westward. The date is the Twenty-third of the Seventh Month, 1335.

² Prince Moriyoshi, also known as Prince Morinaga, was a son of the monarch Go-Daigo and Minamoto no Chikako. He was appointed by his father as the head abbot of the Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei in 1327, and according to the Taiheiki, he fought on his father's behalf while Go-Daigo was in exile from 1332 to 1333. Later, perhaps because he feared Moriyoshi's intentions, Go-Daigo turned him over to the Ashikaga, and after some time, he was executed by order of Ashikaga Tadayoshi in 1335, as related here.

³ Tachi is a type of sword hung from the waist with the blade pointing down, unlike the katana sword, which is shorter and worn thrust through the belt. For a useful discussion, see Karl F. Friday, Samurai, Warfare, and the State in Early Medieval Japan (New York: Routledge, 2004), 78-88.

⁴ Koshi no katana, literally, “waist sword.” The Nihon koten bungaku taikei (Anthology of Classical Japanese Literature) (subsequently NKBT) headnote suggests that this was probably a sayamaki, a dagger worn for self-defense. It had no sword guard and was worn with a long string wound around the sheath.

⁵ Wakizashi, or “sideworn,” is a sword worn with the edge facing up, thrust through the belt. Also called katana or uchigatana (striking sword).

⁶ Perhaps Fujiwara no Yasufuji's daughter, who served Go-Daigo.

⁷ Richikōin: A temple in Kamakura.

⁸ Cutting off her hair implies that she was renouncing the world and becoming a nun.

⁹ Tadayoshi (1306-52) was the younger brother and lieutenant of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-58).

¹⁰ Lasting from around 1030 to 223 B.C., Ch'u was a state in the Yangtze Valley that became especially powerful and annexed other states in the late Chou Dynasty. The epoch of the late Chou Dynasty, 770-221 B.C., is also known as the Eastern Chou Dynasty. It was a time of the total collapse of Chou royal power, and it saw the increasing influence of the kings of various territorial states. The events described here most likely took place in the Spring and Autumn Period (771-476 B.C.), the first half of the later Chou Dynasty.

¹¹ Wu Mountains in Chechiang Province formed the southern border of the state of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period.

¹² Literally, “Dragon Spring.” Its waters were used for tempering iron.

¹³ According to the NKBT editors, no Japanese or Chinese source explains how the sword came into Tan's possession. The state of Yen (in northeast China, covering the area of present-day Hopeh and Liaoning provinces) was one of the last contending states of the Warring States Period. It survived the fall of the Chou Dynasty.

¹⁴ First emperor of the Ch'in Dynasty, known simply as the “First Emperor,” Ch'in Shih Huang-ti (259-210 B.C.), is famous for burning books, standardizing measurements and money values, and constructing the Great Wall.

¹⁵ Sources vary between measurement charts (sashizu) and maps (chizu).

¹⁶ A state in the Spring and Autumn Period that was destroyed by Ch'u around 479.

¹⁷ Located at present-day Chien Ch'i in Fuchien Province.

¹⁸ A site along the Hakone Road in the Hakone Oyama vicinity—see the map. The exact place is uncertain, but it was east of Mishima. Shizuoka Prefectural Library locates it between Susono and Hakone. See here, accessed February 8, 2014. Nokureyamakure means “seven ri over fields, seven ri over mountains.”

¹⁹ The Prince-Minister was Prince Takayoshi (?-1337), one of Go-Daigo's sons.

²⁰ Sasaki Enya Hangan Takasada (?-1341) served as a member of the Royal Police (kebiishi) and as a third-level official (jō) in the Left Royal Guards, among other postings. He helped Go-Daigo during the fight for Kyoto that preceded the monarch's retaking the throne in 1333. Originally, he fought against the Ashikaga, but later he joined their side at the Battle of Hakone Takenoshita. He subsequently served as provincial constable (shugo) of Izumo and Oki—the “hangan” frequently used as his title referred to his enforcement duties as a royal police officer.

²¹ Monasteries like those on Mount Hiei had many child residents. Some were servants; others were oblates (young boys pledged to become monks). During the medieval age many boys went to study at monasteries, which were the educational institutions of the time. According to the index for the Taiheiki prepared by Ōsumi Kazuo, the monk Dōjobō Yūgaku appears numerous times in the second volume, and he is also mentioned in the Baishōron, ca. 1349, another chronicle of events surrounding the founding of the second Shogunate by Ashikaga Takauji. There is an English translation of the latter by Uenaka Shuzo, in his dissertation A Study of the Baishōron, which was completed at the University of Toronto in 1978.

²² The “Musashi Seven League” (Musashi Shichi Tō) was an alliance of lesser warrior families from Musashi that made their reputation during the Gempei War (1180-85) and remained active during the medieval age. They included the Yokoyama, Kodama, and Inomata families. They were important vassals of the Kamakura Shogunate.

²³ Sakamoto is a town on the eastern side of Mount Hiei where many monks lived.

²⁴ Funada Yoshimasa was Nitta's house steward (shitsuji), just as Kō Moronao served as the Ashikaga house steward.

²⁵ Normally, this would mean a fifth-ranker in the Ministry of Personnel. At this time, however, such postings were honorary, especially given this boy's age.

²⁶ This was possibly the crest (mon) of the Akamatsu, according to the NKBT gloss, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1961), 62, note 8.

²⁷ Sano, in the vicinity of Susono City (Shizuoka Prefecture) today.

²⁸ The Tōkaidō was one of the seven official circuit roads. It followed the eastern seaboard, linking Kyoto and Kamakura.