Kendo Match: A Picture Calendar for 1799, Year of the Ram

Left fencer: “Sore! Mairu zo! Ya-to kesa gohen, ima roppen. Kore de juippen tsukau ga, ore niwa kanau me ka. Mo kore kiri ni sho”“Watch out, here I come! We’ve had five rounds this morning, now six. With this, that’s eleven. Do you really think you can best me? Why don’t you just call it quits?” Embedded numbers (under- lined): 8, 10, 5, 6, 11, SMALL, 1 Right fencer: “Ni-kui koto wo iu otoko da! Shichimendouna ooki ni mi-shirasete yarou! Nanimada mada kasuri kasuri.” “What terrible things you say! I’ll smash you this time, you pest, and make you realize! Why don’t you try giving me more than a scratch or two.” Embedded numbers (under- lined): 2, 9, 7, BIG, 3, 4, 12The poem suggests that the fencers wear masks because they are embarrassed to show their faces. They are not hesitant, however, to converse with one another as they fight, and their dialogue cleverly includes sounds homophonous with the large and small months of the year, given with numerals in the inscription. The board on the wall of the fencing hall, which typically would carry announcements of upcoming events, here bears the year date (Kansei 10) notation on certain festival days and the most auspicious direction for the upcoming cycle, composed of variations of the zodiac signs. This was the kind of information one could purchase on one of the official calendars produced by approved printers for the shogunate, and most egoyomi did not provide such depth of detail.