山椒大夫
Sansho the Steward
by Mori Ōgai
A mother and two children seeking the father are sold apart.
- Authentic text: the opening of a public-domain original
- Word-by-word glosses and translation in English or Chinese, free
- Tap a word for its meaning, listen to the sentence, save words
- Reads in any phone or desktop browser, nothing to download
Want to read your own Japanese light novels? Read the guide →
Sample: three-line reading
Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.
About the book
Sanshō Dayū is a novel by Mori Ōgai, based on the old tale 'Sanshō Dayū' and counted among his representative works. The opening section available here tells of a mother traveling with her children Anju and Zushiō to search for their father, before being separated from them by human traffickers. It is worth reading as an example of Ōgai's major fiction.
Cultural notes (selection)
Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.
A woman who carries seawater from the shore at salt fields (shiohama) to be boiled down into salt. "空桶を担いで" (shouldering empty buckets) depicts her labour going back and forth between the salt flats and her home, a realistic detail of the local scene.
A person who abducts and sells human beings. From the Heian period through the Middle Ages, Japan did have "hitokatari" who kidnapped people and sold them into slavery; this forms the background of the story's slave theme.
The provincial governor of a ritsuryō province, appointed by the court to administer the province's affairs, with the authority to issue prohibitions and maintain order within its borders—hence the ban in the text is issued by the governor. In the late Heian period, governors were often nobles serving remotely, with actual duties carried out by deputies (mokudai), so direct control over the provinces was weak.
About the author
Mori Ōgai (February 17, 1862 – July 8, 1922), born Mori Rintarō, was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist and poet, and father of the writer Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a young age, introduced translated German literary works to Japanese readers, and is considered a leading figure who modernized Japanese literature; his major work is The Wild Geese (1911–1913).
Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 山椒大夫 (CC BY-SA)
How the glosses are made
Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.
FAQ
Is this the original text?
Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.
Do I need to pay or sign up?
Library books are free to read without an account. Other gloss languages and importing your own texts need an account and credits.
What level is it?
This one is marked “Intermediate”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.
Can I use another gloss language?
English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.
More by this author
- 高瀬舟Mori Ōgai · Intermediate
- The Last PhraseMori Ōgai · Intermediate
- The Abe FamilyMori Ōgai · Advanced
- The Wild GeeseMori Ōgai · Advanced
- YouthMori Ōgai · Advanced
- 杯Mori Ōgai · Intermediate
- 牛鍋Mori Ōgai · Intermediate
- 百物語Mori Ōgai · Advanced