影を踏まれた女
by Kidō Okamoto
A woman whose shadow was stepped on one moonlit night grows afraid.
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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
This passage is a strange tale told by a narrator, connected to the Thirteenth Night: children once played a game of stepping on shadows, and the daughter of a thread shop named Oseki has her shadow trampled by mischievous boys on a moonlit night. It begins with a leisurely account of the old game and its street song, then moves into the incident itself, shifting from chatty explanation toward a quieter, older-town atmosphere of unease.
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.
Refers to the moon on the night of the thirteenth day of the ninth month of the old lunar calendar, second in importance only to the Mid-Autumn full moon of the eighth month. It is also called 「後の月」 or 「栗名月」. By old custom, people offered chestnuts, soybeans, and botamochi (rice cakes) to the moon on this night, which is the origin of the phrase 「十三夜のぼた餅」 in the song.
道陸神 is another name for 道祖神 (dōroku-jin), a stone deity placed at roadsides. In Japanese folk belief it was regarded as a guardian god of village boundaries. The line sung during the shadow-stepping game derives from this deity.
In the Edo period, time was announced with counts such as 「九つ・八つ・五つ」. 「五つ」 after sunset corresponded to about eight o'clock at night. After the Meiji era adopted Western-style clocks, works from the old period were often annotated with conversions like this, so 「五つ前」 means just before eight in the evening.
About the author
Kidō Okamoto (October 15, 1872 – March 1, 1939) was a Japanese author and playwright whose real name was Keiji Okamoto; he was born in the Shiba Takanawa district of Minato Ward, Tokyo. His best known work is the shin kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki.
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.
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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.