Ghost Hunt: Volume3 Translator's Notes

Chapter 1

Warded Off With Money

サラリと受け流す, Sarari to uke nagasu. Literally "warded off with money".

Chapter 2

Driver's Seat

Literally means "hand over the driver's seat". It's an idiom that means "Let me be in charge!"

Hysteria

"Hisuterii" and "hisu" both mean hysteria

Chapter 3

Illusion

John says "illusion" in English, not Japanese.

Onmyouji

Onmyouji (陰陽師) are spell casters. Based on yin and yang. They use healing energy to vanquish demons and ghosts. They can cast both good and bad spells.

Mama-san

Mama-san is a female proprietress of a bar or teahouse.

Guts-pose

Guts-pose is the act of pumping one's fist, often in victory or determination.

Strainer

The strainer (ザル) Bou-san refers to is a draining bamboo basket used for noodles like soba.

Chapter 4

Yuasa

Naru is talking about the town of Yuasa (湯浅), not the school where they are investigating.

Onmyoudou

(陰陽道) literally means The Path of Yin-Yang. Basically, it is a Japanese traditional arts of divination, calendar-making, astronomy, exorcism, and magic. It is influenced by Chinese philosophical (particularly Taoism) concepts, specifically the Yin and Yang principles, and divination system through the I Ching (a divination manual that uses the Eight Yin-Yang trigrams explained below). Interestingly, 陰陽 (onyou/inyou) also means divination, which perhaps hints on the main or famous role of its practitioners in the medieval times.

Shinto

A national and native religion of Japan, said to be The Path of the Gods, or more appropriately The Path of the Kami. The kami that is often worshipped can be either mythological gods (like Amaterasu, sun goddess), ancestors, or spirits held to be worthy of reverence.

Buddhism

A religion imported from China during the Asuka period (starting from 6th century to early 8th century CE). It involves the practice of Siddharta Gautama’s (or the Buddha, enlightened one, from modern-day Nepal and ancient India) teachings that center on how to overcome suffering caused by attachment to things that are imperfect, impermanent, and insubstantial like worldly possessions or immortalized (something given permanence and substance) negative emotions such as fear or hatred. At the same time, the Buddha taught not to entirely relinquish the pleasures of life and aim to have positive and virtuous states of mind.

Shugendo

A religious movement mixing Shinto shamanism, esoteric Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Yamabushi or mountain ascetics practicing it are known to be living Buddhas who know sacred information by living on sacred mountains, where gods and the dead reside. Besides that, they are sorcerers, diviners, and exorcists following the teachings of Buddha and worshipping gods, especially Fudō-myōō.

Folk Magic

Magic/sorcery used by common people.

Enmi

(厭魅) can literally mean a curse for the detested/hated.

Kodoku

(蟲毒) literally means worm toxin or venomous insects.

Eight Yin-Yang Trigrams

In Chinese, this refers to the bagua. A trigram is a diagram consisting of 3 lines, each of which can be broken (i.e. dashed [— —] for Yin=black/darkness/female) or unbroken (i.e. not dashed, Yang=white/light/male). Through combinations of these 8 trigrams (called hexagrams, or six-line diagrams), one can foretell divine intent or God’s will.

Fukodou

(巫蟲道 or 巫蠱道) literally means witchcraft, but naturally the characters have a Chinese black magic nuance. Specifically, 巫蟲 doesn’t just mean witch/sorcerer, it also means poisonous insects, referring to the often-used Chinese cursing method of Gu (蠱) which is the Chinese counterpart of Kodoku.

2-5

From Part 3, it's a name of a section. 2 would stand for the year/grade and 5 would be the number of the grouping (which can either be random or by school grade/performance, usually as a letter). This is usually the format of section names by grade level.

Hitogata

人形 is primarily read as ningyou, meaning doll. But it can be read as hitogata (人型) which is specifically used for anything that has a human shape or figure.

Jufu

呪符 usually means talisman or charm, but in this case it has a negative connotation and is somewhat non-translatable (cursed charm? cursed talisman?—don’t seem to encapsulate the use of it here very well.) 呪 will be for curse and 符 for charm/mark, and together they can mean a written curse or curse marks. A jinx would come very close as an alternative brief description of what the hitogata is being used for here.

Chapter 5

Inge

Presumably short for or derived from Ingeborg which was a popular brand in Japan during the 80s.

Ki/Qi

One’s life force or energy.

Cross-talk Comedians

Or 漫才 (manzai) are two people exchanging gags rapidly.

Tatami

A mat, usually made of woven straw, that is commonly used for flooring in Japanese houses.

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