Maria-sama ga Miteru:Notes

Translator Notes

Volume 1

Meiji34

• Is 1901. For more information about the traditional Japanese labeling of years, check out this site.

Takarazuka

• The Takarazuka Revue is a famous all-female theatrics group in Japan, in which women play both the male and female roles.

warashibechouja

• Literally translated, 'the straw millionaire,' it's a fairy tale about a poor man who was down to some straw, and after he exchanged his straw, he continued to make exchanges until, in the end, he became extremely rich.

botamochi

• I don't think this is a standard Japanese phrase. She's saying "it's like pulling a snack out of a shelf, our a horse out of a gourd," essentially trying to say it came out of the blue. I decided to leave it in, for cultural reference's sake.

check

• This is a baseball reference. Pitchers often throw balls back to their bases in order to, bluntly, try to tag out runners. This is called 'checking the runner,' and is in reality a way to keep fast runners honest, by ensuring that they don't get too greedy by stepping far away from the base. In this case, Rosa Chinensis was throwing a light jab to Shimako-san, as despite their being on relatively friendly terms, the latter DID reject her sister.

sakuratei

• Tei means restaurant, and they named themselves in a quite straightforward way

Itadakimasu, Gochisousama

• These have no direct translations and they don't have any English equivalent, as far as I know. If someone comes up with one, I am more than happy to find out. You say "Itadakimasu" prior to eating, and "Gochisousama" after, as an expression of gratitude for the meal.

Volume 2

kawaraban

• Means "Tile block print," a type of newspaper in the Tokugawa era. In this case, though, rather than being written 瓦版 via kanji, it's written かわら版, which would imply that it's being used as a name, thus I simply romanized it.

kendo

• Taishou (大将), Fukushou (副将), Chuuken (中堅), Jihou (次峰), Senpou (先鋒)
• Respectively, General, Second-in-command, Mainstay, Second Guard, and the Advance Guard

Urashima

• An old Japanese folk tale about a fisherman who rescues a turtle, receives an invitation to an undersea castle, is given a box as a gift (but told never to open it), ends up opening it, and finds himself pulling a Rumplestiltzkin.[1]

Volume 3

shichigosan

• Rite of passage ceremony for girls aged three and seven, and boys aged three and five. You wear a kimono to these festivals, often for the first, and for a lot of people nowadays, last time.

Volume 4

zabuton

• Zabuton are literally the square cushions that you place on tatami to sit on. But the cultural context of this usage is a type of quiz show. There's a decent variety of quiz shows and the likes that use zabuton as a means of keeping score (so the highest scoring people end up sitting on like a half-dozen zabuton), but the one most related is where the show's participants are all comedians, and as the host reads aloud a story or anecdote, the participants must 突っ込み, or interject in a humorous manner. And, of course, in this case, Tsutako-san fired off a good shot at Yumi. The culture of tsukkomi is a bit tough to explain, so I'll leave it to wikipedia, if you're interested, but hopefully you get the idea. [2]

kibidango

• Kibidango is literally a millet cake. The entire passage, however, is a reference to the folk tale of Momotarou. It's a tale of a child born from a peach that was found off of a river. And when he grew up, he became a downright heroic guy, and like all folk tale heroes, decided to combat the ogres that ransacked his home. Along his journey he befriends a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant, by giving them kibidango. Oh, and kibidango made Momotarou himself stronger. Precise details and further reading can be found at the wiki article. [3]

hachimaki

• A semi-bandana, semi-headband strip of cloth that you tie around your forehead. They're usually produced in red and white, because the most common cultural usage of them is during the athletic festivals for schools. They're sort of the symbol of concentration + perseverance -> victory, so you tend to see people put them on before they study (symbolically get yourself in the mood), among other similar activities that require hunkering down and grinding it out.

ohinasama

• Ohina-sama. As a quick summary, this is a reference to the "hinamatsuri," which is a sort of doll festival that takes place on the 3rd of March. It's usually not an especially extravagant sort of festival, being reserved and revolving around the hinaningyou (hina dolls), which are small ornamental dolls placed on a step-like display case. Each step is like a hierarchy of royalty, so the top two are the emperor and the empress... which in Japanese is the odairi-sama and ohina-sama. For far more information about the hinamatsuri, check out the wiki link. [4]

kakipi

• A mix of small, crescent-shaped soy-flavored rice crisps and peanuts.