A couple of questions, including the use of the word ‘nanpū’ 難風.

  1. I am looking at (and transliterating) a cartouche with a combination of hiragana, hentaigana, and kanji, some in sōsho, however, there are a few characters between the words _Sesshū Daimotsu-no-ura_ and _nanpū_ that I’m not certain about. Can anyone shed light on these characters?

[![Utagawa Kuniyoshi-
detail](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tfUlv.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tfUlv.png)

摂州大物の浦[よ?][?][?]しうぐ難風に出合て平家のぼうれい御船を覆さんとする圖, / _Sesshū Daimotsu-no-ura ([ ][ ][
] shiugu, or shūjū) nanpū ni deaite Heike no bōrei mifune wo kutsugae san to
suru zu._

The ‘mifune’ (?) and the ‘wo’ (を) are difficult to read, but I think the
characters 御船 are correct in making sense of a “capsized” (‘kutsugae’, 覆)
boat. In a recent post, @droooze gave a good web-link
(<http://www.shufazidian.com>) so I have looked there for clarification, on
top of my usual references:

[![characters](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sgpmj.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sgpmj.png)

  2. ‘Nanpū’ (難風) is a little bit of a frustrating term when it comes to institutions translating it, for I see everything from “terrible storm” to “typhoon,” the latter a bit of a misnomer since I assume that ‘taifū’ (台風) “typhoon” is a very specific type of storm in that it is seasonal, and doesn’t fit the occasion of the ghosts of the Heike rising up against Yoshistune’s boat in Daimotsu Bay. I am interested in how a native speaker would differentiate between types of winds and storms in general conversation, as well as when reading from a pre-C20th text. 

There appear to be many ways of writing/describing a storm or a wind: a storm
or tempest is usually represented by the character ‘arashi’ (嵐). In terms of
‘nanpū’ (難風), the character (難) can be read as “difficult,” “trouble,”
“hardship,” or an “accident,” “calamity,” “disaster,” “danger,” and (風)
“wind.” I trust I am not incorrect in my observations, but I have found ‘fūha’
(風波) for rough seas, literally “wind and waves”; ‘bōfū’ (暴風), literally a
“violent” or “forceful wind”; ‘hayate’ (疾風), a “fast wind” or “gale” that
might be thought of as a very sudden bōfū; ‘akufū’ (悪風), an “evil wind” or
“bad wind”; and ‘reppū’ (烈風), a “strong wind.” Do modern Japanese speakers use
these terms interchangeably, as general synonyms for a storm, or is one always
mindful of the quality of the storm/wind and the way that words are used
culturally, historically, semantically? That is, does it debase language and
meaning if it is simply translated as a “storm”, rather than a “difficult,”
“troublesome,” or “dangerous” wind (and in the case of those latter three, or
any other, I would ask which would be a more definitive translation of
‘nanpū’?).

Why do I ask this? Because I often think about the importance of the poetics
and ‘spirit’ of the words: it would, for instance, be inappropriate if “Blow,
ill wind, blow away, Let me rest today, You're blowin' me no good” was changed
to “Blow storm, blow away, Let me rest today” (Ted Koehler’s lyrics put to
Harold Arlen’s 1934 musical composition). There are many other lyrics or prose
with references to a particular kind of wind (ill wind, lonely wind,
whispering wind, wayward wind, restless wind, summer wind, soul wind, north
wind, west wind, etc.) and many synonyms for wind or storm (squall, hurricane,
tempest, gale, zephyr, gust, strong breeze, breeze) that have subtle or
significant differences in meaning and intent that—I hope—would be respected
when translated into another language.

The title also references ‘bōrei’. This is another case in point. Many museums
will translate this and related terms purely as ghost, but is this solution in
tune with the vernacular understanding of ‘bōrei’ (亡霊; 亡 “dead” or “departed”;
霊, 靈, rei, “soul/spirit”, also seen as 亡灵), a ‘shiryō’ (死霊, a “dead spirit”),
a ‘yūrei’ (幽霊; 幽, yū, "faint" and 霊, rei, "soul/spirit"), or an ‘onryō’
(怨霊)—literally a "vengeful spirit" or "wrathful spirit”—a yūrei believed to be
“capable of causing harm in the world of the living” and “causing natural
disasters to exact vengeance.” I'm interested in other's perspectives,
especially in the context of the use of the word in literary works and
artistic titles.
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2017-12-08T08:27:34.493
55029
2017-12-09T12:50:22.000
2017-12-09T03:30:25.500
26637
26637
question
translation meaning kanji obsolete-kana
‘Nanpū’ (難風), ‘Bōrei’ (亡霊) and other matters
As for 難風{なんぷう}, I think you are bit overanalyzing the synonym. It should
simply mean “difficult wind “ like you feel it hard to control something such
as balance and hard to go forward when you are riding a bicycle, since the
wind is too strong.

I guess 難風{なんぷう} itself is not so common word though, I often feel 難しい風 in a
very windy day. Probably it’s hard for you to catch a ball falling down from
up the sky when it was in a bit of turbulence like 難風{なんぷう}.

Yeah, I think Japanese people are mindful about the difference between
暴風{ぼうふう}:tempest , storm, 疾風{しっぷう}: quick wind, 爆風{ばくふう}: blast, 悪風{あくふう}:
evil wind, 烈風{れっぷう} sharp wind as if cutting your face and so on.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T12:50:22.000
55057
2017-12-09T12:50:22.000
55029
answer