Mori Ōgai (1862–1922) published the historical novella The Abe Family (Abe ichizoku) in 1913. It portrays the destruction of a samurai family after its head is denied permission to follow his lord in death. The story begins just before Hosokawa Tadatoshi, lord of the Kumamoto domain, is due to leave for Edo.
従四位下左近衛少将兼越中守細川忠利は、寛永十八年辛巳の春、よそよりは早く咲く領地肥後国の花を見すてて、五十四万石の大名の晴れ晴れしい行列に前後を囲ませ、南より北へ歩みを運ぶ春とともに、江戸を志して参勤の途に上ろうとしているうち、はからず病にかかって、典医の方剤も功を奏せず、日に増し重くなるばかりなので、江戸へは出発日延べの飛脚が立つ。
— Mori Ōgai, The Abe Family (1913); reading glosses omitted.
L/LAB working translation: In the spring of 1641, Hosokawa Tadatoshi—Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, Minor Captain of the Left Division of the Inner Palace Guards, and concurrently Governor of Etchū—was preparing to leave behind the blossoms of his domain of Higo, which opened earlier than elsewhere, and to set out on his official journey to Edo, surrounded front and rear by the splendid procession of a lord of 540,000 koku and moving northward together with spring itself; but he unexpectedly fell ill, the domain physician’s medicines proved ineffective, and his condition only worsened by the day, so a courier was dispatched to Edo to announce the postponement of his departure.
The sentence is long, but it is built from elementary Japanese. Do not try to hold every word with equal weight. First find wa and the final predicate.
1. The smallest skeleton: “Tadatoshi wa—courier ga dispatched”
Put the long sequence of court titles in parentheses. The global topic is Hosokawa Tadatoshi wa. The sentence-final predicate is tatsu (“sets out; is dispatched”), whose subject is hikyaku ga (“a courier”). The minimal structure is therefore: “As for Hosokawa Tadatoshi … a courier is dispatched.”
Japanese wa can establish a discourse topic while ga marks the subject of a clause inside that larger frame. Tadatoshi is not the entity that tatsu. The sentence is about his situation; its concluding event is the dispatch of a messenger to Edo.
2. Collect the predicates: a long sentence is a chain of verbs
When a Japanese sentence grows difficult, mark inflecting words before worrying about every noun.
| Original | Form | Function |
|---|---|---|
| misutete | verb + -te | links to the next action |
| kakomase | continuative of causative kakomaseru | has the procession surround him |
| kokorozashite | verb + -te | aiming for Edo |
| noborō to shite iru uchi | volitional + to suru + progressive + “while” | while on the point of setting out |
| kakatte | verb + -te | falls ill, then passes on the result |
| sōsezu | negative -zu | without producing an effect |
| naru bakari na node | “only becomes” + explanatory + reason | because it only keeps worsening |
| tatsu | finite form | closes the sentence |
The -te form advances the chain; literary -zu negates while connecting; node hands a reason to the conclusion. Japanese is head-final: major predicates tend to arrive late. Here that delay becomes suspense.
3. Group what comes before a noun
Japanese needs no equivalent of that in flowers that bloom early. Placing yoso yori wa hayaku saku (“bloom earlier than elsewhere”) directly before hana (“flowers”) joins them.
The most vivid phrase is minami yori kita e ayumi o hakobu haru: “spring, carrying its steps from south to north.” The season is personified as a traveler. Tadatoshi’s procession, too, was meant to move from southern Higo toward northern Edo. To tomo ni (“together with”) overlays the human journey and the seasonal one.
4. Wa and ga: two levels of viewpoint
The final clause contains another wa: Edo e wa. It carries contrast—roughly, “to Edo, at least.” Tadatoshi himself can no longer go to the destination; only the news goes in his place. A particle quietly registers the collapse of the plan.
5. Let particles identify the roles
| Phrase | Role | Plain meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Tadatoshi wa | global topic | as for Tadatoshi |
| hana o misutete | object | leaving the flowers behind |
| gyōretsu ni zengo o kakomase | causee / area enclosed | having the procession surround him |
| haru to tomo ni | accompaniment, parallel | together with spring |
| Edo o kokorozashite | goal | aiming for Edo |
| michi ni noborō to suru | destination/state entered | about to set out |
| hōzai mo | addition, unexpected extent | even the medicine |
| Edo e wa | direction plus contrast | toward Edo, at least |
| hikyaku ga | clause subject | a courier |
Ten’i is a physician serving a lord, and hōzai is a prescribed medicine. Kō o sōsuru means “to prove effective.” Hikyaku ga tatsu is an idiom for a courier being sent, not merely standing upright. Replacing historical vocabulary with modern equivalents already makes the syntax much clearer.
6. Why make it one sentence?
The first half accumulates titles, 540,000 koku, blossoms, a splendid procession, and spring advancing north. It projects authority and life. Then hakarazu—“unexpectedly”—reverses the direction: illness strikes, medicine fails, and the condition worsens.
Short sentences would make the events easier to inventory. Ōgai refuses to release the reader. The ceremonial plan and the progress of disease remain enclosed in one grammatical span until hikyaku ga tatsu. The lord’s great procession cannot move; a solitary courier moves instead. That reversal of scale lands at the very end.
The titles matter too. Tadatoshi first appears not as a private individual but as the sum of his public ranks. That monumental figure is stopped by a private, bodily fact. The sentence’s length is not ornament; it measures a fall from power into helplessness.
7. A beginner’s short version
Hosokawa Tadatoshi was preparing to make his official journey to Edo in the spring. Before departing, however, he fell ill. The physician’s medicine did not work, and his condition worsened day by day. A courier was therefore sent to Edo to announce that his departure had been postponed.
This preserves the informational core. It loses the weight of the titles, the flowers of Higo, the magnificent procession, spring moving north, and the tension sustained until the final verb. A paraphrase is scaffolding for comprehension, not a replacement for the original.
A reusable reading method
When facing a long Japanese sentence:
- Find the final predicate—here, tatsu.
- Find the ga attached to it—hikyaku ga.
- Find the sentence-level wa—Hosokawa Tadatoshi wa.
- Collect the predicates connected by -te, -zu, and node.
- Group the material immediately before each noun as its modifier.
Ōgai’s opening contains difficult historical vocabulary, but its architecture uses the most basic Japanese machinery: particles, word order, inflection, and prenominal modification. Reading a difficult sentence is not an act of intuition. It is the work of locating small signals and restoring the hierarchy they create.
