expression:

• Forgive me for dispensing with the preliminaries, but I hasten to inform you that... - opening formula of a brief letter

noun / ~する noun:

• omitting the beginning

noun:

• Southern Cross (asterism formed with the brightest four stars of the constellation Crux) - Astronomy term ➜ 南十字星【みなみじゅうじせい】

noun:

• foreign ship (esp. of Spanish and Portuguese ships arriving from the south prior to the Edo period)

noun:

• dealing in rice speculating on the year's harvest while the paddies are still covered with snow - four character idiom

noun:

• flower-patterned material used to bind the ends of the spine in books - From English "head band" ➜ 花布

noun:

• exact center of the Garbhadhatu mandala - obscure term
• platform upon which the fire is lit in a stone lantern

noun / ~する noun:

• wearing one's pants low (so that they hang from the hip rather than the waist) - slang

expression:

• even the hardest of hearts can be moved to tears; a tear in the ogre's eye [literal] - proverb

noun:

• ornamental weights used to keep curtains and the like from blowing around in the wind

noun:

• scapulimancy (divination using the cracks in the heated shoulder blade of a deer); scapulomancy; spatulamancy; armomancy - archaism

noun:

• summer purification rites (held at shrines on the last day of the 6th lunar month) ➜ 茅の輪

noun:

• row of syllables on the Japanese syllabary table that ends with the vowel sound "a" - Linguistics term ➜ 五十音

noun:

• row of syllables on the Japanese syllabary table that ends with the vowel sound "i" - Linguistics term ➜ 五十音

noun:

• row of syllables on the Japanese syllabary table that ends with the vowel sound "u" - Linguistics term ➜ 五十音

noun:

• row of syllables on the Japanese syllabary table that ends with the vowel sound "e" - Linguistics term ➜ 五十音

noun:

• row of syllables on the Japanese syllabary table that ends with the vowel sound "o" - Linguistics term ➜ 五十音

noun:

• breaking up a match (on the decision of the referee, in boxing, etc.) - From English "referee stop"

noun:

• roofed path (lacking walls) connecting the main residence and the side houses (in traditional palatial architecture) ➜ 寝殿造

noun:

• buildings on the east and west side of the southern pond (in traditional palatial-style architecture) ➜ 寝殿造り

noun:

• kimono with completely attached sleeves (i.e. lacking an opening on the side under the armpit) ➜ 八つ口

noun:

• western citadel; west wing of the Edo castle (where the heir apparent or retired shogun would live) ➜ 江戸城

expression:

• third climate of spring (when the ice breaks and fish start appearing near the surface) ➜ 七十二候

noun:

• playing cards bearing proverbs in the traditional ordering of the Japanese syllabary

expression / noun:

• crowning glory (e.g. winning the last game of the season, creating a final spectacular art work)

noun:

• Edo-period proclamation issued by the shogunate (or a daimyo, etc.) usu. to the general populace ➜ お達し【おたっし】