Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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TERMS/THINGS TO NOTE:
Cun – Measurement unit; one cun is roughly ~3.030 cm or ~1.193 in.
Tandai – Local Commissioner
If there isn’t anything you understand, refer to the footnote or glossary.
Rice Nursery
I understood I had been reincarnated immediately after I was born. After all, if I thought that I was dozing off in the middle of a dream, I wouldn’t be squeezed out against my will and come into contact with the cold air. I’d be surprised and wake up!
To make things worse, my eyes were blurry and I couldn’t see very well. I tried raising my voice in a fluster, but only sound effects like “awaawaabubu” beautifully came out.
Reincarnation? Reincarnation! I’m glad I’ve read different world reincarnation novels!
Has my time come? Welcome to the world of swords and magic! It’s finally time for my time to come!
I only thought like that for a short while though……
March, 23rd year of the Tembun era (1554), Outskirts of the Kitsuki-no-Oyashiro, Izumo 1
“Princess, what are you doing?”
You see, it seems like if you soak the seed rice in saltwater, you can understand if the rice-plant germinates or not.” 2
“Is that a revelation from Oyashiro-sama?”
“Amenohohi said that.” 3
That’s a lie. Even if I said that it was from my memories of my last life, not only would they not believe me, it’s likely they’d think that I was possessed by a fox spirit or that I was a person who’s mad and dangerous.
“Princess’s ancestor was it?”
“He is the god of rice and abundant harvest after all.”
“If you said that, then that must be so.”
I was saved by the fact that people in this period were deeply religious. If I called anything “Taisha-sama and Oyashiro-sama’s revelation”, they would believe it thinking that’s how it is, so the revelations varied. 4
“Look, that rice seed floating right now is hard to germinate.”
“I see.”
After all is said and done, since I’m a miko, my words had the backing of the reputation of a miko and backing of my family line, so I’m easily deceiving everyone.
Probably, most likely, maybe. (TL: ‘Maybe’ in English lol)
I’m supposed to be a fake miko, but revelations sure are handy.
I recalled a certain novel where the main character is the Kyushu Tandai’s (local commissioner) daughter before I reincarnated to become a shrine maiden. 5 However, I realized that I wasn’t familiar with economics like that novel’s main character, nor was I bright like her.
I digress.
“So, after taking the saltiness of the rice seed that sunk right now, this time I’ll soak it in fresh water.”
“Wouldn’t it become sodden?”
“It will be fine. If these warm days continue, five days; if it’s cold days, then soak them for seven days, then we’ll spread it on those ridges. In intervals of roughly 40 to 50 percent of a cun.” 6
“Sowing them in such small intervals?”
“It’s a rice nursery, so we’ll have to borrow a residence for a month.”
“Is that so. We’ll transplant it, so it’ll be fine.”
After reincarnating to this world, I saw the scene of rice planting and received a shock.
That’s right, the rice-plant wasn’t cleanly lined up. The intervals and orientation were all scattered.
If the seedlings were beautifully lined up and planted like in the modern era’s paddy fields, their harvest should increase.
“So, if the seedlings are grown five to six-sun apart, then you can make a bundle of two to five stalks and plant them in the rice fields.”
“That’s vague, isn’t it.”
“Kami-sama didn’t tell me in detail either. I guess we don’t know until we test out how many stalks to grow or the intervals.”
It’s not Kami-sama but me who doesn’t know the optimal method. There’s no way I can say that though.
“Understood.”
“But, Kami-sama said that tons of rice can be harvested this way.”
“If it’s Amenohohi-sama’s words, then there isn’t any mistake!”
Ugh, my sense of guilt is overwhelming me when I trick you like this though.
“So, what should we do about rice seeds that floated which were removed?”
“Hmm, use it as tree sparrow feed?” 7
“Princess, that is a waste!”
Even if you say it’s a waste, I like there’s no way to use it though. Are you going to eat it?
“Hmm, well then, how about trying to plant those rice seeds too as a test?”
“That is also a waste!”
“Haru’s the one that said feeding them to tree sparrows was a waste, you know.”
Haru is the name of the maid that is keeping me company right now. She said she was born in the 13th Year of the Tenbun Era, so she’s 11 years old right now. 8 She’s the daughter of a military commander named Tako Shigemori. Her grandfather, the slightly famous military commander Tako Tokitaka, left behind some words, ‘Light is your life, heavy is your name‘. 9 Well perhaps. He’s a minor warlord you see!
By the way, my name is Tama (玉). It’s not ball (珠[tama]), so don’t get it wrong. I was born in the year-end of the 17th Year of the Tenbun Era, and I’m not seven years old. In just under 10 days after I was born, I became two years old. 10
It was the moment that I thought newborns being considered a year old to be frightening.
Well, I don’t exactly know what year the 17th Year of the Tembun era is in AD though.
“I thought I could eat it together with princess though……”
“Who’s going to hull and polish the rice? Rather than that, it’s more important to plant them as a test to confirm.”
“Ahh, the rice has—!”
Did this person have a gluttonous personality?
“Well, seeing it once is better than hearing it one hundred times. We’ll know the results in about half a month.”
Mufufu, I’m glad that my agricultural experience in my previous life has some use.
If I were to say why I’m creating a rice nursery like I was playing house, then it’d be because of the fairly rough circumstances.
While I stared at the top of Mount Sanbe, 11
“Come on! I’ll be your opponent!”
I clenched my fist tightly and yelled that without thinking.
“Has Princess begun to speak to herself again?”
While imagining an enemy that I had never seen before, my consciousness headed towards the past.
- It was commonly called Kitsuki-Taishi or Kitsuki-Taisha before the Edo period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo-taisha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo_Province - There is a similar explanation in the SKM (Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan) Manga that’s more in depth in explanation and easy to understand: https://i2.wp.com/yado-inn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Ch06_010.png?resize=1200%2C1704&ssl=1
- Amenohohi: https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/Shinto/Amenohohi.html
- Taisha-sama and Oyashiro-sama are just another polite form of calling god.
- https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/title/Tandai.html
- An ancient type of measurement pronounced as ‘sun’ in Japanese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cun_(unit) - Eurasian tree sparrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_tree_sparrow
- This was hard to translate, so I decided to make a footnote for it instead. She actually says that she’s 11 years old by that era’s culture, but she might not be what we perceive as 11 years old. In ancient Japan, everyone becomes older by a year during New Year’s, thus you might be a year older than you actually are during certain parts of the year.
- Link to Tako Tokitaka’s JP Wikipedia.
- I explained the age thing earlier, so go scroll up if you missed it. Also, I wanted to mention that you were one-year-old when you were born back then. Yes, you don’t start at zero years old, you start at one. One more thing, Tama is usually a pet’s name in Japan.
- Yes, you can actually see Mount Sanbe from Izumo Grand Shrine. Also a link to Mount Sanbe: https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/2308/
Well here’s to you managing to stick with this one.
Is this a fantastic novel
I read more articles because of this one chapter, and that’s a good thing. Thanks for the chapter. I’ll stick around.
Looks like it could get interesting.
It’s funny, the only other time I encountered sun was the shakuhachi – the Japanese flute that is 1 shaku and 8(hachi) sun long.
Also, I love it when translators research things and leave links to them. Thanks for that.