So far, my examples have been principally chosen from the more serious class of dodoitsu. But in dodoitsu of a lighter class the Buddhist allusions are perhaps even more frequent. The following group of five will serve for specimens of hundreds:--

[1. In the original much more pretty and much more simple:--

Sumi no koromo ni
Mi wa yatsusanedo,
Kokoro hitotsu wa
Ama-hoshi.

Ink-black-koromo [priest's or nun's outer robe] in, body not clad, but heart-one nun." Hitotsu, "one," also means "solitary," "forlorn," "bereaved." Ama hoshi, lit.: "nun-priest."]

Never can be recalled the word too quickly spoken:
Therefore with Emma's face the lover receives the prayer.[1]

Thrice did I hear that prayer with Buddha's face; but hereafter
My face shall be Emma's face because of too many prayers.

Now they are merry together; but under their boat is Jigoku.[2]
Blow quickly, thou river-wind,--blow a typhoon for my sake!

Vainly, to make him stay, I said that the crows were night crows;[3]--
The bell of the dawn peals doom,--the bell that cannot lie.

[1. The implication is that he has hastily promised more than he wishes to perform. Emma, or Yemma (Sansc. Yama), is the Lord of Hell and Judge of Souls; and, as depicted in Buddhist sculpture and painting, is more than fearful to look upon. There is an evident reference in this song to the Buddhist proverb: Karu-toki no Jizo-gao; nasu-toki no Emma-gao ("Borrowing-time, the face of Jizo; repaying-time, the face of Emma").

2. "Jigoku" is the Buddhist name for various hells (Sansc. narakas). The allusion here is to the proverb, Funa-ita ichi-mai shita wa Jigoku: "Under [the thickness of] a single boat-plank is hell,"--referring to the perils of the sea. This song is a satire on jealousy; and the boat spoken of is probably a roofed pleasure-boat, such as excursions are made into the sound of music.

3. Tsuki-yo-garasu, lit.: "moon-night crows." Crows usually announce the dawn by their cawing; but sometimes on moonlight nights they caw at all hours from sunset to saw rise. The bell referred to is the bell of some Buddhist temple: the ake-no-kane, or "dawn-bell," being, in all parts of Japan, sounded from every Buddhist tera. There is a pun in the original;--the expression tsukenai, "cannot tell [a lie]," might also be interpreted phonetically as "cannot strike [a bell]."]

This my desire: To kill the crows of three thousand worlds,
And then to repose in peace with the owner of my heart![1]