<< Umegawa (to proprietress): Kiyo, that blockhead of a country bumpkin has been bothering me all day and my head is splitting. Hasn't Chubei showed up yet? I sneaked away from my customer, hoping to see you, my only connection with Chubei. Narrator: She slides open the /shoji/ door as she enters, even as she will slide it tomorrow at dawning. Kiyo: I'm glad you've come. There's a crowd of girls upstairs relaxing. They're drinking and playing /ken/ to pass the time until their customers call. Why don't you join them in a game of /ken/ and have a cup of sake? It'll cheer you up. Some of your friends are there. >> Major Plays of Chikamatsu, *Meido no hikyaku, Act 2, p. 173* Tr. Donald Keene (1922-2019, RIP). According to a footnote from Keene: /ken/ is "A game of chinese origin. Each player holds out none to five fingers; the one who guesses the total held out by both wins." See also: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%8B%B3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansukumi-ken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken%27ichi In case anyone is curious or wanted to hear, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation on Nov. 20, and now I am expecting a permalink from proquest. Advance review copies of the dissertation can be made available on request to: bradklee@gmail.com . Until then, it looks like I'm locked in a combat situation with Julian Stephenson and / or one or more of his psychotic, possibly schizoidal minions "Chas", about whether or not google groups can help us decide if Nichiren Daishonin is the One True Shakyamuni Lotus Preacher, see also: http://ptlslzb87.blogspot.com/ . Hopefully the situation will improve by mid January or thereafter. Thanks again for your help and contributions earlier in time, --Brad