Note on Japanese Names and Pronunciation
Japanese names are given in this book in the Japanese order: that is, the surname precedes the personal name. Thus, in the name Matsuo Bashō, Matsuo is the family name, Bashō the personal name. However, Japanese usually refer to famous writers by their personal names rather than by their family names and this practice has been observed in the anthology.
The pronunciation of Japanese in transcription is very simple. The consonants are pronounced as in English (with g always hard), the vowels as in Italian. There are no silent letters. Thus, the name Ise is pronounced “ee-say.”
The Japanese words used in the text are those which have been taken into English and may be found in such works as the Concise Oxford Dictionary.
