In a shrine graffito written in 1559, two carpenters complain:
其時座主ハ大キナコスデオチヤリテ一度モ焼酎ヲ不被下候
'At that time, the high priest (stingy bugger!) gave us not even a drop of shochu to drink.'
The form of the main verb 不被下候
includes 不
(negation) and 被
(passivisation), followed by the verb with そうろう
. Thus, くだされずそうろう
"(we) were not given". The order of the morphemes as is pronounced is inverted from the order as is written.
Meanwhile, a shochu manufacturer has a product 不被下候 in reference to this legendary act. They give the reading
くださらずそうろう
.
- When was it common to write in this manner?
- In what other ways was Japanese verbal morphology mapped onto kanji in this way?
- Which of the readings くださらずそうろう and くだされずそうろう is correct?