Introduction to Konjaku Monogatarishū （今昔物語集）

I've decided to mix in some translation/analysis posts on another work that I've had (brief) exposure to: Konjaku Monogatarishū （今昔物語集）, or Compilation of Stories from the Past, a collection of Buddhist and secular tales written and collated towards the end of the Heian period (794-1185). Other than my prior exposure to it, one reason why I selected Konjaku is because, in many ways, it can be contrasted with Shunshoku Umegoyomi. The latter was written in the late Edo period, while the policy of sakoku was still in effect. It can thus be seen primarily as the product of an introverted Japan, one that shunned external influence. This juxtaposes very nicely with Konjaku, which consists of more than 1000 stories, including ones from India （天竺（てんじく））, China （震旦（しんたん））, and Japan （本朝（ほんちょう））. Moreover, the presence of a strong Buddhist influence on many of the stories is a clear sign of foreign source material. Finally, the large difference in time periods between the two works (1100s vs. 1830s) allows us to compare and contrast premodern Japanese from different eras and perhaps trace some of its evolution.

Fig. 1: An example
of the poor quality
of the text in the
Suzuka Manuscript
(from vol. 2,
tale 2, page 1)

One practical similarity that Konjaku has with Umegoyomi is that high quality scans of it are freely available online, this time from Kyoto University. The version that Kyoto University has made available is the Suzuka Manuscript （鈴鹿家旧蔵本）. According to Wikipedia, this is the oldest extant copy of Konjaku, dating back 700 to 800 years. Unlike Umegoyomi, however, a kanji/kana transcription in a print typeface is provided alongside the scanned copy. This will prove very useful, as Konjaku does not contain any furigana and is quite kanji-dense. Moreover, whereas the copy of Umegoyomi I've been referring to is a woodblock print that imitates handwritten Japanese of the late Edo period (and is thus slightly easier to read than actual handwriting), the Suzuka Manuscript is handwritten and of poor legibility in many places (see fig. 1). I can't imagine I would get very far trying to read such a work in just its original, handwritten form. My plan at the moment is to translate one or two stories from each of the 3 sections of Konjaku.

Regarding the name, although 「今昔」 literally means "present and past", and not just "past", it is actually a reference to the opening line of many of the tales in the compilation, which starts with the phrase 「今は昔」 ("it is now a long time ago...", or more idiomatically: "once upon a time..."). The phrase is written as 「今昔」 in Chinese, and was co-opted as the title for the collection. Throughout Konjaku, I expect we will see numerous other signs of this strong Sinitic influence.

List of Translations:

Vol. 2:

1. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 1)
2. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 2)
3. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 3)
4. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 4)
5. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 5)
6. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 6)
7. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 7)
8. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 8)
9. Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 9)

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: Kihei-don (part 2)

Fig. 1: それを何
の角のと言て。

Continuing the discussion from last time about Kihei:

"And it just won't end, the wife is constantly quarreling [with Kihei] (fig. 2) about this and that (fig. 1)."

Fig. 2: 三日
にあげず内證
はもめが絶や
アしませんは。

The first thing to note in fig. 1 is the irregular furigana for 「角」, which is normally read by itself as 「かど」 ("corner"/"edge"), 「かく」 ("angle", among other things), or 「つの」 ("horn"). I took it here to mean "corner", since it fits the context and (sort of) fits the furigana. "Angle" might make sense too, but that feels like a Meiji-era repurposing of the kanji (though I have no etymological information at the moment to back this up).

Edit: as Matt points out in the comments, 「何の角の」 is probably the same as the modern 「何の彼の」, which just means "this or that".

Edit: after changing 「ないしやう」 in fig. 2 to mean "wife", I'm not really sure if "in every corner" makes sense. Perhaps it means "in every way"?

Fig. 2 starts off with the phrase「三日にあげず」, which just means "constantly"/"frequently".

I had difficulty deciphering the second kanji in 「ないしやう」. Since in the previous post, Yonehachi and Tanjirou were discussing Yonehachi's household, the most likely choice seemed to be 「内所（ないしょ）」 ("kitchen"), despite the absence of a long vowel in the modern version. We've previously seen weird ways of writing 「所」 (such as in fig. 3 of this post), so that's my (tentative) choice.

Fig. 3: 私も
全体おま
はんの。

Edit: as explained by Chris in the comments below, the second kanji in 「ないしやう」 is actually 「證」, the traditional form of 「証」. 「内証」 does technically mean "secret" or "one's circumstances (esp. fiscal)", but as Chris indicated, there's an older meaning of "wife". Or as listed in Koujien, 「妻または妾」: "a wife or concubine".

「もめ」 is of course 「揉め」 ("quarrel"/"dispute").

「絶やアしません」 seems to be some sort of colloquial version of 「絶えません」 where 「絶える」 has been nominalized to 「絶」, with the interjection 「やア」 between the noun and the verb 「する」, likely for emphasis.

Fig. 4: 養子に行
しつたときから。

"Since you went to [become a] son-in-law (fig. 4), I've also really (fig. 3) been thinking about wanting to leave to change houses (fig. 5) and so my feelings have been troubled, but (fig. 6) because [Kihei] is that kind of ill-tempered [person] (fig. 7), [he's] being stubborn and [says he] won't let me leave (fig. 8)."

Fig. 5: 住かへ
に出たいと
思つて。

Note the unusual presence of (what seems to be) a sokuon between 「し」 and 「た」. Given the context, it would make more sense to have the past tense of 「する」, 「した」, where 「しつた」 is.

Edit: as Matt suggested in the comments, the kanji before 「しつた」 is 「行」, not 「何」. The calligraphed version of 「行」 is similar to that observed in fig. 2 of this post. As for the meaning, 「行しつた」 → (convert to modern kana orthography) 「行しった」 → (convert to modern okurigana) 「行かしった」 → (convert from dialectal variant to standard version) 「行かしゃった」. At this point, we just have the honorific past tense of 「行く」.

Fig. 6: 氣をもんで居ました
けれども。

The use of the 「かへ」 pattern in fig. 5 is reminiscent of previous posts, such as this one (see fig. 4). As explained in that post, it can be viewed as grammatically equivalent to 「か」.

Edit: another correction: 「住かへ」 is actually just the same as 「住み替え」 ("to change houses"), not a colloquial variant of 「住か」. This is something I should've picked up on, since the particle 「に」 doesn't make sense here if it were just a noun ― it would've been 「を」, or maybe 「は」.

The first kanji in fig. 6 seems to be 「氣」, but it's not entirely clear from the kuzushiji. The meaning and the top radical of the kanji certainly fit, but it's possible that it could be a variant version of 「氣」, with a radical other than 「米」 in the bottom left.

Fig. 7: どうも
あゝいふ意地
わるだから。

「もんで」 is 「揉む」 in the continuative form （連用形）, and here has the meaning "to be troubled about"/"to worry over".

In fig. 7, note the writing of 「意地悪」 ("unkind"/"ill-tempered") as 「意地わる」. This is known as mazegaki, and is stated on Wikipedia as having "originated with modern reforms" (that is, the orthographic reforms that occurred starting with the Meiji period).

Fig. 8: ゑこぢ
になつて出す
めへと。

There is a comprehension problem with mazegaki because "in some respects it makes the text more difficult to read, as it is not clear that the hiragana are part of a content word, and not okurigana or performing a grammatical function (inflection or particles)". It's very interesting to see that this practice existed, at least to some degree, even during the late Edo period.

The word 「ゑこぢ」, in fig. 8, is the same as the modern word 「意固地（えこじ）」 ("obstinate" or "stubborn").

Finally, the word 「出すめへ」 can be understood as the grammatical equivalent of 「出すまい」 ("won't let [me] leave"), as explained for 「知れめへ」 in fig. 1 of this post.

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: Kihei-don

Fig. 1: よね
「宅のようふす
は大変サ。

Fig. 2: 鬼兵衛どん
の氣じやア。

We've spent a lot of time talking about Tanjirou's house until now. Now we finally learn a little bit about where Yonehachi lives. Last time, Tanjirou had just asked Yonehachi how things were at her house. She replies:

"The state of affairs at [my] house is dreadful (fig. 1). It's that Kihei-don wants (fig. 2) to be called "master" by everyone (fig. 3)."

Notice how in the previous sentence (fig. 5 of this post), the 「す」 in 「よふす」 was written with the common 「寸」. Yet just one sentence later, 「春」 was used instead. I'd really like to know if there's any rhyme or reason behind the selection ― perhaps some undertone implied by them.

Edit: according to Chris in the comments below, there has been no prior evidence of a pattern in kana selection.

Fig. 3: 皆に
旦那さんと
いはれてへ
心持で居ま
すのサ。

Fig. 4: それ
だけれど

Deciphering the kanji for "Kihei" was quite challenging, since there are so many possibilities. The first one was quite easy to determine to be 「鬼」, but for the latter two, I turned to Tangorin's name search. Note that which kana you search with matter ― only 「きへい」 brought up a result with the correct first character （「鬼」）, while only 「きへえ」 brought up results with 「兵衛」 for the second and third kana.

The honorific 「どん」 is a dialectic form of 「どの」, a polite suffix, often used for apprentices. In any case, we can assume that it possesses less authority than "master".

"Even so (fig. 4), the situation was also like that even when his wife was still in good health, so (fig. 5) why has it turned out like that? (fig. 6)"

Fig. 6: どふして
そふいふ様に
いきますのか。

The first thing to note here is (from fig. 5) the word 「在世（たつしや）」, which means "being alive" and is read as 「ざいせい」 in modern Japanese. The irregular reading comes from the word 「達者」, meaning "in good health" and read as 「たっしゃ」. The meanings are clearly similar, so Tamenaga just interchanged their readings.

Fig. 5: 御内室
の在世な時
さへあのとふり
の理由だもの
を。

Also in fig. 5, note the word 「理由（わけ）」, which uses a rare reading while having the same meaning as 「わけ」 in modern Japanese: "circumstances"/"situation".

Finally, at the end of fig. 5 is the phrase 「ものを」, which functions in the same way as it did in the previous post (fig. 2).

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1:The Apprentice Girl (part 5)

Fig. 1: 主「ナニサ
隠すどこじやア
ねへ。

Back to Tanjirou yet again:

"What are you talking about? I'm in no position to hide anything (fig. 1). This [place] is exactly what it looks like, so carefully examine it, if you want (fig. 2)."

Fig. 2: 此姿
だものを。
よくつもつて
見るがいゝ。

The first thing to note is the expression 「ナニサ」, which is defined in Kōjien as "a word used to oppose the words of the other party" （相手の言動に反発して言う語）. It also says it's primarily used by women, but Tanjirou hasn't hesitated in the past about using gender-specific words/phrases.

Also keep in mind the unusual kuzushiji choice for 「す」 of 「春」, which we saw once before (fig. 5).

Edit: As explained by Matt in a comment below, 「どこ」 in fig. 1 is an abbreviated version of 「どころ」. Both mean "to be in the position", a pattern that was encountered previously (fig. 2).

I didn't know how to parse the beginning of fig. 2 other than to assume that there was a sentence ending after 「だ」, but that assumption seems a little tenuous since there's no period there.

Edit: The use of 「だ」 is likely analogous to possessive particle 「の」, as suggested by yudantaiteki. Although in modern Japanese, 「だ」 is never used in this situation, it certainly could have been during the Edo period.

Edit 2: also from that same comment by yudantaiteki, 「ものを」 can be interpreted as here as 「だから」 (see meaning 1.2 here).

Fig. 3: 其子の
咄しだつても。
何だか知れも
しねへ。

I also wasn't entirely sure about the meaning of 「つもつて見る」, but 「つもって」 is likely the continuous form of 「積もる」. The overall phrase is probably an older form of the verb 「見積もる」, which means "to estimate", but "to examine" seemed more appropriate in this context.

"Regardless of what that girl said, she didn't know what she was [talking] about (fig. 3)."

Once again, we see the unusual kanji  「咄」, something that surfaced in the past (fig. 4), for 「はなし」. However, unlike that previous occurrence, 「し」 is okurigana and not part of the kanji's reading, another example of irregular okurigana rules during the Edo period.

As for 「知れ」, 「も」 is a bound particle that, when it is preceded by a verb, is preceded by that verb's continuative form （連用形）. The verb 「知る」 can be either a yodan verb with ra-conjugation or a shimo-nidan verb; in this case, it must have the shimo-nidan conjugation, since only that one has 「知れ」 for its continuative form.

Edit: as explained by Matt in the comments below, 「知れもしねへ」 is likely a dialectal/archaic form of 「知りもしない」, or "not even know (x)".

Fig. 4: マアそり
やアそふと。

"Well, that's that (fig. 4). How are things at your house? (fig. 5)," Tanjirou asked.

Fig. 5: 宅のよふす
はどふだノ

The only confusing point here is the ambiguous use of 「宅」 to refer to Yonehachi's house in fig. 5. It's not entirely clear from just this sentence that Tanjirou is referring to her house, but that will become more clear in the next post.

Also interesting is the use of 「の」 as the interrogative particle (notably written with katakana here), something that hasn't been seen before in Umegoyomi.

Finally, something I picked up on here is that there are no periods at the end of a character's lines (i.e., when another person starts speaking immediately afterwards). This suggests that the use of periods in Umegoyomi was not to indicate the end of sentences, but to separate them. There would have been no need to include a period at the end of fig. 5, since Yonehachi's name would have appeared in the top right corner of the next sentence, indicating that she was talking now anyway.

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1:The Apprentice Girl (part 4)

Fig. 1: 主「ナニ
つまらねへ。

Now we return to Tanjirou, who doesn't seem too happy about Yonehachi's accusations:

Fig. 2: どうして女房
どころなものか。

"Don't be absurd (fig. 1). How could I be in a position to have a wife? (fig. 2) And just which family's daughter is this girl anyway?" (fig. 3), Tanjirou asked. 

Note the use in fig. 1 of the colloquial equivalent of the word 「つまらない」 to mean "absurd" or "foolish" ― one of its secondary meanings.

Fig. 3: そして其子
は何所の娘だらふ

In fig. 2, Tanjirou utilizes the "compound" word 「女房どころ」. I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret this, but I took the suffix 「どころ」 to mean the compound as a whole referred to the place where the prefixed word （「女房」, or wife） was located. Matt explained this in a comment for the next post ― it means "to be in the position".

Although nothing in fig. 3 directly suggests the word "family", I translated it as such because it was implied through the use of the word 「娘」 ("daughter"/"girl"). As we see here, 「どこ」 can be used for both the physical house and the family associated with it.

Fig. 4: よね「なんだか
宅は八百屋だと
いひましたヨ。

Finally, note how Tanjirou softens the ending with 「だらふ」 （「だろう」 in modern Japanese）, rather than asking directly with an interrogative particle, such as 「か」. Although I'm no expert on Edo-period social norms, Tanjirou's attempt to sound coy here automatically suggests to me that he's concealing something.

"I think she said her family is in greengrocing (fig. 4). But that's doesn't really matter, does it? (fig. 5) More importantly, you (fig. 6) probably didn't even bother to remember the likes of me now, did you? (fig. 7)"

Fig. 5: それやア
マアいゝじやア
ありませんか。

Note the historical kana orthography in fig. 4 that leads to 「八百屋」's furigana to be written as 「やをや」, rather than 「やおや」. We've seen 「お」 be replaced by 「ほ」 before, but I don't think 「を」 instead of 「お」 has been encountered. There's a parallel to the modern use of 「は」 as a particle even though it's pronounced as 「わ」 in that the modern particle 「を」 is pronounced as 「お」 ― both are cases of historical kana orthography not being entirely eliminated in modern Japanese.

Fig. 6: おまはんマア
それよりか。

We see Yonehachi's histrionics begin with fig. 7, and it was here that I ran into a little trouble with the translation.

But first a few notes: the frequent use of 「マア」 here implied a certain nonchalance (in this case, on Yonehachi's part) regarding the entire situation.

Also, the word 「なんざア」 essentially means the same thing as 「など」, which I interpreted to mean "the likes of" here. As explained here, 「なんざあ」 is a sound-shifted word that can be broken down into 「なんぞ」＋「は」.

I couldn't figure out what kanji corresponded to 「くん」 in fig. 7 or what its meaning was. It seemed to me the top radical might be 「口」 or 「日」, while the bottom one might be 「六」, but I couldn't find any matching kanji. However, the overall meaning of the sentence was nevertheless relatively easy to decipher, given the context.

Edit: Using yudantaiteki's suggestion that the kanji before 「なさる」 might be 「呉」, I searched for it online and came up with a Google Books result, which appears to contain an unrelated example that confirms that the kanji is indeed 「呉」.

Fig. 7: 今じや
ア私のこと
なんざア
思い出しもして
はお呉なさる
まいね。

Fig. 8: そして
噂にきいたお
内君のことを
かくさづとも。

「なさるまい」, as explained here, is the honorific verb 「為さる」 ("to do") in the predicative form （終止形） combined with 「まい」, which is an auxiliary verb that both negates the preceding verb and makes it a "guess" (i.e., it is uncertain).

At first, the final character in fig. 7 might appear to be the kanji 「子」, and since the attributive form （連体形） of the verb 「まい」 is also 「まい」, it would make grammatical sense as well. However, it obviously doesn't fit the context, and it turns out it's actually a kuzushiji for 「ね」.

"And it's OK (fig. 8) even if you don't try to cover up what I heard in the rumors about you having a wife, isn't it?", Yonehachi asked (fig. 9).

The only real confusion here was which kanji were used for 「かみさん」. Although the meaning was quite clear, I wasn't sure about the first kanji and had no idea about the second. The first looks a lot like 「円」, but not only does it have no relation to 「かみ」 in terms of the meaning or reading, it's a simplified kanji （新字体）; the kanji in use when Umegoyomi was written would have been 「圓」. This makes it unlikely that it would have been used here (though it is certainly still possible, as this copy of Umegoyomi was written in a cursive script, which frequently used simplifications that were then later made standard with the post-WW2 orthographic reforms).

Edit 2: from a comment below, it's pretty clear that the first kanji is 「内」. First of all, this is reminiscent of the use of that kanji to write 「かみさん」 as 「内室」 previously (see fig. 7), and makes sense in terms of meaning, as before. Second, the kuzushiji form of the kanji matches the typewritten one quite closely. Finally, as with 「内室」, 「内君(うちぎみ)」 is a compound word with its own reading/meaning ― in this case, it's a polite word for another person's wife.

Edit: also with yudantaiteki's help, it looks like the kanji after 「内」 is 「君」. Now this doesn't make sense based on the readings, but it fits in terms of function, since 「くん」 is used for a purpose similar to 「さん」. The bottom of the calligraphed kanji might not look correct, but after finding examples such as the one in fig. 10, I was convinced.

Fig. 9: いゝじ
やアありま
せんかヱ

Fig. 10: calligraphic
 form of「君」
(source) 

Note that the verb 「かくさづ」, spelled 「かくさず」 in modern kana orthography, is the verb 「隠す」 ("to cover up"/"to conceal") in the imperfective form （未然形）, 「かくさ」, followed by the negative auxiliary verb 「ず」.

In fig. 9, we see the refrain 「いゝじやアありませんか」 repeated, with Yonehachi once again expressing her supposed disinterest in the entire issue of Tanjirou having a wife (though that's obviously not actually the case). Note that the use of 「ヱ」 at the end of the sentence is phonetically identical to the previously encountered (see fig. 4) dialectical pattern 「かへ」, which is equivalent to 「かい」 in modern kana orthography.

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1:The Apprentice Girl (part 3)

Fig. 1: 十五日を
楽しみにして。
出て来てんで
ありまさアな。

Fig. 2: 日頃の
念力とはいふ
ものゝ。

"Well, looking forward to the 15th of the month, I left my house and came here (fig. 1). Due to my usual faith (fig. 2) and the grace of Myoken (fig. 4), I had the good fortune to come to know where your house was (fig. 3)."

The "15th of the month" refers to the current day (i.e., "today"), from the context. As seen before, if a character doesn't have furigana and it's not a kana, then it's probably a number kanji, or one of the common suffixes that follow them.

I wasn't entirely sure at first about why Arima came up again here, but nothing else made particular sense in this context.

Edit: as suggested by undrentide on the Japan Reference Forums, 「でありまさアな」 is likely a form of 「であります」, which is just 「です」. I can't quite figure out the verb conjugation though, so I could use suggestions there.

Edit 2: a second post by Toritoribe cleared this up. As explained here,「まさあ」 is a sound-shifted form of 「ますわ」, which is just an emphasized form of 「ます」. Therefore, 「でありまさア」 is nothing more than an emphasized form of 「であります」.

Fig. 3: 風と
したことから
おまはんの。
在家が知れる
といふは。

I interpreted the use of the kanji 「風」 ("wind") as meaning "good fortune" (as in, "the winds of good fortune"), building on the previous phrase 「日頃の念力」 ("usual faith"). It is read here using one of its on'yomi, 「ふ」.

Note how this particular "sentence" ends in 「だと」, an informal "reversal" (where the name, "Arima" in this case, comes at the beginning of the quoted clause) also observed in modern Japanese.

Fig. 4: 妙見さま
のおかげだと。

I wasn't entirely sure about either the kanji or furigana for 「空」, but it's what turned up from my searches. 「あか」 isn't a listed reading for 「空」, but 「あく」 and 「あき」 are. I'm guessing the implied meaning behind "empty" is that, as previously mentioned, the house is "lacking in various aspects". For example, it could refer to the absence of Tanjirou's supposed wife, his poverty-stricken state, or his physical infirmity.

Edit: Chris has suggested in the comments below that the furigana for 「空」 might be 「あう」, which would give the compound 「空家」 an overall pronunciation (rendered in modern kana orthography) of 「おうか」.

I'm still not sure how the grammar would work out in that case ― it would suggest that 「空家」 is not exactly a compound, but a verb without okurigana (which we've seen numerous examples of in Umegoyomi) followed by a noun. However, I'm not sure about how the verb conjugation would work out in this case. Also, the handwritten form of 「う」 usually has a larger first stroke, as observed in fig. 6, below.

Edit: Matt's comment below seems to have cleared up the issue. The first kanji is 「在」, and not 「空」. The confusing part about this is that the bottom left stroke is missing, but that's something I should've picked up on, since it was seen before, in fig. 3 of this post.

"Although I'm happy to see you, I'm not entirely cheerful either (fig. 5) ― [because of] the rumor about you having a wife. Has she gone somewhere today? (fig. 6)"

Fig. 5: 嬉しいに付て
氣がるくなは。

There are two particles of interest in fig. 5. The first is 「に」, which is conjunctive in function in this case and indicates concession ("although"). It shows up in modern Japanese as 「のに」.

Fig. 6: おかみさん
があるとの噂。
今日はどこぞへ
お他出のかへ

The second particle of interest is 「は」, which is of course the informal modern emphatic particle, and can be seen as a less strong version of 「よ」. Once again, we observe colloquial and informal speech creeping into the dialogue in Umegoyomi. In accordance with traditional kana orthography, the particle is written using the kana 「は」, and not 「わ」, as in modern Japanese. This is something to watch out for, as it can easily lead to confusion with the topic particle, written as 「は」 in both modern and classical Japanese.

In fig. 6, we see the term 「どこぞ」, which is just a vaguer form of 「どこか」 ("somewhere"). It might be interpreted as an attempt on Yonehachi's part to appear not too concerned about Tanjirou's wife to him.

The kanji used for 「おいで」 are normally read as 「たしゅつ」, and mean "going out", so the meaning fits. We saw this once before with 「おいで」, but that time the kanji were 「在宅」 (meaning "being in" or "being at home"). Since 「おいで」 has a variety of meanings, including "coming", "going", and "being", it is very likely Tamenaga is using kanji compounds here with his desired meaning (and ignoring their readings) to clarify the meaning of 「おいで」 for benefit of the reader while preserving the ambiguous nature of the term within the context of the novel.

The final 「かへ」 is equivalent to the modern day informal interrogative sentence ending 「かい」, as previously encountered (see fig. 4).

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1:The Apprentice Girl (part 2)

Yonehachi continues her description of Tanjirou's supposed wife from last time:

Fig. 1: またおかみさん
は。とふして家には
居ないといふし。

"Also, [Arima] said that your wife was passing [the time] not at home (fig. 1)"

I spent quite a bit of time trying to decipher the meaning of 「とふして」 here, but couldn't find anything that made sense. It's clearly distinct from the preceding 「は」, since there's a period. I checked for both verbs and nouns, but there wasn't anything helpful, so I could use some assistance here.

Edit: yellow9031 suggested in the comments that 「とふして」 is the classical kana equivalent of 「とおして」, which would be written with kanji as 「通して」, or "to pass [the time]".

Fig. 2: 聞ばきく
ほどなんだか
おまはんのよふ
な心持で。

"The more I heard, I somehow started getting the feeling that it was you (fig. 2), but no matter how much I heard, it didn't settle things [for me], so I specifically made sure to tell that girl that she was forbidden to speak about this matter to anyone (fig. 3)"

 I wasn't sure what to make of 「モウゝゝ」 ― it didn't fit any modern Japanese patterns, so I assumed it was a redoubling of 「モウ」, for emphasis.

Fig. 3: モウゝゝ
どうも氣が濟ねへ
から其子によくゝゝ
私の聞たことを口
留して。置いて。

Note that 「氣が濟ねへ」 is just a dialectical version of the modern Japanese phrase 「気が済まない」. The kanji here were of course in kyuujitai, and therefore a little difficult to read without prior knowledge of kyuujitai or taking the context into account.

「私（わちき）」 is of course a premodern reading of 「私わたし」, which we encountered previously. Also note the now-nonstandard writing of 「口止め」 ("forbidding to speak") as 「口留」 ― this isn't particularly surprising, given the relatively similar meanings of 「止める」 and 「留める」 in modern Japanese, but nevertheless made the kanji a bit harder to decipher.

Fig. 4: 今日の朝
参りには。なん
でも尋ねよふと
思つて。

I was a little uncertain about the kanji for 「おいて」. 「置」 is of course the most obvious and logical choice, but I can't see the connection between the printed character and the kuzushiji version in fig. 3.

"This morning, I decided that no matter what, I would come and look into this (fig. 4)."

The main issue I had with fig. 4 was figuring out the kanji from which the kuzushiji form of the furigana 「け」, from 「今日」, comes from. The closest match I could come up with, 「介」. I ran into a similar issue with 「け」 in another post, but the two kuzushiji forms don't appear to be related.