vex 復習
NHK大河ドラマでも取り上げられている「真田丸」（大阪城に隣接して築かれていた要塞の意味）が詳細に描かれた図が、松江市にある松江博物館が所蔵する「極秘諸国城図」の中に発見されました。
Map found of famous fortress that vexed shogun Ieyasu
MATSUE--A map providing details of a legendary fortress built to stifle Tokugawa Ieyasu's march on Osaka has been discovered.
The cunningly designed Sanada Maru fortress was a thorn in the side of Ieyasu (1542-1616) during the campaign to take the Toyotomi clan-held Osaka Castle.
The Matsue city government in western Japan announced the discovery on July 12.
Depicting the military emplacement in Osaka in more detail than previous diagrams, the newly found map of Sanada Maru is speculated to be the oldest work to have been painted on site.
Titled “Osaka Sanada Maru,” the artwork was discovered in a collection of paintings from the Edo Period (1603-1867) held by the Matsue History Museum.
The map designates the moat south of the stronghold as Osaka Castle’s outermost moat, giving historians clues as to how large Sanada Maru actually was.
The artwork also provides experts with new discoveries about the fortress, including the existence of a slope going down to the bottom of the castle’s moat and a smaller stronghold placed within Sanada Maru.
Built just south of Osaka Castle in December 1614 during the Winter Campaign of Ieyasu’s Siege of Osaka, the fortress was established by Sanada Nobushige (1567?-1615), a warlord commonly known as Sanada Yukimura who fought on the Toyotomi side in the battle.
Although Yukimura was killed in the battle, the legend of the fortress was much storied through history and its name ultimately became the title of the Taiga period drama on the warlord currently being aired by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK).
But details of the stronghold had long been a mystery, as it was demolished following the Winter Campaign. The siege ended with the defeat of the Toyotomi clan following the 1615 Summer Campaign.
Yoshihiro Senda, a professor of archaeology specializing in castles at Nara University and president of the institution, studied the map in detail. According to Senda, a number of historical diagrams on the fort have been produced, but the only ones believed to have been drawn on site are the newly discovered map and an example archived at the Hiroshima city library.
The discovered artwork was likely produced around 1690, making it about 60 years older than the map in Hiroshima.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607130043.html
今回取り上げる表現は、見出しにある“vex”です。「ウィズダム英和辞典」(第３版、三省堂)を引いたところ、１「(ささいなことで)…をいらだたせる、うるさがらせる、じらす；…を不安にさせる、当惑させる」２「…を悩ます、苦しめる」とありました。これら二つの意味で用いられているのだと思います。“annoy”や“irritate”よりも強意的表現で,
やや古い表現であるようです。
LDOCEでは、“to make someone feel annoyed or worried”と定義されていました。
真田丸はかつて難攻不落と言われた要塞で、大坂冬の陣では徳川軍を悩ませました。“vex”を用いることによって、真田丸がどれだけ家康を苦しめたのかを伝えようとしています。(Blue Sky)
“vex”の形容詞形である“vexatious”が取り上げられておりましたので、ぜひご覧ください。
