Inscriptions

Signed 雪香 Sekkō at low right\r\n\r\n踏や雪年木に樵つて\r\n松柏若水に星汲溜（もしくは淄）て\r\n明の鐘鯉の浮く水から\r\nぬるめ夕霞己卯の\r\n歳三節*月齊**立冝\r\n\r\nfumu ya Yukidoshi/ ki ni kotte\r\nshōhaku wakamizu/ hoshi kumitori te\r\nMin no shōri no/ uku mizu kara\r\nnurume yūgiri/ Ki u no\r\ntoshi/ Sansetsu Gessai/ rittan***???\r\n\r\nStepping into the year with Much Snow [auspicious sign for a good year]\r\nGathering pine and oak timber; the first dipping of water with a (reflected) star\r\nwhere Ming dynasty carp-shaped bell [inkstone?]\r\nLuke-warm evening mist in the year of Tsuchi no to u (or ki u=1819)\r\nA set of three poems read on the occasion of the new year*.\r\n\r\n*Sansetsu (3 occasions: New Year; Beginning of the spring; End of the year) \r\n**Gessai (the following days in a month: 1, 8, 14, 15, 18, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30)\r\n***Rittan?\r\n\r\nGist: New Year Poetic rhymes describing the preparations for the New Year which seems to be talking about the first "writing" of the year using calligraphy brushes dipping into ink made of the first scoop of water of the year.