Three Jesuit grammars of colloquial Japanese (published in 1594, 1604–1608, 1620) document the grammatical constraints in the tenses of the Japanese optative mood. These constraints affected choices made in Jesuit Japanese translations, such as that of Contemptus mundi jenbu (1596, Amakusa). The grammars claim that wishes for the past cannot be rendered in Japanese, other than when that wish is framed as a regret. Regret for the past and wishes for the future are both expressed via specific particles. Counterfactual wishes for the present can be expressed exclusively in waka (traditional Japanese verse). Counterfactual wishes for the past are rarely treated in the Jesuit grammars, but examples can be found in kyōgen (medieval colloquial comedy) scripts.