[ p. 167 ]
¶ SECT. XLVI.—EMPEROR JIM-MU (PART III.—THE GIGANTIC CROW AND GODS WITH TAILS)
“Then His [^932] Augustness the Great-High-Integrating-Deity again commanded and taught, saying: ”August son of the Heavenly Deity! make no progress hence into the interior. The savage Deities are very numerous. I will now send from Heaven a crow eight feet [long]. [^933] So that crow eight feet [long] shall guide thee. Thou must make thy progress following after it as it goes.“ So on [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] making his progress following after the crow eight feet [long] in obedience to the Deity’s instructions, he reached the lower course of the Yeshinu [^934] river, where there was a [137] person catching fish in a weir. [^935] Then the august child of the Heavenly Deity asked, saying: ”Who art thou?“ He replied, saying: ”I [1] am an Earthly Deity [2] and am called by the name of Nihe-motsu no Ko.“ [3] (This is the ancestor of the Cormorant-Keepers of Aha.) [4] On [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] making his progress thence, a person with a tail [5] came out of a well. The well shone. Then [His Augustness] asked: ”Who art thou?“ He [ p. 168 ] replied, saying: ”I am an Earthly Deity, and my name is Wi-hika.“ [6] This is the ancestor of the Headmen of Yeshinu). [7] On his forthwith entering the mountains, [8] His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko again met a person with a tail. This person came forth pushing the cliffs apart. Then [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] asked: ”Who art thou?“ He replied, saying; ”I am an Earthly Deity, and my name is Iha-oshi-waku no Ko. I heard [just] now that the august son of the Heavenly Deity was making his progress. So it is for that that I have come to meet thee.“ (This is the ancestor of the Territorial [138] Owners of Yeshinu). [9] Thence [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] penetrated over on foot to Uda. [10] So they say: ”The Ugachi of Uda." [11]
[ p. 169 ]
¶ SECT. XLVII.—EMPEROR JIM-MU (PART IV.—THE UKASHI BRETHREN).
So then there were in Uda two persons, Ukashi the Elder Brother and Ukashi the Younger Brother. [12] So [ p. 170 ] [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] sent the crow eight feet [long] in advance to ask these persons, saying: “The august child of the Heavenly Deity has made a progress [hither]. Will ye respectfully serve him?” Hereupon Ukashi the Elder Brother waited for and shot at the messenger with a whizzing barb to make him turn back. So the place where the whizzing barb fell is called Kabura-zaki. [13] Saying that he intended to wait for and smite [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], he [tried to] collect an army. But being unable to collect an army he said deceitfully that he would respectfully serve [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], and built a great palace, [14] and in that palace set a pitfall, and waited. Then Ukashi the Younger Brother came out to [15] [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] beforehand, and made obeisance, saying: “Mine [16] elder brother Ukashi the Elder Brother has shot at and turned back the messenger [139] of the august child of the Heavenly Deity, and, intending to wait for and attack thee, has [tried to] collect an army; but, being unable to collect it, he has built a great palace, and set [17] a gin within it, intending to wait for and catch thee. So I have come out to inform [thee of this].” Then the two persons His Augustness Michi-no-Omi, [18] ancestor of the Ohotomo Chieftains, [19] and His Augustness Ohokume, [20] ancestor of the Kume Lords, [21] summoned Ukashi the Elder Brother and reviled him, saying: “Into the great palace which thou [22] hast built to respectfully serve [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], be thou [23] the first to enter, and declare plainly the manner in which thou intendest respectfully to serve him; ”—and forthwith grasping the hilts of their cross-swords, playing with their spears, [24] and fixing arrows [in [ p. 171 ] their bows], they drove him in, whereupon he was caught in [25] the gin which he himself had set, and died. So they forthwith pulled him out, and cut him in pieces. So the place is called Uda-no-Chihara. [26] Having done thus, [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] bestowed on his august army the whole of the great banquet presented [to him] by Ukashi the Younger Brother. At this time he sang, saying:
“The woodcock, for which I laid a wood-cock-snare [140] and waited in the high castle of Uda, strikes not against it; but a valiant whale strikes against it. If the elder wife ask for fish, slice off a little like the berries of the stand soba; if the younger wife ask for fish, slice off a quantity like the berries of the vigorous sasaki.” [27]
“Ugh! [28] pfui! dolt! This is saying thou rascal. Ah! pfui! dolt! This is laughing [141] [him] to scorn.”
So Ukashi the Younger Brother (he is the ancestor of the Water Directors of Uda). [29]
[ p. 172 ]
[ p. 173 ]
¶ SECT. XLVIII.—EMPEROR JIM-MU (PART V.—THE EARTH-SPIDER OF THE CAVE OF OSAKA).
When [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] made his progress, and reached the great cave of Osaka, [30] earth-spiders [31] with tails, [namely] eighty bravoes, [32] were in the cave awaiting him. So then the august son of the Heavenly Deity commanded that a banquet be bestowed on the eighty bravoes. Thereupon he set eighty butlers, one for each of the eighty bravoes, and girded each of them with a sword, and instructed the butlers, saying: [142] “When ye hear me sing, cut [them down] simultaneously.” So the Song by which he made clear to them to set about smiting the earth-spiders said:
“Into the great cave of Osaka people have entered in abundance, and are p. 174 [there]. Though people have entered in abundance, and are [there], the children of the augustly powerful warriors will smite and finish them with [their] mallet-headed [swords], [their] stone-mallet [swords]: the children of the augustly powerful warriors, with [their] mallet-headed [swords], [their] stone-mallet [swords], would now do well to smite.” [33]
Having thus sung, they drew their swords, and simultaneously smote them to death.
[ p. 175 ]
¶ SECT. XLIX.—EMPEROR JIM-MU (PART. VI.—THE PRINCE OF TOMI AND THE SHIKI BRETHREN)
After this, when about to smite the Prince of Tomi, [34] he sang, saying: [143]
“The children of the augustly powerful army will smite and finish the one stem of smelly chive in the millet-field,—the stem of its root, both its root and shoots.” [35]
Again he sang:
“The ginger, which the children of the augustly powerful army planted near the hedge, resounds in the mouth. I shall not forget it. I will smite and finish it.” [36]
[ p. 176 ]
[144] Again he sang, saying:
“Like the turbinidæ creeping round the great rock in the sea of Ise [on which blows] the divine wind, [so] will we creep round, and smite and finish them.” [37]
Again when he smote Shiki the Elder Brother and Shiki the Younger Brother, [38] the august army was temporarily exhausted. Then he sang, saying:
“As we fight placing our shields in a row, going and watching from between the trees on Mount Inasa, oh! we are famished. Ye keepers of cormorants, the birds of the island, come now to our rescue!” [39]
[ p. 177 ]
¶ SECT. L.—EMPEROR JIM-MU (PART VII.—THE EMPIRE PACIFIED)
So then His Augustness Nigi-hayabi [40] waited on and said to the august child of the Heavenly Deity: “As I heard that [thou], the august child of the Heavenly Deity, hadst descended from Heaven, I have followed [ p. 178 ] down to wait on thee.” Forthwith presenting to him the heavenly symbols, [41] he respectfully served him. So His Augustness Nigi-hayabi wedded the Princess of Tomi, [42] [145] sister of the Prince of Tomi, and begot a child, His Augustness Umashi-ma-ji. [43] (He was the ancestor of the Chiefs of the Warrior-Clan, [44] of the Grandees of Hodzumi; [45] and of the Grandees of the Neck-Clan). [46] So having thus subdued and pacified the savage Deities, and extirpated the unsubmissive people, [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] dwelt at the palace of Kashibara [47] near Unebi [48] and ruled the Empire. [49]
¶ Footnotes
167:1 p. 168 The intention of the writer is here obscure, but he probably meant the following passage to form part of the dream, as is the case in the parallel passage of the “Chronicles.” The inverted commas are therefore continued in the translation. ↩︎
167:2 The characters
(ya to-garasu), with which the original of this expression is written, combined with the mention in the Preface of the “great crow,” have determined the translator to adopt the interpretation favoured by Tanigaha Shisei, viz., a “crow eight feet [long].” Motowori understands the expression to mean “an eight-headed crow.” For the arguments on both sides see the Perpetual Commentary on the Chronicles of Japan," Vol. VII, p. 16, and Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XVIII, pp. 60-62, and Vol. VIII, pp. 34-58. See also for the translation of a parallel passage Sect. XVI, Note 23. ↩︎167:3 Better known by the classical and modern form of the name, Yoshino. It seems to signify “good moor.” Yoshino, which is in the province of Yamato, has from the earliest times been renowned for the beauty of its cherry-blossoms, and also figures largely in the early and mediaeval history. Motowori points out geographical difficulties in the Imperial progress as here detailed. In the “Chronicles,” the verisimilitudes of the journey are better observed. ↩︎
167:4 p. 169The character
, here rendered “weir” for want of a better word, is defined as signifying “a bamboo trap for catching fish.” ↩︎167:5 The First Personal Pronoun is here represented by the humble character
, “servant.” The other tailed deity mentioned immediately below uses the same expression. ↩︎167:6 See Sect. I, Note 11, and Sect. XLIV, Note 22, for the considerations that make it better to translate thus than to render by “I am a Deity of the Land.” ↩︎
167:7 I.e., “Offering-Bearing Child.” Here and elsewhere the word ko, “child,” as part of a proper name, should be understood as a kind of Honorific, employed probably in imitation of Chinese usage. ↩︎
167:8 Ada No U-kaki. This must be understood to be a “gentile name” (kabane). The etymology of Ada is uncertain. The practice of fishing with the help of cormorants, though now almost obsolete, seems to have been very common in Japan down to the Middle ages. ↩︎
167:9 Commenting on a similar passage a little further on, Motowori, naively remarks: “It appears that in very ancient times such persons were occasionally ”to be met with." It should be added that they are also mentioned in Chinese literature. ↩︎
168:10 I.e., “Well-Shine.” ↩︎
168:11 Yeshinu no obito. For Yeshinu see Note 3. ↩︎
168:12 I.e., disappearing among the mountains. ↩︎
168:13 Yeshinu no kuzu. Kuzu is a contraction of kuni-nushi (properly
, with which characters the name is found written at the commencement of Sect. CVIII, though elsewhere the semi-phonetic rendering 
or 
is employed). ↩︎168:14 Etymology obscure. ↩︎
168:15 Uda no ugachi. The meaning of the sentence is: “Hence the name of the Ugachi of Uda.” Ugachi signifies “to penetrate.” But the etymology seems a forced one, and Motowori is probably correct in identifying this “gentile name” with that of Ukashi, mentioned in the next sentence. ↩︎
169:1 p. 171 Ye-ukashi and Oto-ukashi. Ukashi, as in the other compounds where it occurs, is probably in reality the name of a place. Its etymology is doubtful. ↩︎
170:2 I.e., Barb Point or Cape. ↩︎
170:3 Or, hall. ↩︎
170:4 The original has a respectful expression, which is elsewhere translated “waited on.” ↩︎
170:5 The First Personal Pronoun is represented by the respectful character
“servant.” ↩︎170:6 Literally, “spread.” This gin is supposed to have been of the kind whose top closes down after the man or animal has fallen into it. ↩︎
170:7 p. 172 I.e., “Grandee of the Way.” This gentile name is said in the “Chronicles ”to have been bestowed on this worthy in consideration of the services as a guide to his master the Emperor on the occasion of the latter’s progress eastward. ↩︎
170:8 See Sect. XXXIV, Note 12. ↩︎
170:9 I.e., perhaps “Great Round Eyes,” supposed to be a descendant of His Augustness Ama-tsu-kume (see however Sect. XXXIV, Note 7 for a discussion of the etymology of Kume). ↩︎
170:10 See Sect. XXXIV, Note 13. ↩︎
170:11 The expression i ga, here rendered “thou,” is, as Motowori remarks, “extremely hard to understand,” and its interpretation as an insulting form of the Second Personal Pronoun is merely tentative. Perhaps the text is corrupt. ↩︎
170:12 The insulting Second Pronoun ore is here employed. ↩︎
170:13 Here again we have an expression written phonetically and of uncertain import. The translator has followed Motowori in tentatively rendering it according to the ideographic reading of the parallel passage of the “Chronicles.” ↩︎
171:14 Literally “struck by.” ↩︎
171:15 I.e., Uda’s Blood-Plain. ↩︎
171:16 This Song is unusually difficult of comprehension: and the latest important commentator, Moribe, seems to show satisfactorily that all his predecessors, Motowori included, more or less misunderstood it. He had at least the advantage of coming after them, and the translator has followed his interpretation excepting with regard to isukukashi, the Pillow-Word for “whale,” which is here rendered “valiant,” in accordance with the traditional view of its signification. The soba tree is identified by Motowori with the Kaname-mochi, “Photinia glabra,” This saka-ki, taken together with its Prefix ichi (here rendered “vigorous”) is supposed in this place to signify, not the usual Cleyera japonica, but another species popularly known as the bishiya-gaki, whose English or Latin name the translator has failed to ascertain. It has a large berry, whereas the soba has a small one. . . The following is the gist of Moribe’s exposition of the general signification of the Song: “If for Ukashi’s mean design to kill the Emperor in a gin there be sought a term of comparison in the whales and woodcock forming the Imperial banquet, then in lieu of the woodcock that he expected to catch in the trap that he set, that great whale, the Imperial host, has rushed up against it. Again if, as the fishermen’s wives might do, your (i.e., you soldiers’) wives ask you p. 173 for fish, then let each of you give to his elder wife, of whom he must have grown weary, only a small and bony portion, and to his younger wife, who is doubtless his heart’s favourite, a good fleshy piece. So jocular a guess at the ”penchants of the young warriors excites their ardour, which they give vent to in the following shouts.” ↩︎
171:17 Some of the Japanese originals of this string of Interjections are of uncertain import. The translator has been guided by Motowori’s conjectures, with which Moribe mostly agrees. The exclamations are supposed not to form part of the actual Song, but to proceed from the mouths of the Imperial soldiers. The words rendered “this is saying thou rascal” (such is apparently their meaning) and those rendered “this is laughing [him] to scorn ”seem to be glosses as old as the text, which had already been obscure in the eighth century. They are not written altogether phonetically. ↩︎
171:18 Uda na Mohitori. This tribe or guild of “water-directors” was entrusted with the charge of the water, the ice, and the gruel used in the Imperial household. In later times the word Mohitori was corrupted to Mondo. ↩︎
173:1 p. 174 The etymology of this name is not clear, but readers will of course not confound it with that of the modern town of Ohosaka (Ozaka). The character rendered “cave,”
, signifies simply “apartment;” but the traditional reading is muro, which means a cave or pit dug in the earth. That the latter is the idea which the author wishes to convey becomes clear by comparison with a greater number of passages in the older literature. For a more particular discussion of this subject see Mr. Milne’s paper entitled “Notes on Stone Implements from Otaru and Hakodate,” published in Vol. VIII, part I of these “Transactions,” p. 76 et seq., where a number of passages relative to the “earth-spiders” are likewise brought together. ↩︎173:2 Tsuchi-gumo, generally written
, but here semi-phonetically 
. There is little doubt that by this well-known name, which has given rise to much conjecture, a race of cave-dwelling savages or a class of cave-dwelling robbers is intended. Motowori supposes that their name had its origin in a comparison of their habits with those of the spider. But it were surely more rational to regard it as a corruption of tsuchi-gomori, “earth-hiders,” a designation as obvious as it is appropriate. The “Chronicles” describe one tribe of them as “being short in stature, and having long arms and legs like pigmies.” For a further discussion of the subject see Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XIX, pp. 30-31, the “Perpetual Commentary on the Chronicles of Japan,” Vol. VIII, p. 35, the “Tou-ya,” Vol. XX, s.v. kumo and the “Examination of Difficult Words,” Vol. 1I, pp. 55 et seq. ↩︎173:3 p. 175 The original term is takeru (
), which might also be rendered “bandit,” or “robber chief.” ↩︎174:4 The import of this poem is too clear to stand in need of explanation. The word mitsumitsushi, here rendered “augustly powerful” in accordance with Moribe’s view, is understood by Motowori to mean “perfectly full,” in allusion to the fully or perfectly round eyes of the deity Kume, to whose name he supposes there to be a reference. Mabuchi, on the other hand, explains the word to signify “young and flourishing.” But Moribe’s view both of this and of the import of kume as “warriors ”seems so greatly preferable to any other, that the translator has not hesitated to follow him (conf. Sect. XXXIV, Note 7). The “children of the warriors” are of course the warriors themselves. With regard to the signification of the two kinds of swords here mentioned it has, however, been thought best to adhere to the usual view, and Note 10 to Sect. XXXIV should be referred to. ↩︎
175:1 p. 176 See Sect. XLIV, Notes 28 et seq. The apparent want of sequence in this portion of the narrative is not noticed by Motowori. We might endeavour to, harmonize it by supposing that after having slain the “earth-spiders,” etc., the Emperor Jim-mu turned round again to fight with the Prince of Tomi, who had harassed him in the earlier portion of his career as conqueror of Central Japan. ↩︎
175:2 The wild chive growing among the millet is of course the enemy, the Prince of Tomi and his host; and the gist of the Song is that the Imperial troops will smite and destroy them root and branch. The commentators suppose the simile to have been taken from the fields of millet which Jim-mu’s troops planted for their subsistence during the long drawn out campaigns of early days.—The “stem of its root,” so ne ga moto, is a curious expression, which is perhaps best accounted for by Moribe’s supposition that we have here a pun on Sune ga moto, “Sune’s house,” Sune being a natural abbreviation of Nagasune, the name of the Prince of Tomi (see Sect. XLIV, Note 28). ↩︎
175:3 The sense of this Song is: “I shall not forget the bitterness of seeing my brother slain by Prince Nagasune’s arrow (see the latter part of Sect. XLIV). The word hazhikami, here rendered ginger in accordance with Motowori’s dictum, is taken by Moribe to signify the xanthoxylon. p. 177 ”Resounding in the mouth" is a curious phrase here used to express bitterness. ↩︎
176:4 Motowori thus paraphrases this Song: “As the innumerable turbinidæ [-shells] creep round the great rock, so will I with the myriads of the Imperial host encompass the Prince of Tomi on every side, that there may be no outlet whereby he can escape.” The shell here mentioned is a kind of small conch. Kama-kazo no, lit, “of divine wind,” is the Pillow-Word for Ise, and is of disputed derivation, as is the word Ise itself. The curious reader should refer to Fujihara no Hikomaro’s “Inquiry into the Meaning of the Names of All the Provinces” s.v. for the legend to which the name of Ise and its Pillow-Word were anciently traced and other conjectures on the point, The “great rock” here mentioned is not otherwise known. ↩︎
176:5 Ye-shiki and Otoshiki. Shiki is the name of a district in the province of Yamato. ↩︎
176:6 This Song is a request for provisions made by the Emperor to some fishermen, who were working their cormorants along the mountain-streams. Moribe refers it to an incident, not in the war, but in the hunt, and interprets differently the word here, in accordance with its usual meaning and with older authority, rendered “as we fight.” He attributes to it the sense of “as we put our shields together,” and thinks that the poet may have compared to shields the trunks of the trees. According to this view, the Song should be viewed rather as a joke. It may be mentioned that there is good authority for considering the word tata namete, “placing shields in a row,” as a Punning Preface or Pillow-Word for words commencing with i (i being the Root of iru, “to shoot”), so that Moribe’s explanation need not involve any tautology. It seems however somewhat far-fetched.—The position of Mount Inasa is uncertain, and the name itself of obscure derivation. ↩︎
177:1 The component parts of this name, rendered according to the analogy of that in Sect. XXXIII, Note 5, may be interpreted to signify “Plenty-Swift.” The genealogy of this god is not known. ↩︎
178:2 I.e., the swords, quivers, bow, and arrows mentioned in Sect. XXXIII, as having been brought down from Heaven by the divine attendants of the Emperor Jim-mu’s grandfather. ↩︎
178:3 Tomi ya-bime, The syllable ya is inexplicable, but perhaps merely an Expletive. ↩︎
178:4 The signification of this name is by no means clear; but, rendered according to the characters with which it is written in the “Chronicles,” it would mean “Savoury-True-Hand.” ↩︎
178:5 Mononobe no murazhi. This and the two following are of course “gentile names.” ↩︎
178:6 Hodzumi no omi. Hodzumi, which is the name of a place, signifies “rice-ears piled up.” ↩︎