[296]
[SECT. CXLI.—EMPEROR IN-GIYŌ (PART V.—PRINCE KARU LOVES HIS SISTER PRINCESS SO-TOHOSHI)]
After the decease of the Heavenly Sovereign, it was settled that King Karu of Ki-nashi should rule the Sun’s succession. [^2213] But in the interval before his accession, he debauched his younger sister the Great Lady of Karu, and sang, saying:
“Making rice-fields on the mountain, making hidden conduits run on account of the mountain’s height:—to-day indeed [my] body easily touches the younger sister whom I wooed with a hidden wooing, the spouse for whom I wept with a hidden weeping.” [^2214]
This is a Hind-Lifting Song. [^2215] Again he sang, saying:
“The rattle-rattle of the hail against the bamboo-grass:—After I shall have certainly slept, what though I be plotted against by people! When I shall have slept delightfully, if there is the disorder of the cut Hydropyrum latifolium, let there be disorder,—when I shall have slept a good [297] sleep!” [^2216]
This is a Rustic Lifting Song. [^2217]
[ p. 370 ]
[ p. 371 ]
¶ SECT. CXLII.—EMPEROR IN-GIYŌ (PART VI.—WAR BETWEEN PRINCE KARU AND PRINCE ANAHO).
Therefore all the officials [1] and likewise the people of the Empire turned against the Heir Apparent Karu, and towards the August Child Anaho. Then the Heir Apparent Karu, being alarmed, fled into the house of the Grandee the Noble Oho-mahe Wo-mahe, [2] and made a provision of implements of war. (The arrows made at this [298] time [3] were provided with copper arrow-insides: [4] so those arrows are called by the name of Karu arrows.) Prince Anaho likewise made implements of war. (The arrows made by this Prince were just the arrows of the present time: [5] they are called Anaho arrows.) Thereupon Anaho raised an army, and beleaguered the house of the noble Oho-make Wo-mahe. Then, when he reached the gate, heavy ice-rain [6] was falling. So he sang, saying:
“Come thus under cover of the metal gate of the Noble Oho-mahe Wo-mahe! We will stand till the rain stops.” [7]
Then the Noble Oho-mahe came singing, lifting his hands, striking his knees, dancing, and waving his arms. The Song said:
“The courtiers are tumultuous, [saying] that the small bell of the garter of the courtiers has fallen off. Country-people, too, beware!” [8]
This Song is of a Courtier’s Style. [9] Singing thus, he [299] came near and said: “August Child of our Heavenly Sovereign! Come not with arms against the King thine elder brother. If thou shouldst come against him with arms, people will surely laugh. I [10] will secure him and [ p. 372 ] present him to thee.” [11] The Prince Anaho disbanded his troops and went away. So the Noble Oho-make Wo-mahe secured Prince Karu, and led him forth, and presented him [to Prince Anaho]. The captive Prince sang, saying:
“Maiden of heaven-soaring Karu! if thou cry violently, people will know. Cry quietly like the doves on Mount Hasa.” [12]
Again he sang:
“Maiden of heaven-soaring Karu! Come and sleep, and [then] pass on, oh maiden of Karu!” [13]
[ p. 373 ]
[ p. 374 ] [300]
¶ SECT. CXLIII.—EMPEROR IN-GIYŌ (PART VII.—DEATH OF PRINCE KARU AND PRINCESS SO-TOHOSHI).
So Prince Karu was banished to the hot waters of Iyo. [14] Again when about to be banished, he sang saying:
“The heaven-soaring birds, too, are indeed messengers. When thou hearest the voice of the crane, ask my name.” [15]
These three songs are of a Heaven-Soaring style. [16] Again he sang, saying:
“If they banish the Great Lord to an island, he will indeed make the remaining return voyage. Beware of my mat! Mat indeed in words,—beware of my spouse! [17]
[301] This Song is of a Partly Lowered Rustic style. [18] Queen So-tohoshi presented a Song [to him]. That Song said:
“Let not thy feet tread on the oyster-shells of the shore of Ahine with its summer herbs! Pass there [after] having made clear!” [19]
[ p. 375 ]
So when afterwards again, being unable to restrain her love, she went after him, she sang, saying:
“Thy going has become long past. I will go, oh! to meet thee. Wait! I can not wait.” (What is here called yama-tadzu is [what is] now [known by the name of] tatsuge.) [20]
So when in her pursuit she reached [the place where Prince Karu was, he, who had been] pensively waiting, sang, saying:
“Alas! beloved spouse, who settledst the [302] whereabouts of our grave, setting up flags in the great vale, setting up flags in the little vale of Hatsuse the hidden castle! Alas! beloved spouse, whom I see after [our many troubles], prostrate like a tsuki bow, standing like an adzusa bow!” [21]
Again he sang, saying:
“Driving sacred piles in the upper reach, driving true piles in the lower reach of the river of secluded Hatsuse, and hanging on 303 the sacrificial piles a mirror, bunging on the true piles true jewels:—if they said that the younger sister whom I love like a true jewel, that the spouse whom I love like a mirror were [there], I would go home, I would long for my country.” [22]
Having thus sung, they forthwith killed themselves together. [23] So these two songs are Reading Songs. [24]
[ p. 376 ]
[ p. 377 ]
[ p. 378 ]
¶ SECT. CXLIV.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART I.—HE SLAYS KING OHO-KUSAKA).
The august child [25] Anaho dwelt at the palace of Anaho at Isonokami, [26] and ruled the Empire. The Heavenly Sovereign sent the Grandee of Ne, [27] ancestor of the Grandees of Sakamoto, to the residence of King Oho-kusaka, on behalf of his younger brother Prince Oho-hatsuse to command thus: “I wish Thine Augustness’s younger sister [ p. 379 ] Queen Waka-kusaka to wed Prince Oho-hatsuse. So do thou present her.” [28] Then King Oho-kusaka did obeisance four times, and said: “Owing to a supposition that there might be some such Great Commands, I have kept her always indoor. [29] With reverence [30] will I respectfully offer her according to the Great Commands.” Nevertheless, thinking it disrespectful [merely] to send a message, [31] he forthwith, as a ceremonial gift [32] from his younger sister, made [the Grandee of Ne] take a pushwood jewel head-dress [33] to present [to the Heavenly Sovereign]. The Grandee of Ne forthwith stole the jewel headdress meant as a ceremonial gift, and slandered King Oho-kusaka, saying: “King Oho-kusaka would not receive the Imperial Commands, but said: ”An soror mea fiet ejusdem stirpis [viri] inferior storea?“ [34] and, grasping the hilt of his cross-sword, [35] was angry.” So the Heavenly Sovereign, having in his great anger slain King Oho-kusaka, took that King’s chief wife Nagata-no-oho-iratsume, [36] and made her Empress.
[ p. 380 ][305]
¶ SECT. CXLV.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART II.—HE IS SLAIN BY KING MA-YOWA).
After this, the Heavenly Sovereign, being on [his] divine couch, [37] was sleeping at midday. Then he spoke to his Empress, saying: “Is there anything on thy mind?” She replied, saying: “Being the object of the Heavenly Sovereign’s generous favour, what, can there be on my mind?” [38] Hereupon the Empress’s former child, [39] King Ma-yowa, who was seven years old that year, happened to be just then playing outside the apartment. [40] Then the Heavenly Sovereign, not Knowing that the young King was playing outside the apartment, spoke to the Empress, saying: “I have constantly something upon my mind, namely [the fear] that thy child King Ma-yowa, when he comes to man’s estate, may, on learning that I slew the King his father, requite me with a foul heart.” [41] Thereupon King Ma-yowa, who had been playing outside [ p. 381 ] the apartment, and whose ear had caught these words, forthwith watched for the Heavenly Sovereign to be augustly asleep, and, taking the great sword [that lay] by his side, [42] forthwith struck off the Heavenly Sovereign’s head, and fled into the house of the Grandee Tsubura. [43] The Heavenly Sovereign’s august years were fifty-six, His august masoleum is on the mound of Fushimi at Sugahara. [44]
¶ Footnotes
369:1b p. 370 See Sect. XXXII. Note 27. The wording of this sentence would make it appear that it was only after the Emperor In-giyo’s death that King Karu was chosen to succeed him. But probably King Karu had been appointed Heir Apparent (
) during his Father’s life time, as is indeed expressly stated in the “Chronicles,” and is implied in later passages of this work; and what our author meant to say was: “It was settled that King Karu should rule the ”Empire after the former Sovereign’s decease." etc. ↩︎369:2 The meaning of the Song is: “The sister, the mistress, whom I wooed with such difficulty, is now easily mine.”—The first phrase, down to “mountain’s height,” is but a “Preface ”to the poem properly so called, serving to introduce by a jeu-de-mots the word shita-dohi, which means not only “hidden conduit,” but “hidden wooing.” At the same time the implied comparison of the poet’s secret love of one so difficult to obtain as his own sister, to the course of the water in hidden conduits which is carried up the mountain’s side to irrigate a field perched in a spot almost inaccessible, is by no means devoid of aptness. The word “mountain” (yama) is in the original preceded by the Pillow-Word ashihiki (or askiki) no, whose signification is obscure and much disputed. ↩︎
369:3 Shirage-uta (written phonetically). The interpretation of the term here adopted is that which has the sanction of Motowori and Moribe. They explain it to signify that the voice rose gradually toward the latter part of the Song. ↩︎
369:4 As in the case of the preceding Song, the first phrase is but a Preface, which plays on the coincidence in sound between the words tashi-dashi, “rattling,” and tashika, “certainly,” i.e. “undisturbedly.” The signification of the Song proper is: “If I shall but have gratified my passion, what care I however men may plot against me? If I can but press my beloved to my bosom, let all things go to rack and ruin, like the Hydropyrum latifolium, a grass which, when cut, falls into disorder!”—Of the sentiment of the Song, the less said the better; but viewed simply from a literary point of view, it is certainly one of the most fascinating little productions of the early Japanese muse, and the literal rendering of it into English does it woful injustice. Moribe rightly rejects Motowori’s proposal to divide the poem in two after the words hito hakayu to mo, “plotted against by people.” Kari-komo no, “of the Hydropyrum latifolium,” is a Pillow-Word. ↩︎
369:5 Hinaburi no ageuta. The commentators have nothing more precise to tell us concerning the expression “Lifting-Song ”than that “it refers to the lifting of the voice in singing.” ↩︎
371:1 p. 372 See Sect. CXII, Note 4. ↩︎
371:2 Oho-mahe Wo-make sukune no omi (according to the old reading Oho-saki Wo-saki, etc. Motowori considers this double name to denote two brothers, the words oho and wo (“great ”and “small”) naturally lending themselves to the interpretation of “elder” and “younger.” Moribe, on the contrary, thinks that there was but one, and is supported both by the authority of the “Chronicles of Japan” and by the fact that, except in the “Chronicles of Old Matters of Former Ages.” which is believed to be a forgery, no second brother is anywhere mentioned. He explains the use of the double name in the prose text as having crept in through the influence of the text of the following Song (see Note 7 below). This seems to the translator the better view. ↩︎
371:3 I.e., “on this occasion.” ↩︎
371:4 There is here an evident corruption of the text, and Motowori aptly conjectures that arrow-heads, or, as they are called in Japanese, arrow-points, are intended. He adds that up till then arrow-heads had always been made of iron. ↩︎
371:5 The author’s style is here rather at fault; for he apparently wishes to say that the arrows employed by Prince Anaho were those which had been used in ancient times and were still the most universally employed—that, in fact, they were the usual style of arrow in contradistinction to those of Prince Karu’s invention. ↩︎
371:6 See Sect, LXXXVIII, Note 5. ↩︎
371:7 p. 373 The prince, in this Song, bids his troops follow his example, and take refuge from the rain under cover of the gate of Oho-mahe’s house. Such, at least, is the actual sense of the words used; but Motowori sees in them nothing less than a slightly veiled exhortation to his followers to attack the castle, while Moribe, on the other hand, thinks they were meant to convey to Oho-mahe a hint of his presence, and enable the beleaguered prince, for whom (as being his elder brother) Prince Anaho retained a great affection and respect, to devise some method of escape. This seems extremely far-fetched.—The word “metal” probably refers only to the fastenings of the gate, and not to its whole structure. ↩︎
371:8 The exact purport and application of this Song is disputed, but this much seems clear: that the composer of it seeks to quiet both the besieging army (out of politeness called courtiers), and the peasants who had joined the fray, by making light of the whole occurrence, which he compares to so trivial an accident as the falling of a bell from a man’s “garter” or “leggings.” The custom of ornamenting this article of dress with a smell bell is, however, not mentioned elsewhere. The word yume, which concludes the Song and is here rendered “beware,” is identified by Motowori and Moribe with the Imperative of the Verb iwu “to avoid,” “to shun,” “not to do.” ↩︎
371:9 Miya-hito-buri. This is one of the cases which lend support to Motowori’s view that the names of the so called styles of Songs are derived from their initial words. ↩︎
371:10 Written with the humble character
, “servant.” ↩︎372:11 The word used in the text, here and also in the next sentence, is that which properly denotes the presenting of tribute. ↩︎
372:12 Another reading gives this sense:
“As, if the maiden of heaven-soaring Karu cried violently, people would know, she cries quietly like the doves on Mount Hasa.”
According to this reading, the poet simply explains the reason of the undemonstrativeness of his mistress’s grief; according to that in the text, he implores her not to weep too passionately.—Amadamu or amadamu ya, “heaven-soaring, ”is the Pillow-Word for Karu, applied to it punningly on account of its similarity in sound to the word kari, “a wild. goose,” which well deserves the epithet “heaven-soaring.” Of Mount Hasa nothing is known. ↩︎372:13 p. 374 Rendered thus according to Moribe’s exegesis, which quite approves itself to the translator’s mind, this Song signifies: “Oh! maiden of Karu! come and sleep with me but once, before my impending banishment renders it hard for us to meet again.” Motowori chooses to interpret nete as a crasis of nayete, “bending.” and sees in the Song an invitation to the maiden to come quietly so as not to attract observation.—The final word, translated “maiden,” is wotome-domo, properly a Plural, but here used in a Singular sense, as watakuski-domo, “I” (properly “we”), so constantly is in the modern Colloquial Dialect. For the Pillow-Word “heaven-soaring ”see preceding Note. ↩︎
374:1 p. 375 For Iyo see Sect. V, Note 4. Its hot springs are often mentioned in early documents. Motowori identifies them with a place now called Dō-go (
). ↩︎374:2 The meaning of this Song is: “I go where perchance no messengers will reach me. But thou must ask tidings of me from the birds.” ↩︎
374:3 p. 376 Ama-da-buri. The title seems to be derived from the initial Pillow-Word of these three Songs. ↩︎
374:4 The meaning of this Song seems to the translator to be: “Even if they dare to banish me now, I shall some day return again. Respect my mat during my absence. Mat, indeed! It is my wife that must be respected.” The commentators consider the concluding words to be a command addressed to the wife, and interpret the phrase to mean, “My spouse, beware! ”But surely this makes less good sense, and moreover fails to suit the exactly parallel passage in the first Song of Sect. CXXV. By the words “Great Lord” the princely poet denotes himself,—perhaps with a touch of anger at the indignity to which he is subjected. The difficult expression funa-amari is here, in accordance with Moribe’s view rendered by the words “remaining voyage,” i.e., “the voyage homeward,” which is that part of a voyage that may be said to remain over for an outward-bound vessel when she has reached her destination. Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 50-51, should be consulted for older views of the meaning of the term. The expression “beware of my mat” reminds us that in early days the entire floor of a Japanese room was not matted according to the modern custom, but that each individual had his own mat on which to sit and sleep. Great care was always taken not to defile another’s mat, Conf, an elegy from the “Collection of a Myriad Leaves ”translated by the present writer in his “Classical Poetry of the Japanese,” p. 79. ↩︎
374:5 Hina-buri no kata-oroshi. Like most of the names of styles of Songs, this one is extremely obscure. The commentators suppose that one part was sung in a lower voice than the rest. But they are merely guessing. ↩︎
374:6 The actual words of the Song signify: “Lacerate not thy feet by walking on the unseen oyster-shells of the shore of Ahine that is covered with the summer herbs; but walk there after dawn.” (This is Keichiū’s interpretation of the word akashite, “having made clear,” and is the best in the present writer’s opinion; the latter commentators see in it a recommendation to the exiled prince to clear the grass away on either side.) The word Ahine calls, however, for special explanation in order that the full import of the poem may be brought out. It properly signifies “sleeping together” or “lying on each other,” and is therefore applicable either to the two spouses or to the summer grass. Indeed it is doubtful if it be the name of any real place at all. The word natsu-kusa may also be taken simply as a Pillow-Word for Ahine.—The total gist of the Song is in any case a warning from the maiden to her lover to guard himself against the perils of the journey. ↩︎
375:7 p. 377 The meaning of this Song is: “It is too long since thy departure. I can wait no longer, but will go and meet thee.”—The Verb “to meet” (mukahe) is in the original preceded by the Pillow-Word yama-tadzu, which forms the subject of the note appended to the poem by the compiler. The commentators are not agreed as to the precise nature of the instrument intended; but it seems to have been some kind of axe. The cause of its use as a Pillow-Word for “meeting ”is equally disputed. It only occurs written phonetically. The term tatsu-ge, by which it is explained in the text, is there written
, which does not help us much towards understanding what is meant to be designated. ↩︎375:8 So obscure is this Song in the original, that Motowori confesses himself unable to make any sense of it. The translator has adopted Mortise’s interpretation, according to which the gist of it is this: “Alas! my dear wife, who wast so willing to be for ever united to me that thou didst even fix on the spot in the funereal vale of Hatsuse where we should one day be buried together! Alas for thee, whom at last I now see again ”—In order to arrive at this meaning, Moribe is obliged to prove more less satisfactorily that the thrice repeated word wo signifies “vale ”or “mountain-fold ”the first two times that it occurs, and “grave” the third, and that komoriku no hatsuse, usually interpreted as secluded “Hatsuse,” means “the hidden castle,” the “final place,” i.e., “the tomb, It is also necessary to suppose, without authority, that the flags mentioned by the poet are meant for funeral flags, and that the words ”prostrate like a tsuki bow,“ etc., which, according to the laws of Japanese construction, precede instead of following the phrase ”alas! beloved spouse," etc., are but a Preface for the latter.—It will be seen that the foundation on which Moribe’s interpretation rests is slight, and that Motowori was scarcely to be blamed for pronouncing the Song incomprehensible. At the same time the translator has thought it better, by following Moribe, to give some translation of it than to leave the passage blank. With this warning, the student may search for other possible meanings if he pleases.—Hatsuse is a still existent and celebrated place among the mountains of Yamato. The etymology of the name, unless we accept Moribe’s mentioned above, is obscure. It is now usually pronounced Hase. The tsuki is said to be almost indistinguishable from the keyaki tree (Zelkowa keaki). The adzusa seems to be the Catalpa kaempferi, but some believe it to be the cherry tree. ↩︎
375:9 The first half of this Song down to the words “hanging on the true piles true jewels” is a Preface for what follows. The signification p. 378 of the rest is: “If my dearly loved sister-wife were still at Hatsuse in Yamato, I would fly to her either in thought or deed; but now that she has followed me into exile, the land of exile is good enough:”—Moribe, while allowing the first half of the Song to be a Preface for the rest, contends that it also should be credited with a signification bearing on the subject-matter of the main part of the Song. He supposes, namely, the religious ceremony, whatever it was, of driving piles into the bed or bank of the river and of decorating them with beads and a mirror, to have been one really performed by Princess So-tohoshi to compass her lover’s, return. In the translator’s opinion, it is more elegant and more in accordance with Archaic usage to consider the Preface as having no special significance or connection (otherwise than verbal) with the rest of the poem. The word i-kuhi or i-guhi, rendered “sacred piles,” occasions some difficulty; for it is not certain whether Motowori is right in giving to the initial syllable i the meaning of “sacred.” It may be simply what has been termed an “Ornamental Prefix,” devoid of meaning. Motowori however points out that this usage of it is restricted to Verbs, and does not occur with Substantives. Komoriku no, the Pillow-Word for Hatsuse, is rendered by “secluded” in accordance with Mabuchi’s usually accepted derivation from komori-kuni, “retired land.” Moribe, notwithstanding what he has said in his exegesis of the preceding poem (Note 8), is willing to allow that, though perhaps not its original, this was its common, meaning even in ancient times. ↩︎
375:10 I.e., committed suicide together. ↩︎
375:11 This expression is interpreted to mean that these Songs were recited in monotone, as one would read a book or tell a tale. ↩︎
378:1 I.e., Prince. In all other cases we find the word mikoto, “Augustness,” as the title by which the Sovereign is mentioned at the commencement of his reign. ↩︎
378:2 See Sect. XLV, Note 16. ↩︎
378:3 Ne no omi. The etymology of ne is obscure. ↩︎
379:4 Literally, as “tribute.” ↩︎
379:5 More literally, “I have kept her without putting her out of doors.” ↩︎
379:6 Conf. Sect. IX, Note 4 and Sect. XVIII, Note 14. ↩︎
379:7 Motowori surmises that
may be an error for 
in the original of this clause 
. ↩︎379:8
. This term corresponds to the modern 
, the name by which the presents which are exchanged at the time of betrothal are designated. ↩︎379:9 p. 380 The original term oshi-ki no tam-akadzura is extremely obscure. One of Motowori s conjectures is that the “push-wood” was a kind of frame by which the jewels or beads, strung on an erect stem of same hard material, were kept firmly attached to the head. Perhaps some notion of the coiffure intended may be gathered from the plate opposite p. 354 of Part III of Vol. VIII of these “Transactions” (Mr. J. Condor’s paper on "The History of Japanese Costume ↩︎
379:10 I.e., “An soror mea, cujus pater Imperator Nin-toku, fiet uxor præsentis Imperatoris? ”—Hujus similitudinis rusticitas et ipsis Japonicis commentatoribus pudori est. ↩︎
379:11 See Sect. XLV, Note 5. ↩︎
379:12 See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 5. ↩︎
380:1 Conf. Sect. LXIV, Note 2. ↩︎
380:2 Literally, “Hast thou anything to think about? ”The same construction is used in the next sentence. ↩︎
380:3 I.e., her son by her former husband King Oho-kusaka. ↩︎