[ p. 382 ] [306]
¶ SECT. CXLVI.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART III.—PRINCE OHO HATSUSE SLAYS PRINCES KURO-BIKO AND SHIRO-BIRO).
Then Prince Oho-hatsuse, [^2262] who at that time was a lad, was forthwith grieved and furious on hearing of this event, and went forthwith to his elder brother King Kurobiko, [^2263] and said: “They have slain [^2264] the Heavenly Sovereign. What shall be done?” But King Kurobiko was not startled, and was of unconcerned heart. [^2265] There upon King Oho-hatsuse reviled his elder brother, saying: “For one thing it being the Heavenly Sovereign, for another thing it being thy brother, how is thy heart without concern? [^2266] What! not startled, but unconcerned on hearing that they have slain thine elder brother!”—and forthwith he clutched him by the collar; dragged him out, drew his sword, and slew him. Again, going to his elder brother King Shiro-biko, he told him the circumstances as before. The unconcernedness again was like [that shown by] King Kuro-biko. [So King Oho-hatsuse,] having forthwith clutched him by the collar, pulled him along, and dug a pit on reaching Woharida, [1] buried him as he stood, [2] so that by the time he had been buried up to the loins, both his eyes burst out, and he died. [3]
[ p. 383 ] [269]
¶ SECT. CXLVII.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART IV.—DEATH OF PRINCE MA-YOWA AND OF THE GRANDEE TSUBURA).
Again he raised an army and beleaguered the house of the Grandee Tsubura. Then [the other side also] raised an army to resist the attack, [4] and the arrows that were shot forth were like unto the falling down of the [ears of the] reeds. [5] Thereupon King Oho-hatsuse, using his spear as a staff, peeped in, [6] and said: “Is perchance the maiden, with whom I spoke, in this house?” [7] Then the Grandee Tsubura, hearing these commands, [8] came forth himself, and having taken off the weapons with which he was girded, did obeisance eight times, and said: “The maiden Princess Kara, whom anon thou deignedst to woo, is at thy service. Again in addition I will present to thee five granaries. (What are called the five granaries are now the gardeners of the five villages of Kadzuraki: [9]) Meanwhile the reason why she does not come out to meet thee in person is that from of old down to the present time grandees and chiefs have been known to hide in the palaces of Kings, but Kings have not yet been known to hide in the houses of grandees. [10] Therefore I think that, though a vile slave of a grandees [11] exerting his utmost strength in the fight can scarcely conquer, yet must he die rather than desert a Prince who, trusting in him, has entered into his house.” [12] Having thus [ p. 384 ] spoken, he again took his weapons and went in again to fight. Then, their strength being exhausted and their arrows finished, he said to the Prince: “My [13] hands are wounded, and our arrows likewise are finished. We cannot now fight. What shall be done? ”The Prince [266] replied, saying: “If that be so, there is nothing more to do. [Do thou] now slay me. ”So [the Grandee Tsubura] thrust the Prince to death with his sword, and forthwith killed himself by cutting off his own head.
[ p. 385 ]
¶ SECT. CXLVIII.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART V:—PRINCE OHO-HATSUSE SLAYS PRINCE OSHIHA).
After this Karu-fukuro, [14] ancestor of the Dukes of Yama of Sasaki in Afumi, [15] said [to King Oho-hatsuse]: “At Kuta [16] [and?] on the moor of Kaya at Wata in Afumi, boars and deer are abundant. Their legs as they stand are like a moor [covered] with wogi; [17] the horns they point up are like withered trees.” At this time [King Oho-hatsuse], taking with him King Ichi-no-be-no-oshiha, made a progress to Afumi, and on reaching this moor, each of them built a separate temporary palace to lodge in. Then next morning, before the sun had risen, King Oshiha with a tranquil heart rode along on his august horse, and, reaching and standing beside King Oho-hatsuse’s temporary Palace, said to King Oho-hatsuse’s attendants: “Is he not awake yet? He must [309] be told quickly [that I am come]. It is already day-light. [18] He must come to the hunting-ground,”—and forthwith urging his horse, he went forth. Then the people who served the august person of King Oho-hatsuse [ p. 386 ] said: “As [King Oshiha] is a violent-spoken [19] Prince, thou shouldst be on thy guard, and likewise it were well to arm thine august person.” Forthwith he put on armour underneath his clothes, took and girded on him his bow and arrows, rode off on horseback, and in a sudden interval setting his horse by the side [of the other King’s], took out an arrow, shot King Oshiha down, forthwith moreover cut his body [to pieces], put [them] into a horse’s manger, and buried them level with the earth.
¶ SECT. CXLIX.—EMPEROR AN-KŌ (PART VI.—FLIGHT OF PRINCES OHOKE AND WOKE).
Hereupon King Ichi-no-be’s children [20] King Ohoke and King Woke (two Deities), having heard of this affray, fled away. So when they reached Karibawi [21] in Yamashiro and were eating their august provisions, an old man with a tattooed face came and seized the provisions. Then the two Kings said: “We do not grudge the provisions. But [ p. 387 ] who art thou? ”He replied, saying: “I am a boar-herd in Yamashiro.” So they fled across the River Kusuba, [22] reached the land of Harima, [23] entered the house of a native of that country named Shizhimu, [24] hid their persons, and worked as grooms and cow-herds.
[310]
¶ SECT. CL.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU, (I.—GENEALOGIES).
His Augustness Oho-hatsuse-no-waka-take dwelt in the palace of Asakura at Hatsuse, [25] and ruled the Empire. The Heavenly Sovereign wedded Queen Wake-kusaka-be, younger sister of King Oho-kusaka (no children). Again he wedded Princess Karu, daughter of the Grandee Tsubura, and begot august children: His Augustness Shiraka; next his younger sister Her Augustness Princess Waka-tarashi (two Deities).
¶ Footnotes
382:1 p. 382 See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 11. ↩︎
382:2 See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 6. ↩︎
382:3 Literally, “taken.” ↩︎
382:4 I.e., treated the matter with indifference. ↩︎
382:5 Literally, “without relying,” as if the speaker meant to say that the dead man could not rely on him for vengeance. ↩︎
382:6 In Yamato. The name seems to mean “new tilled field” ↩︎
382:7 Written
in the text followed by Motowori. The other reading 
is untenable. ↩︎382:8 p. 383 In order to account for such an effect from so apparently insufficient a cause, Motowori supposes that after the prince had been made to stand up to the height of his loins in the pit, the latter was filled by having stones thrown into it, whereby his feet and legs would be crushed. ↩︎
383:1 p. 384 Literally, “to wait and fight.” ↩︎
383:2 The character
, “to come” (here in accordance with English idiom rendered by “down”) is supposed to be an error. One conjectural emendation of it, viz., 
, would suggest the “plentiful” falling of the flowers of the reeds. ↩︎383:3 I.e., he lifted himself on tiptoe by leaning on his spear, so as to be able to peep in. ↩︎
383:4 The maiden thus suddenly introduced into the story is Tsubura’s daughter Kara, whom it must be supposed that the Prince had previously been wooing. ↩︎
383:5 Or rather, “Imperial words.” The application of the characters
to the words of one who was not yet actually Emperor is curious. ↩︎383:6 I.e., the places where the five granaries originally were are now the five villages inhabited by the men who cultivate the Imperial gardens. For Kadzuraki see Sect. LV, Note 1. ↩︎
383:7 Or we may, following Motowori’s proposal, take the character
in this clause in its slightly different acceptation of “subject,” which better suits the sense. The partly phonetic wording of the next sentence 
shows how the writer was perplexed by the double use of the term. ↩︎383:8 Q.d.. in comparison with a prince of the Imperial family, even a grandee was but a vile slave. ↩︎
383:9 The character
in the original of this passage 
is corrupt. But the sense remains clear, and it is scarcely worth while looking about for a probable emendation. Motowori has no satisfactory proposal to make. ↩︎384:10 The humble character
, “servant” here used for the First p. 385 Personal pronoun. The expression 
, here literally rendered “my hands are all wounded,” is very curious. Motowori reads it ita-te ohinu, i.e., “I have received (or suffered from) hurtful hands,” and compares two somewhat similar expressions found in Sect. XLIV (see Note 33 to that Sect). The translator may however point out that the similarity is much more apparent in Motowori’s kana reading than it is in the Chinese text itself. May not the sense of the present passage rather be: “All our men are wounded?” for the word te ( 
) “hand,” is frequently used in Japanese,—in compounds at least,—in the sense of “man,” somewhat as it is in English naval, mining, and other technical parlance. ↩︎385:1 p. 386 This name has the curious signification of “Korean (or Chinese) bag.” ↩︎
385:2 Afumi no Sasaki no yama no kiwi. Conf. Sect. LXIX, Note 46. ↩︎
385:3 This and the following names are altogether obscure, neither is it evident whether two places are meant, or only one. The present passage reads as if two were intended, but a little further down the author seems to be speaking of but one. ↩︎
385:4 The Hedysarum esculentum. ↩︎
385:5 Literally “the night has already finished dawning.” ↩︎
386:6 Motowori endeavours, not every successfully, to explain the use of this epithet by Prince Oho-Hatsuse’s attendants. As the sequel shows, the violence was all on the other side. ↩︎
386:1 p. 387 Literally “prince” (
). Their names apparently signify “big basket” and “little basket.” ↩︎