[ p. 388 ]
¶ SECT. CLI.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU (PART II.—VARIOUS DEEDS).
So the Shiraka Clan [^2292] was established as the august proxy of Prince Shiraka. Again the Hatsuse-Clan-Retainers [^2293] were established. At this time there came over people from Kure. Again the Kahase Retainers [^2294] were established. These people from Kure [^2295] were lodged [^2296] at Kure-hara. So the place was called by the name of Kure-hara. [1]
[ p. 389 ] [311]
[SECT CLII.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU (PART III.—THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE OF THE GREAT DEPARTMENTAL LORD OF SHIKI).]
In the beginning, when the Empress [2] dwelt at Kusaka, [3] [the Heavenly Sovereign] made a progress in Kafuchi by way of the Tadagoye [4] road at Kusaka. Then, on climbing to the top of the mountain and gazing on the interior of the country, [he perceived that] there was a house built with a raised roof-frame. [5] The Heavenly Sovereign sent to ask [concerning] that house, saying: “Whose roof with a raised frame is that?” The answer was: “It is the house of the great Departmental Lord of Shiki.” [6] Then the Heavenly Sovereign said: “What! a slave builds his own house in imitation of the august abode of the Heavenly Sovereign!” . . . . and forthwith he sent men to burn the house [down], when the Great Departmental Lord, with trembling and dread, bowed his head, [7] saying: “Being a slave, I like a slave did not understand, and have built overmuch. I am in great dread.” [8] So the thing that he presented as an august offering [in token] of his entreaty was a white dog [312] clothed in cloth [9] and with a bell hung [round its neck]; and he made a kinsman of his own, named Koshihaki, [10] lead it by a string and present it [to the Heavenly Sovereign]. So the Heavenly Sovereign ordered them to desist from burning [the house].
[ p. 390 ]
¶ SECT. CLIII.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU (PART IV.—HE WOOES PRINCESS WAKA-KUSAKA-BE).
Forthwith making a progress to the residence of Queen Wakakusaka-be the Heavenly Sovereign sent the dog as a message, saying: “This thing is a strange thing which I got to day on the road. So it is a thing to woo with,”—and so saying, sent it in as a present. Thereupon Queen Waka-kusaka-be sent to say to the Heavenly Sovereign: “It is very alarming that thou shouldst make a progress with thy back to the sun. [11] So I will come up straight [to the capital], and respectfully [ p. 391 ] serve thee.” [12] When therefore he returned up and dwelt in the palace, he went and stood on the ascent [13] of that mountain, and sang, saying:
“In the hollow between the nearer and the further mountain, this Mount Kusakabe and Mount Heguri, [is] growing the flourishing broad-leafed boar-oak; at the base grow intertwining bamboos; on the top grow luxuriant bamboos:—we sleep not [now] intertwined like the intertwining bamboos, we sleep not certainly like the luxuriant bamboos: [but] oh! my beloved [313] spouse, with whom [I] shall afterwards sleep intertwined!” [14]
And he forthwith sent back a messenger with this Song. [15]
[ p. 392 ]
¶ SECT. CLIV.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU (PART V.—STORY OF THE WOMAN AKAWI-KO).
Again once when the Heavenly Sovereign going out for amusement, reached the River Miwa, [16] there was a girl, whose aspect was very beautiful, washing clothes by the river-side. The Heavenly Sovereign asked the girl, [saying]: “Whose child art thou?” She replied, saying: “My name is Akawi-ko of the Hiketa Tribe.” [17] Then he caused her to be told, saying: “Do not thou [314] marry a husband. I will send for thee, ”—and [with these words] he returned to the palace. So eighty years had already passed while she reverently awaited the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands. Thereupon Akawi-ko thought: “As, while looking for the [Imperial] commands, I have already passed many years, and as my face and form are lean and withered, there is no longer any hope. Nevertheless, if I do not show [the Heavenly Sovereign] how truly I have waited, my disappointment will be unbearable;”—and [so saying] she caused merchandise [ p. 393 ] to be carried on tables holding an hundred, [18] and came forth and presented [these gifts as] tribute. Thereat the Heavenly Sovereign, who had quite forgotten what he had formerly commanded, asked Akawi-ko, saying: “What old woman art thou, and why art thou come hither?” Then Akawiko replied, saying: “Having in such and such a month of such and such a year received the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands, I have been reverently awaiting the great command until this day, and eighty years have past by. Now my appearance is quite decrepit, and there is no longer any hope. Nevertheless I have come forth in order to show and declare my faithfulness.” Thereupon the Heavenly Sovereign was greatly startled [and exclaimed]: “I had quite forgotten the former circumstance; and thou meanwhile, ever faithfully awaiting my commands, hast vainly let pass by the years of thy prime. This is very pitiful.” In his heart he wished to marry her, but shrank from her extreme age, and could not make the marriage; but he conferred on her an august Song. That Song said:
“How awful is the sacred oak-tree, the oak-tree of the august dwelling! Maiden of the oak-plain!” [19]
Again he sang, saying: [315]
“The younger chestnut orchard plain of Hiketa:—o si dormivissem cum iliâ in juventâ! Oh! how old she has become!” [20]
Then the tears that Akawi-ko wept quite drenched the red-dyed sleeve that she had on. [21] In reply to the great august Song, she sang, saying:
“Left over from the piling up of the jewel-wall piled up round the august dwelling,p. 394—to whom shall the person of the Deity’s temple go?” [22]
[316] Again she sang, saying:
“Oh! how enviable is she who is in her bloom like the flowering lotus,—the lotus of the inlet, of the inlet of Kusaka!” [23]
Then the old woman was sent back plentifully endowed. So these four Songs are Quiet Songs. [24]
[ p. 395 ]
¶ SECT. CLV.—EMPEROR YŪ-RIYAKU (PART VI.—HE MAKES A PROGRESS TO YESHINU).
When the Heavenly Sovereign made a progress to the palace of Yeshinu, [25] there was on the bank of the Yeshinu [ p. 396 ] river a girl of beautiful appearance. So having wedded this girl, he returned to the Palace. Afterwards, when he again made a progress to Yeshinu, he halted where he had met the girl, and in that place raised a great august throne, [26] seated himself on that august throne, played on his august lute, and made the maiden dance. Then he composed an august Song on account of the maiden’s good dancing. That Song said:
“Oh! that the maiden dancing to the lute-playing, of the august hand of the Deity seated on the throne might continue for ever!” [27]
¶ Footnotes
388:1 p. 388 Shiraka-be. ↩︎
388:2 Hatuse-be no tomire. This clan was called after the reigning Emperor. Remember that the word “Retainers” is here a “gentile name.” ↩︎
388:3 Kahase no toneri. Kaha-se signifies “river-reach,” and the “Chronicles,” under date of the eleventh year of this reign, tell a story of the appearance of a white cormorant, to commemorate which this family was established. Cormorants, it will be remembered, were used for catching fish in rivers; hence the appropriateness of the name bestowed on the family in question. ↩︎
388:4 The name given by the early Japanese to Wu (
), an ancient state in Eastern China to the South of the Yang-tzo River. In Japanese it however, like other names of portions of China, often denotes the whole of that country in a somewhat vague manner. The derivation the word Kura is obscure. The most acceptable proposition is that which would see in it corruption of the original Chinese term Wu, of which Go is the Sinico-Japanese pronunciation. But what of the second syllable re? ↩︎388:5 The phrase
is in this place used for “lodged.” ↩︎388:6 I.e., Kure Moor. It is in Yamato. According to the “Chronicles,” the former name of the place had been Himokuma-nu. ↩︎
389:1 p. 389 I.e., Waka-kusaka-be. ↩︎
389:2 See Sect. XLIV, Note 31. The Kusaka here mentioned is that in Kafuchi. ↩︎
389:3 From tada, “straight ”and koyuru “to cross,” this being a short cut over the mountains. ↩︎
389:4 The original of this clause is
, which is read katsuwo wo agete ya wo tsukureru ihe ari. The katsuwo (properly p. 390 katsuwo-gi 
) is the name of the uppermost portion of the roof in modern Shinto temples, and apparently in ancient times also in houses that were not devoted to religious purposes. The difficulty is not with the sense, but with the derivation of the word katsuwo-gi. Following the characters with which it is here and elsewhere written, Motowori sees in it a reference to the shape of the blocks of wood resembling “dried bonitoes,” which is the modern signification of katsuwo. But Moribe, in his “Examination of Difficult Words,” proposes a derivation which approves itself more to the present writer’s mind, viz., kadzuku wo-gi ( 
), “small timbers atop” (see “Examination of Difficult Words,” s.v.). Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XLI, pp. 11-14, should be consulted for a discussion of the whole question of the use of these frames in ancient times, and for the special force to be attributed to the word “raised” ( 
) in this passage. ↩︎389:5 Shiki no oho-agata-nushi. For Shiki see Sect. LXIII, Note 1. ↩︎
389:6 i.e., did humble obeisance by prostrating himself on the ground. ↩︎
389:7 Or, according to the older reading, “This i.e., thy command) [is to be received with] awe.” ↩︎
389:8 Or, “tied with [a string of] cloth.” The translation follows Motowori’s interpretation. ↩︎
389:9 The name signifies “loin-girded,” i.e., as may be presumed, “wearing a sword.” ↩︎
390:1 p. 391 For he had come from Yamato in the East to Kafuchi in the West. ↩︎
391:2 The meaning is: “Thy Majesty must not come to woo me here, as the direction is unlucky. But I will myself come up straightway to the palace to be ”thine Empress.” ↩︎
391:3 The ascent or way up here mentioned is, says Motowori, the Tadagoye Road, and the mountain is Mount Kusaka. See Sect. CLII, Notes 2 and 3. ↩︎
391:4 In this Song the Emperor consoles himself for the delay in his union with Princess Waka-kusaka-be by reflecting that after all she will soon be his.—The first half of the poem down to the colon and dash is a Preface to the rest. Most of the difficult words occurring in it have been explained in previous notes; for the “broad-leafed bear-oak ”see Sect. LXXII, Note, 19; for tatami-komo, the Pillow-Word by which Heguri is preceded in the Japanese text, see Sect. LXXXIX, Note 12. Kusaka-be is curious, for whereas it properly signifies Kusaka-Tribe,—this tribe or family being called after the place where they resided,—the place itself came to be renamed after them when the fact of the posterior origin of the family designation had been forgotten. The reason (or the p. 392 mention in the Preface of the oak-tree, which is not referred to in the main text of the poem, is difficult to ascertain. Moribe thinks, however that it is on account of the luxuriance of its foliage which, as if it were a Preface within the Preface, paves the way for the mention of the thick-growing bamboos. The punning connection between tashinu-dake, “luxuriant bamboos,” and tashi ni ha wi-nezu, “we sleep not certainly,” is necessarily obliterated in the English translation. “Certainly” must be taken in the sense of “undisturbedly.” ↩︎
391:5 I.e., as may be conjectured, a messenger dispatched to him by his mistress. It seems best to suppose the author to represent the Emperor as not having actually gone to her house at all, but as having only communicated with her by messenger. ↩︎
392:1 Miwa gawa. It is the stream which flows past Hatsuse. For Miwa see Sect. LXV, Note 8. ↩︎
392:2 Hiketa-bo no Akawi-ko. Hiketa is in Yamato. The etymology of the word is obscure. Akawi-ko signifies “red boar child;” but the appropriateness of the name to the woman in the story is not made to appear. ↩︎
393:3 See Sect. XXXVII, Note 7. ↩︎
393:4 Moribe says that, in this Song, the forgetful Monarch calls to mind the majestic and awful appearance of the sacred tree in the temple-grounds, and is moved by this religious thought to repent of his neglectful treatment as her who had so patiently waited for him through so many years. Motowori, on the contrary, sees in the words nothing more than a comparison of the old woman to some sacred tree of immemorial age, and the aversion felt by the monarch to an union with her.—The oak mentioned (the Kashi, Quercus myrsinæfolia) is an evergreen species. Both Motowori and Moribe consider that mimoro in the original Japanese of this Song should be taken, not as a proper name (see Sect. XXVIII, Notes 3 and 5), but simply as signifying “a sacred dwelling.” As Miwa is mentioned in the earlier part of the story, it might seem more natural to regard mimoro as likewise being a Proper Name. But the word mimoro itself signifying “sacred spot,” the difference between the two views does not amount to much, and it is best to follow native authority. “Oak-plain” (kashi-hara) means “a place planted with oak-trees.” The first sentence of the Song must be looked on as a sort of preface to the second. ↩︎
393:5 The first words of this Song down to the colon and dash are a Preface to the Song proper, whose meaning stands in need of no explanation,—Moribe surmises that the word kuri, “chestnut,” was formerly p. 395 a general name for all sorts of fruits, somewhat like our English word “berry.” ↩︎
393:6 The drenching of the sleeve with tears is a common figure in Japanese poetry. ↩︎
394:7 Or we might (following Moribe) render thus: “Left over from the guarding of the jewel-grove guard at the august dwelling,” etc. The wording of his Song is far from clear. While Motowori sees in it a reference to the construction of a wall round the ground of a temple, the overplus of the materials for which sacred wall could not, it may be presumed, be applied to any profane purpose, Moribe disputes the propriety of such an interpretation of the word kaki which, according to him, denotes the grove planted in temple-grounds, temples never having been surrounded by walls such as Motowori assumes the existence of, nor even by “hedges” or “fences,” which is the more usual acceptation of the term. He thinks, therefore, that the superficial signification of the actual words of the Song is that the priest, who has all his life been in the service of one particular shrine, cannot desert it for the adoration of some other deity. The underlying deeper significance of the little poem is in either case the same: Akawi-ko had, during her long waiting of eighty years, remained true to her first love, the Emperor. For every reason it had been impossible for her ever to give her affections to another, and she had now come up to the capital to demonstrate to him who had forgotten her the unchangeable nature of her feelings. ↩︎