The Kojiki: Volume I: Section XX.—The August Ancestors of the Deity-Master-Of-The-Great Land
[SECT. XX.—THE AUGUST ANCESTORS OF THE DEITY-MASTER-OF-THE-GREAT LAND.]
Quare, quum incepit in thalamo [opus procreationis] cum Mirâ-Herâ-Inadâ, procreavit Deum nomine Eight-Island Ruler. 1 And again, having wedded the Divine-Princess-of-Great-Majesty, 2 daughter of the Deity Great-Mountain-Possessor, he begot children: the Great-Harvest Deity 3 and the August-Spirit-of-Food. 4 The elder brother the Deity Eight-Island-Ruler wedded Princess-Falling-Like-the-Flowers-of-the-Trees, 5 daughter of the Deity Great-Mountain-Possessor, and begot a child: the Deity Fuha-no-moji-Ku-nu-su-nu. 6 This Deity wedded Princess Hikaha, 7 daughter of the Deity Okami, 8 and begot a child: Water-Spoilt-Blossom-of-Fuka-buchi. 9 This Deity [67] wedded the Deity Ame-no-tsudohe-chi-ne, 10 and begot a child: the Deity Great-Water-Master. 11 This Deity wedded the Deity Grand-Ears 12 daughter of the Deity Funu-dzu-nu, 13 and begot a child: the Deity Heavenly-Brandishing-Prince-Lord. 14 This Deity wedded the Young-Princess-of-the-Small-Country, 15 daughter of the Great-Deity-of-the-Small-Country, 16 and begot a child: the
Footnotes
78:1 Ya-shima-zhi-nu-mi. Ya-shima means "eight islands." The syllables zhi-nu-mi are obscure, but the translator has little doubt "ruler" fairly represents their import. Motowori takes zhi to be an apocopated and nigori’ed form of shiru, "to rule," nu to be an apocopated form of nushi, "master," and mi to be an apocopated form of the Honorific termination mimi. Tanigaha Shisei considers zhimu to stand for shidzumuru, "to govern," which comes to the same thing so far as the sense is concerned.
78:2 Kamu-oho-ichi-hime. The rendering of Oho-ichi as "Great Majesty" rests on a plausible conjecture of Hirata's, who proposes to, identify ichi with idzu (
). Motowori thinks that Oho-ichi should be taken as the name of a place; but this seems less good.
78:3 Oho-toshi-no-kami, written
, the obvious rendering of which would be "great year." But the Japanese term toshi is believed to have originally signified, not "year" in the abstract, but that which was produced each year, viz., the harvest (conf. toru, "to take").
78:4 Uka-no-mi-tama.
78:5 Ko-no-hana-chiru-hime, so called, says Motowori, because she probably died young, as a blossom that falls from the tree. We might however perhaps take the Verb chiru in a Causative sense, and consider the name to signify "the Princess-Who-Causes-the-Flowers-of-the-Trees-to- Fall. A sister of this goddess appears in the pretty legend narrated in Sect. XXXVII under the parallel name of the Princess-Blossoming-Brilliantly-Like-the-Flowers-of-the-Trees. See Note 3 to that Sect.
78:6 Fuha-no-moji-ku-nu-su-nu-no-kami. The import of this name is quite uncertain. Fuha however seems to be the name of a place.
78:7 "Hi-kaha-mime. Hi-kaha (lit. "sun-river") is supposed to stand for the name of a place in Musashi, which is however written "ice-river" (
and not
), the old Japanese words for "ice" and "sun" being homonymous.
78:8 See Sect. VIII. (Note 9), where the name is given as Kura okami.
78:9 Fuka-buchi-no-midzu-yare-hana. If Fuka-buchi were ascertained to be not, as is supposed, the name of a place, we should have to render it "deep pool," and the whole would mean in English "Water-Spoilt-Blossom-of-the-Deep-Pool."
78:10 Ame-no-tsudohe-chi-ne-no-kami. In this name nothing is clear but the first three syllables, which signify "heavenly." But if Mabuchi's conjecture as to the meaning of the rest were accepted, we should have to translate the whole by "Heavenly-Assembling-Town-Lady."
78:11 This is the meaning plausibly assigned by Motowori to the original O-midzu-nu-no-kami.
78:12 Fute-mimi-no-kami, plausibly conjectured by Tominobu to stand for Futo-mimi, etc., which gives the sense here adopted.
78:13 Funu-dzu-nu-no-kami. Motowori believes Funu to be the name of a place, and interprets the name to signify "Master of Funu." But this seems highly uncertain.
78:14 Ame-no-fuyu-kinu-no-kami (Motowori's reading) or Ama-no, etc. (Hirata's reading). The translation of the name follows Hirata's explanation, which is based on Motowori's, and according to which the characters
("winter garments") in this text, and
read Fuki-ne in the "Chronicles," are merely phonetic, while the meaning is derived from a comparison of the sounds given by each. Though himself believing in the soundness of Hirata's conclusion, the translator must admit that it is not indisputable.
78:15 Sasu-kuni-waka-hime, or Sashi-kuni, etc. The former reading, which Hirata's adopts, seems best. The meaning of sasu, here rendered "small," is open to doubt.
78:16 Sasu-kuni-oho-[no-]kami, or Sashi, etc. The syllable no in the Japanese reading seems to be a superfluous addition of the modern commentators.
79:17 Oho-kuni-nushi-ne-kami.
79:18 Oho-na-muji-no-kami, to which Tominobu proposes to give the sense of "Great Hole-Possessor," in connection with the story of the mouse-hole in which he took refuge from the fire lit by the Impetuous-Male-Deity (Susa-no-wo) for his destruction (see Sect. XXIII). But the interpretation followed in the translation is the most likely as well as the orthodox one, this Deity being entitled the possessor of a Great Name or of Great Names on account of his renown in Japanese mythic story.
79:19 Ashi-hara-shiko-wo-no-kami. The "reed-plains" are doubtless put by metonymy for Japan.
79:20 Yachi-hoko-no-kami.
79:21 Utsushi-kuni-tama-no-kami. The name must be understood to mean "Spirit of the Land of the Living," and to be antithetical to that of one of his fathers-in-law, the Impetuous Male-Deity (Susa-no-wo) who became the god of Hades.
79:22 Or "he had five names."