Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 132

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. CXXXII.—Emperor Ri-chiū (Part II.—He is Taken to Iso-no-Kami).]

Originally, when dwelling at the palace of Naniha, [the Heavenly Sovereign] on holding a copious feast when at the great tasting,^[1] was intoxicated with the great august liquor, and fell greatly and augustly asleep. Then his younger brother, King Sumi-no-ye-naka-tsu, wishing to take the Heavenly Sovereign, set fire to the great palace. Thereupon the Suzerain of Achi,^[2] ancestor of the Suzerains of Aya^[3] in Yamato, having taken him away by stealth, set him on an august horse, and caused him to make a progress into Yamato. So [the Heavenly Sovereign] awoke on reaching the moor of Tajihi,^[4] and said: “What place is this?” Then the Suzerain of Achi said: “King Sumi-no-ye-no-naka-tsu set fire to the great palace; so I am fleeing with thee into Yamato.” Then the Heavenly Sovereign sang, saying:

“Had I known that I should sleep on the Moor of Tajihi, oh! I would have brought my dividing matting,—had I known that I should sleep!”^[5]

On reaching the Pass of Hanifu^[6] and gazing at the palace of Naniha, the fire was still bright. Then the Heavenly Sovereign sang again, saying:

“The group of houses sparklingly burning, as I stand and look from the Pass of Hanifu, is in the direction of the house of my spouse.”^[7]

So when they reached the entrance of the Ohosaka mountain,^[8] they met one woman. This woman said: “A number of men bearing weapons are barring [the way across] the mountain. Thou shouldst cross it going round by way of Tagima.”^[9] Then the Heavenly Sovereign sang, saying:

“Oh! on asking the way of the maiden we met at Ohosaka, she tells not [the] direct [way], but tells of the Tagima way.”^[10]

So, making his progress up, he dwelt in the temple of the Deity of Isonokami.^[11]

---

1. I.e., on the occasion of his performing the religious ceremony of tasting the first rice of the season.
2. Achi no atahe, supposed to be of Korean origin, and to be a descendant of 阿知, great grandson of the Chinese Emperor 靈帝.
3. Aya no atahe. This family was of continental origin, Aya being the Japanese reading of the character 漢; see Sect. CXI, Note 2.
4. Tajihi no nu, in the province of Kahachi. The signification of the name is obscure.
5. This Song expresses the Monarch’s regret at not having brought his mats with him.—From the expression used in the text (tatsu-gomo), the commentators suppose that such mats were used as a sort of screen to avert draughts. One proposal is to consider tatsu as the Verb tatsuru, “to set up,” because these mats must have been “set up” round the room. But it agrees better with grammatical usage to take it in its other sense of “cutting,” or “dividing,” and to suppose that the mats were so called because they “cut off” the draught from the person sitting behind them.
6. Or “Hill of Hanifu,” Hanifu-zaka, in the province of Kahachi.
7. The meaning of this Song is perfectly clear.
8. See Sect. LXIV, Note 25. The word rendered “entrance” here and below in the same context is literally “mouth.”
9. See Sect. LXII, Note 49.
10. Moribe thus paraphrases this Song: “If the maiden whom I met at Ohosaka and whom I sought direction of had been a common mortal, she would have simply told me the shortest road. But now I see why it was that she bid me go round by way of Tagima: it was to preserve me from danger. Ah! she must have been a Goddess.”—The words tada ni generally have the sense of “directly,” “immediately,” and are indeed here so understood by Motowori. Moribe’s interpretation, which has been followed by the translator, does but little violence to the text, and suits the general meaning better.
11. See Sect. XLV, Note 16.