Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 144

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. CXLIV.—Emperor An-kō (Part I.—He Slays King Oho-kusaka).]

The august child^[1] Anaho dwelt at the palace of Anaho at Isonokami,^[2] and ruled the Empire. The Heavenly Sovereign sent the Grandee of Ne,^[3] 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 Queen Waka-kusaka to wed Prince Oho-hatsuse. So do thou present her.”^[4] 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 indoors.^[5] With reverence^[6] will I respectfully offer her according to the Great Commands.” Nevertheless, thinking it disrespectful [merely] to send a message,^[7] he forthwith, as a ceremonial gift^[8] from his younger sister, made [the Grandee of Ne] take a push-wood jewel headdress^[9] 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 eædem stirpis [viri] inferior storea?’^[10] and, grasping the hilt of his cross-sword,^[11] 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,^[12] and made her Empress.

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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.
2. See Sect. XLV, Note 16.
3. Ne no omi. The etymology of ne is obscure.
4. Literally, as “tribute.”
5. More literally, “I have kept her without putting her out of doors.”
6. Conf. Sect. IX, Note 4 and Sect. XVIII, Note 14.
7. Motowori surmises that 其 may be an error for 者 in the original of this clause 然言以白事其思旡禮.
8. 禮物. This term corresponds to the modern 結納, the name by which the presents which are exchanged at the time of betrothal are designated.
9. The original term oshi-ki no tama-kadzura 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 some 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. Conder’s paper on “The History of Japanese Costume”).
10. I.e., “An soror mea, cujus pater Imperator Nin-toku, fiet uxor præsentis Imperatoris?”—Hujus similitudinis rusticitas et ipsis Japonicis commentatoribus pudori est.
11. See Sect. XLV, Note 5.
12. See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 5.