Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 146

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. CXLVI.—Emperor An-kō (Part III.—Prince Oho-hatsuse Slays Princes Kuro-biko and Shiro-biko).]

Then Prince Oho-hatsuse,^[1] 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 Kuro-biko,^[2] and said: “They have slain^[3] the Heavenly Sovereign. What shall be done?” But King Kuro-biko was not startled, and was of unconcerned heart.^[4] Thereupon 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?^[5] 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,^[6] buried him as he stood,^[7] so that by the time he had been buried up to the loins, both his eyes burst out, and he died.^[8]

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1. See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 11.
2. See Sect. CXXXVII, Note 6.
3. Literally, “taken.”
4. I.e., treated the matter with indifference.
5. Literally, “without relying,” as if the speaker meant to say that the dead man could not rely on him for vengeance.
6. In Yamato. The name seems to mean “new tilled field.”
7. Written 隨立 in the text followed by Motowori. The other reading 𡓗立 is untenable.
8. 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.