Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 148

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. CXLVIII.—Emperor An-kō (Part V.—Prince Oho-hatsuse Slays Prince Oshiha).]

After this Karu-fukuro,^[1] ancestor of the Dukes of Yama of Sasaki in Afumi,^[2] said [to King Oho-hatsuse]: “At Kuta^[3] [and?] on the moor of Kaya at Wata in Afumi, boars and deer are abundant. Their legs as they stand are like a moor [covered] with wogi;^[4] the horns they point up are like withered trees.” At this time [King Oho-hatsuse], taking with him King Ichi-no-be-no-oshiha, made a progress to Afumi, and on reaching this moor, each of them built a separate temporary palace to lodge in. Then next morning, before the sun had risen, King Oshiha with a tranquil heart rode along on his august horse, and, reaching and standing beside King Oho-hatsuse’s temporary Palace, said to King Oho-hatsuse’s august attendants: “Is he not awake yet? He must he told quickly [that I am come]. It is already daylight.^[5] He must come to the hunting-ground,”—and forthwith urging his horse, he went forth. Then the people who served the august person of King Oho-hatsuse said: “As [King Oshiha] is a violent-spoken^[6] Prince, thou shouldst be on thy guard, and likewise it were well to arm thine august person.” Forthwith he put on armour underneath his clothes, took and girded on him his bow and arrows, rode off on horseback, and in a sudden interval setting his horse by the side [of the other King’s], took out an arrow, shot King Oshiha down, forthwith moreover cut his body [to pieces], put [them] into a horse’s manger, and buried them level with the earth.

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1. This name has the curious signification of “Korean (or Chinese) hag.”
2. Afumi no Sasaki no yama no kimi. Conf. Sect. LXIX, Note 46.
3. This and the following names are altogether obscure, neither is it evident whether two places are meant, or only one. The present passage reads as if two were intended, but a little further down the author seems to be speaking of but one.
4. The Hedysarum esculentum.
5. Literally, “the night has already finished dawning.”
6. Motowori endeavours, not very successfully, to explain the use of this epithet by Prince Oho-Hatsuse’s attendants. As the sequel shows, the violence was all on the other side.