Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 151

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Kojiki (1882)
by Ō no Yasumaro, translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain

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Ō no Yasumaro4692181Kojiki1882Basil Hall Chamberlain

[Sect. CLI.—Emperor Yū-riyaku (Part II.—Various Deeds).]

So the Shiraka Clan^[1] was established as the august proxy of Prince Shiraka. Again the Hatsuse-Clan-Retainers^[2] were established. At this time there came over people from Kure. Again the Kahase Retainers^[3] were established. These people from Kure^[4] were lodged^[5] at Kure-hara. So the place was called by the name of Kure-hara.^[6]

↑ Shiraka-be.
↑ Hatsuse-be no toneri. This Clan was called after the reigning Emperor. Remember that the word “Retainers” is here a “gentile name.”
↑ Kahase no toneri. Kaha-se signifies “river-reach,” and the “Chronicles,” under date of the eleventh year of this reign, tell a story of the appearance of a white cormorant, to commemorate which this family was established. Cormorants, it will be remembered, were used for catching fish in livers: hence the appropriateness of the name bestowed on the family in question.
↑ The name given by the early Japanese to Wu (呉), an ancient state in Eastern China to the South of the Yang-tzŭ River. In Japanese it however, like other names of portions of China, often denotes the whole of that country in a somewhat vague manner. The derivation of the word Kure is obscure. The most acceptable proposition is that which would see in it a corruption of the original Chinese term Wu, of which Go is the Sinico-Japanese pronunciation. But what of the second syllable re?
↑ The phrase 安置 is in this place used for “lodged.”
↑ I.e., Kure Moor. It is in Yamato. According to the “Chronicles,” the former name of the place had been Himokuma-nu.

[1] Shiraka-be.

[2] Hatsuse-be no toneri. This Clan was called after the reigning Emperor. Remember that the word “Retainers” is here a “gentile name.”

[3] Kahase no toneri. Kaha-se signifies “river-reach,” and the “Chronicles,” under date of the eleventh year of this reign, tell a story of the appearance of a white cormorant, to commemorate which this family was established. Cormorants, it will be remembered, were used for catching fish in livers: hence the appropriateness of the name bestowed on the family in question.

[4] The name given by the early Japanese to Wu (呉), an ancient state in Eastern China to the South of the Yang-tzŭ River. In Japanese it however, like other names of portions of China, often denotes the whole of that country in a somewhat vague manner. The derivation of the word Kure is obscure. The most acceptable proposition is that which would see in it a corruption of the original Chinese term Wu, of which Go is the Sinico-Japanese pronunciation. But what of the second syllable re?

[5] The phrase 安置 is in this place used for “lodged.”

[6] I.e., Kure Moor. It is in Yamato. According to the “Chronicles,” the former name of the place had been Himokuma-nu.

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