Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 33

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. XXXIII.—The August Descent from Heaven of his Augustness the August Grandchild.]

Then the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity and the High-Integrating-Deity^[1] commanded and charged the Heir Apparent^[2] His Augustness Truly-Conqueror-I-Conquer-Swift-Heavenly-Great-Great-Ears^[3] [saying: “The Brave-Awful-Possessing-Male-Deity] says that he has now finished pacifying the Central Land of Reed-Plains. So do thou, in accordance with our gracious charge, descend to and dwell in and rule over it.” Then the Heir Apparent His Augustness Truly-Conqueror-I-Conquer-Conquering-Swift-Heavenly-Great-Great-Ears replied, saying: “While I^[4] have been getting ready to descend, there has been born [to me] a child whose name is His Augustness Heaven-Plenty-Earth-Plenty-Heaven’s-Sun-Height-Prince-Rice-ear-Ruddy-Plenty.^[5] This child should be sent down.” [^[6]As for this august child,^[7] he was augustly joined to Her Augustness Myriad-Looms-Luxuriant-Dragon-fly-Island-Princess,^[8] daughter of the High-Integrating-Deity, and begot children: His Augustness-Heavenly Rice-ear-Ruddy,^[9] and next His Augustness Prince-Rice-ear-Ruddy-Plenty.^[10]] Therefore, in accordance with these words, they laid their command on His Augustness Prince Rice-ear-Ruddy-Plenty, deigning to charge him with these words: “This Luxuriant Reed-Plain-Land-of-Fresh-Rice-ears^[11] is the land over which thou shalt rule.” So [he replied]: I “will descend from Heaven according to your commands.” So when His Augustness Prince-ear-Ruddy-Plenty was about to descend from Heaven, there was at the eight-forking road of Heaven a Deity whose refulgence reached upwards to the Plain of High Heaven and downwards to the Central Land of Reed-Plains. So then the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity and the High-Integrating Deity commanded and charged the Heavenly-Alarming-Female-Deity^[12] [, saying]: “Though thou art but a delicate female, thou art a Deity who conquers in facing Deities.^[13] So be thou the one to go and ask thus: ‘This being the road by which our august child is about to descend from Heaven, who is it that is thus there?’ ”^[14] So to this gracious question he replied, saying “I^[15] am an Earthly Deity named the Deity Prince of Saruta.^[16] The reason for my coming here is that, having heard of the [intended] descent of the august child of the Heavenly Deities, I have come humbly to meet him and respectfully offer myself as His Augustness’s vanguard.”^[17] Then joining to him His Augustness Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord, His Augustness Grand-Jewel, Her Augustness Heavenly-Alarming-Female, Her Augustness I-shi-ko-ri-do-me, and His Augustness Jewel-Ancestor,^[18] in all five chiefs of companies,^[19] they sent him down from Heaven. Thereupon they joined to him the eight-feet [long] curved jewels and mirror that had allured [the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity from the Rock-Dwelling,^[20]] and also the Herb-Quelling-Great-Sword,^[21] and likewise the Deity Thought-Includer, the Hand-Strength-Male-Deity, and the Deity Heavenly-Rock-Door-Opener^[22] of Eternal Night,^[23] and charged him thus: “Regard this mirror exactly as if it were our august spirit, and reverence it as if reverencing us”.^[24] Next did they say: “Let the Deity Thought-Includer take in hand our affairs, and carry on the government.” These two Deities are worshipped at the temple of Isuzu.^[25] The next, the Deity of Luxuriant-Food,^[26] is the Deity dwelling in the outer temple of Watarahi.^[27] The next, the Deity Heavenly-Rock-Door-Opener, another name for whom is the Wondrous-Rock-True-Gate-Deity, and another name for whom is the Luxuriant-Rock-True-Gate-Deity,^[28]—this Deity is the Deity of the August Gate.^[29] The next, the Deity Hand-Strength-Male, dwells in Sanagata.^[30] Now His Augustness the Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord (is the ancestor of the Nakatomi Chieftains);^[31] His Augustness Grand Jewel (is the ancestor of the Imibe Headmen);^[32] Her Augustness the Heavenly-Alarming-Female (is the ancestress of the Duchesses of Saru^[33]); Her Augustness I-shi-ko-ri-do-me (is the ancestress of the Mirror-Making Chieftains);^[34] His Augustness-Jewel-Ancestor (is the ancestor of the Jewel-Ancestor Chieftains).^[35]

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1. Taka-gi-no-kami. See Sect. XXXI. Note 13.
2. It will be remembered that this god was son of the Sun-goddess (or of her brother Susa-no-wo, “the Impetuous Male”;—see Sect. XII. Note 18, and also the first two sentences of Sect. XIV and the first sentence of Sect. XV). The characters rendered “Heir Apparent” are 太子, which form the usual Chinese equivalent of that term, and were borrowed by the Japanese. Motowori’s reading of them as Hi-tsugi no miko, “Prince of the Sun’s Succession,” has no authority but his own patriotic fancy.
3. For this tremendous name see Sect. XIII Note 18.
4. The humble character 僕, “servant” is used for the First Personal Pronoun.
5. Ame-nigishi-kuni-nigishi-ama-tsu-hi-daka-hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi-no-mikoto. Excepting as regards the final gi of ni-nigi, which it is surely better with Hirata to consider as helping to form the word nigi, “plenty,” than to take it as a separate word signifying “lord,” as Motowori does, the translation follows Motowori’s interpretation of the various component parts of this tremendous name, which is mostly abbreviated to its latter portion. It is precisely to this latter portion (the syllables hiko-ho-no-nigi) that considerable doubt attaches. Ho might mean “fire” rather than “rice-ears,” and Motowori himself suggests that ni-nigi should perhaps be regarded as a corruption of nigi-kahi, “plentiful spikes of grain,” rather than as “ruddy plenty.” About the meaning of the rest of the name there cannot be much doubt. “Heaven’s Sun Height” must be understood as an honorific designation signifying “high as the sun in heaven.”
6. The translator puts this sentence between brackets because it is an evident interruption of the main story. Indeed the edition of 1687 prints it as a note to the text. The grammar of it is curious, as, on a first reading, one would be tempted to suppose that “this child,” i.e., His Augustness Ame-nigishi-kuni-nigishi-ama-tsu-hi-daka-hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi, was the father of Hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi. But the latter name is but an abbreviated form of the former, and the god could not be his own father. The meaning rather is (and such a construction is not so forced in Japanese as it sounds in English): " As for the parentage of this child, he was born of the marriage [of His Augustness Truly-Conqueror-etc.] with Her Augustness Myriad-Looms-etc. Princess. There is, however, real confusion in the traditional genealogy, as the “Chronicles” make the deity in question father to His Augustness Heavenly-Rice-ear-Ruddy, instead of younger brother.
7. Viz. His Augustness Truly-Conqueror-etc.
8. Yorodzu-hata-toyo-aki-dzu-shi-hime-no-mikoto. Mabuchi, as quoted by Motowori, suggests that yorodzu, “myriad,” should be connected with the word yoroshi “good,” as signifying an extreme degree, the ne plus ultra. But, though perhaps a good guess at the origin of the word, it need not affect our estimate of its actual signification. The translator has, however, followed Mabuchi in considering the syllable shi as an apocopated form of shima, “island,” and Aki-dzu-shi [ma] as having its usual signification of “Dragon-fly Island” (more literally “Island of the Autumn Insect) rather than accept Motowori’s explanation of shi as representing the Verb chijimu, “to be puckered,” and of the whole compound aki-dzu-shi as signifying “crape like dragon-flies’ wings.” Not only is there no mention of crape in other passages of these “Records,” but the derivation does not, to say the least, recommend itself on philological grounds.
9. Ameno-ho-akari no Mikoto. The word rendered “ripe” will bear equally well the interpretation of “red.”
10. Hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi, the abbreviated form of the name in Note 5.
11. Togo-ashi-hara-no-midzu-ho-no-kuni. This periphrastic synonym of Japan has appeared under a slightly shorter form in Sect. IX (Note 18).
12. Ame-no-udzu-me-no-kami, the goddess whose loud, bold merriment was the chief cause of the Sun-Goddess emerging from her retreat in the cavern (see Sect. XVI, Note 28).
13. I.e., “Thy brazen-facedness allows thee to stare others out of countenance, and make them uneasy.”
14. Between this sentence and the next, the Alarming-Female-Deity must be supposed to have gone on her embassy and to have delivered the message with which she had been entrusted.
15. Written 僕, literally “servant.”
16. Saruta-biko no kami. This is Motowori’s reading. The more usual reading is Saruda-hiko, transposing the nigori. Hirata prefers to read Sada-biko, and takes Saruta or Sada to be the name of a place, which indeed seems the most acceptable view. The name actually signifies “monkey field.” Motowori’s interpretation of its import is a marvellous example of Japanese etymological gymnastics (see Vol. XV, p. 16 of his Commentary). Moribe’a derivation from sari-hate-hiko (避果彦) is no better.
17. Or “guide.”
18. For these five names and for the Deity Thought-Includer and the [Heavenly] Hand-Strength-Male-Deity mentioned a few lines further on, see Sect. XVI, Notes 15, 16, 28, 12, 13, 7, and 27 respectively.
19. Tomo-no-wo. This expression is here taken to refer to the various offices assumed by the five deities in question at the time of the withdrawal of the Sun-Goddess into the cave. It signifies properly the head of a company.
20. The allusion is to the story in Sect. XVI. Moribe, in his Critique on Motowori’s Commentary, points out that it was only the mirror which allured the goddess from the cave. In the Japanese original of this passage, however, even more than in the English translation, the expression “that had allured” is made to refer to both objects.
21. Obtained from the tail of the Serpent of Koshi. See the story in Sect. XVIII.
22. Ame-no-iha-to-wake no kami. Hirata observes that this must not be considered as the name of an independent Deity, but be taken simply as an alternative name of Ame-no-ta-jikara-wo-no-kami (the “Heavenly-Hand-Strength-Male-Deity”). The part taken by this Deity in the legend narrated in Sect. XVI seems a sufficient warrant for such an opinion, though a little lower down in this Section the two are again mentioned separately.
23. Toko-yo. These words, which, according to the rules of Japanese construction, are placed at the commencement of the clause, must be understood to apply either to the three gods collectively or to the first-mentioned (the Deity Thought-Includer) alone.
24. Or “worshipping before us,” or “in our presence.” The strictly logical concordance of an English sentence makes it appear as if the minor were to be taken to represent the spirit of both Deities whose names are the subjects of the first clause. In Japanese, however, all such concordances are much more loosely observed, and it is only the spirit of the Sun-Goddess that we must understand to be here intended.
25. Isuzu (literally “fifty bells,” or else perhaps the name of a kind of grass with which the neighbourhood may originally have been overgrown) is the name of the site of the “Inner Temple” of Ise. It is in the Japanese text preceded by the Pillow-Word saku-kushiro, literally “rent bracelet.” See Mabuchi’s “Dictionary of Pillow-Words” s.v.
26. Toyo-uke-no-kami, the same as Toyo-uke-bime (see Sect. VII Note 6). The mention of this goddess in this place is curious, as she would not seem to be connected with the legend. Motowori, however, supposes that it is through some accidental omission that she does not figure in the list of deities said to have accompanied the heaven-descended Sovereign.
27. This name signifies “meeting when crossing” or “crossing to meet,” and is connected by the commentators with an unimportant tradition, for which see Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XV. p. 48.
28. These two names are in the original Kushi-iha-ma-do-no-kami and Toyo-iha-mado-no-kami. The tradition in the “Gleanings of Ancient Story” makes them two separate deities.
29. Viz. of the gate or gates of the Imperial Palace.
30. Etymology obscure.
31. Nakatomi no murazhi. Nakatomi is taken by Motowori to be a contraction of naka-tori-omi, and by Mabuchi to be a contraction of naka-tsu-omi, either of which may be freely rendered “middemen,” “intercessors,” referring to the religious functions which were hereditary in this family. (See “Commentary on the Ritual of the General Purification,” Vol. II. pp. 2–3.)
32. Imibe no obito. Imibe is derived from imu, “to avoid,” i.e. “to abstain from,” and mure, “a flock” or “collection of persons,” “a clan,” and refers to the religious duties of this hereditary class of priests, which naturally required their avoidance of all ceremonial uncleanness. The word “priest” would fairly, though freely, represent the meaning of the compound.
33. Saru me no kimi. For the traditional origin of this name see Sect. XXXV. These “duchesses” were priestesses: but it is a matter of dispute between the commentators whither the title was simply an official one, or hereditary in the female line.
34. Kagami-tsukuri no murazhi. Of this family nothing would seem to he known.
35. Tama-no-ya (or Tama n’Oya) no murazhi. But the name should probably be Tama-tsukuri no murazhi, i.e. “Jewel-Making Chieftains,” a “gentile name” which is found in the later literature. Perhaps, however, we should understand both this name and the previous one to be simple inventions by means of which divine ancestry was claimed for the hereditary guilds of jewellers and mirror-makers.