Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 55

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. LV.—Emperor Sui-zei.]

His Augustness Kamu-nuna-kaha-mimi dwelt at the palace of Takawoka in Kadzuraki,^[1] and ruled the Empire. This Heavenly Sovereign wedded Kaha-mata-bime,^[2] ancestress of the Departmental Lords of Shiki,^[3] and begot an august child: His Augustness Shiki-tsu-hiko-tama-de-mi^[4] (one Deity). The Heavenly Sovereign’s august years were forty-five. His august mausoleum is on the Mound of Tsukida.^[5]

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1. In the province of Yamato. Taka-woka signifies “high mound.” Kadzuraki means “pueraria castle,” a name accounted for by a legend in the “Chronicles,” which relates how an earth-spider was caught in this place by means of a net made of pueraria tendrils. Kadzuraki was the name, not only of a town, but of a district.
2. I.e., the Princess of Kahamata, a place in Kahachi. The name signifies “river-fork.” For the omission in this and a few other places of the words “daughter of,” etc., which might be expected instead of “ancestress,” see Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XXI, p. 4.
3. Shiki no agata-nushi. Shiki is in Yamato. The signification of the name seems to be “stone castle.”
4. Shiki-tsu-hiko signifies “Prince of Shiki.” Motowori believes Tamade to be in like manner the name of a place, while he interprets mi as the common abbreviation of the Honorific (?) mimi.
5. A place in Yamato. Motowori derives the name from tsuki (modern toki), the “ibis,” and ta, “rice-field.”