Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 76

by Ō no Yasumaro

[Sect. LXXVI.—Emperor Kei-kō (Part I.—Genealogies).]

The Heavenly Sovereign Oho-tarashi-hiko-oshiro-wake dwelt in the palace of Hishiro at Makimuku,^[1] and ruled the Empire. This Heavenly Sovereign wedded the Elder Lady of Inabi in Harima,^[2] daughter of Waka-take, Prince of Kibi,^[3] ancestor of the Grandees of Kibi,^[4] and begot august children: King Kushi-tsunu-wake;^[5] next His Augustness Oho-usu;^[6] next His Augustness Wo-usu, another name for whom is His Augustness Yamato-wo-guna;^[7] next His Augustness Yamato-ne-ko;^[8] next King Kamu-kushi.^[9] Again wedding Her Augustness Princess Yasaka-no-iri,^[10] daughter of His Augustness Prince Yasaka-no-iri, he begot august children: His Augustness Prince Waka-tarashi;^[11] next His Augustness Prince Iho-ki-no-iri;^[12] next His Augustness Oshi-no-wake;^[13] next Her Augustness Princess Iho-ki-no-iri.^[14] Children by another concubine were King Toyo-to-wake;^[15] next the Lady Nunoshiro.^[16] Children by another concubine were: the Lady Nunaki;^[17] next Her Augustness Princess Kago-yori;^[18] next King Prince Waka-ki-no-iri;^[19] next King the Elder Prince of Kibi-no-ye;^[20] next Her Augustness Princess Takaki;^[21] next Her Augustness Princess Oto.^[22] Again wedding Princess Mi-hakashi of Himuka,^[23] he begot an august child: King Toyo-kuni-wake.^[24] Again wedding the Younger Lady of Inabi,^[25] younger sister of the Elder Lady of Inabi, he begot august children: King Ma-waka;^[26] next King Hiko-hito-no-oho-ye.^[27] Again wedding Princess Ka-guro,^[28] daughter of King Prince Sume-iro-oho-naka-tsu-hiko,^[29] great-grandchild of His Augustness Yamato-take,^[30] he begot an august child: King Oho-ye.^[31] The august children of this Heavenly Sovereign Oho-tarashi-hiko numbered in all twenty-one kings and queens^[32] of whom there is a register, and fifty-nine kings and queens of whom there is no record,—eighty kings and queens altogether, out of whom His Augustness Waka-tarashi-hiko and also His Augustness Yamato-take, and also His Augustness Prince I-ho-ki-no-iri,—these three Kings,—bore the name of Heirs Apparent.^[33] The seventy-seven kings and queens beside these^[34] were all granted Rulerships in the various lands, or else [posts as] Lords, Territorial Lords or Departmental Chiefs.^[35] So His Augustness Waka-tarashi-hiko [was he who afterward] ruled the Empire. His Augustness Wo-usu subdued the savage deities and likewise the unsubmissive people in the East and West. The next, King Kushi-tsunu-wake (was the ancestor of the chiefs of Mamuta).^[36] The next, His Augustness Oho-Usu, (was the ancestor of the Dukes of Mori,^[37] of the Dukes of Ohota^[38] and of the Dukes of Shimada.)^[39] The next, King Kamu-kushi, (was the ancestor of the Sakabe Abiko in the Land of Ki,^[40] and of the Sakabe of Uda).^[41] The next, King Toyo-kuni-wake (was the ancestor of the Rulers of the Land of Himuka).^[42]

---

1. In the province of Yamato. The etymology of Makimuku is obscure. Hi-shiro is tentatively derived by Motowori from hi, the Chamæcyparis obtusa (a kind of conifer), and shiro, “an enclosure.”
2. Harima no inabi no oho-iratsume. Inabi is also known under the alternative form of Inami: etymology uncertain.
3. Waka-take Kibi tsu hiko. Waka-take signifies “young brave.”
4. Kibi no omi.
5. Kushi signifies “wondrous,” and wake either “young,” or “lord.” The meaning of tsunu is obscure.
6. The names of this prince and the next signify respectively “great foot-pestle” and “little foot-pestle,” the origin of the bestowal of which singular designations is thus related in the parallel passage of the “Chronicles”: “The Imperial child Oho-usu and His Augustness Wo-usu were born together the same day as twins. The Heavenly Sovereign, astonished, informed the foot-pestle. So the two Kings were called Great Foot-pestle and Little Foot-pestle.” What the import of this passage may be is, however, a mystery both to Tanigaha Shisei and to Motowori.
7. Motowori supposes wo-guna to have been an archaic word for “boy,” me-guna signifying “girl.” Yamato wo-guna would thus signify “the boy of Japan,” a not inappropriate designation for this prince, who under his later name of Yamato-take (Japan Brave,” i.e. the brave man of Japan”) has remained as the chief legendary type of the martial prowess of his native land.
8. I.e., Yamato Prince.
9. Kamu-kushi no miko, i.e., “divine wondrous.”
10. Ya-saka no iri-bime no mikoto. The signification of this name and of the next (Ya-saka no iri-biko no mikoto) is obscure.
11. Waka-tarashi-hiko no mikoto, i.e., “young and perfect prince.”
12. I-ho-ki no iri-biko no mikoto. Signification obscure.
13. Or, Oshi-wake, i.e., perhaps “Great Lord.”
14. I-ho-ki no iri-bime no mikoto. Signification obscure.
15. Toyo-to-wake no mikoto, i.e., perhaps “luxuriant swift prince.”
16. Nunoshiro no iratsume. Signification obscure.
17. Nunaki no iratsume. Signification obscure.
18. Kago-yori-hime no mikoto. Yori-hime probably means “good princess.” The sense of kago is very doubtful, for it may either be the name of a place, or else identical with the Verb kagayaku “to shine,” or with kago, “a stag.”
19. Waka-ki no iri-biko no mikoto. The signification of this name is obscure.
20. Kibi no ye-hiko no mikoto.
21. Takaki-hime no mikoto. The meaning of takaki in this place is not certain.
22. Oto-hime no mikoto, i.e., “the younger princess.”
23. Himuka no Mi-hakashi-bime. Mi hakashi signifies “august sabre.” See Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XXVI, p. 11, for a gloss on this curious name.
24. Toyo-kuni-wake no miko, i.e., perhaps “lord of the luxuriant land,” or else “lord of the land of Toyo,” the Emperor Kei-kō having, according to the account in the “Chronicles,”spent some years fighting in South-Western Japan, where the province of Toyo is situated.
25. Inabi no waki-iratsume. See Note 2 to this Section.
26. Ma-waka no miko, i.e., “truly young prince.”
27. Hiko-hito no oho-ye no miko. Hiko signifies “prince,” hito is “person” (or here, according to Motowori, “headman”), and oho-ye is “great elder brother.”
28. Ka-guro-hime, i.e., probably “the black-haired princess.”
29. Sume-iro-oho-naka-tsu-kiko-no-mikoto. The signification of this name is not clear. Motowori identifies sume with the like-sounding Verb signifying “to be supreme.” Oho-naka-tsu-hiko may signify “great middle prince,” referring to the comparative ages of this prince and his brethren.
30. There is here an evident error in the genealogy, as it would make the emperor marry his own great-great-grand daughter! A guess of the editor of 1687 that for Yamato take we should read Waka-take (a son of the Emperor Kō-rei) is approved by Motowori, and maybe adopted as probably correct,—i.e. (what is but little likely) if this portion of the “Records” should eventually be proved to be historically trustworthy. The question is discussed by Motowori in Vol. XXVI, pp. 12–14, of his Commentary.
31. Oho-ye no miko. This name would, as Motowori remarks, appear to have erroneously crept in here through the influence of the name mentioned in Note 27, the whole account of this union with Princess Ka-guro being corrupt.
32. The Japanese term (王 miko) includes both males and females.
33. 太子.
34. As above remarked, the Japanese term includes both males and females, and moreover some of the female children are specially mentioned. The difficulty as to how females could have been appointed to the offices here mentioned is not solved by Motowori, whose note on this passage is evasive.
35. The four names of offices (also used as “gentile names”) here mentioned are in the original Japanese Kuni no Miyatsuko, Wake, Inaki and Agata-nushi. (See Introduction, p. xvi.)
36. Mamuta no murazhi. (See Sect. LIII, Note 1.)
37. Mori no kimi. Mori seems to be the name of a place (perhaps in Mino); but nothing is known of this family.
38. Ohota no kimi. Ohota is the name of a place in Mino, and signifies “great rice-fields.”
39. Shimada no kimi. Shimada is perhaps the name of a place in Wohari. It signifies “island rice-field.”
40. Ki no kuni no sakabe no abiko. For abiko see Sect LXXII, Note 85. Sakabe seems to signify “liquor tribe,” this family and the next having been entrusted with the management of the Imperial feasts.
41. Uda no sakabe, i.e., the “Liquor Tribe of Uda” (in Yamato).
42. Himuka no kuni no miyatsuko.