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Goddess, with whom no Shinto God can claim equality, just as a son is ever inferior to his father, or a vassal to his lord. The Government Authorities of the Shinto Bureau nowadays, however, when annually distributing offerings to the gods of the Shinto Shrines, scattered throughout Japan, do not pay special heed to honour by presenting the first sacrificial offerings of the Government to the Great Deity at the Ise Shrine who is the highest among the gods and goddesses worshipped throughout Japan. Is this not a matter for deep regret?
Third, of old, Amaterasu-O-Mikami, i.e., the symbolic Sacred Mirror, remained in the same house with the Emperor, (120) so both the Mirror and the Emperor were waited upon exactly in the same manner by the courtiers, there being no discrimination between the Deity and the sovereign. Imbe and Nakatomi conjointly prayed the Sun-Goddess graciously to re-appear from the Heavenly Rock-Cave (121), and it was the ancestress (122) of the Sarume Family who succeeded in propitiating the Goddess incensed on that decasion[errata 1]. The Government, therefore, should appoint the descendants of the three families conjointly on equal terms, to the office of Shinto service, yet neverthelss, the Nakatomi Family alone now enjoy the exclusive privilege of holding the same priestly office, ignoring the other two families (Imbe and Sarume).
Fourth, ever since the Divine Age it has been the sacred prerogative of the Imbe Family to be entrusted with the official work of constructing sacred houses for divine worship: thus the official head of the Imbe Family, with his kinsfolk of the Miki and Araka Districts (123), began the work by cutting down forest
