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62. I.e., Japan, as then known.
63. What the word “Ikasuri” means is a burning point of learned disputes, but it seems to us that the Gods are special guardian spirits of the Imperial Court-grounds. According to the commentators Ikebe and Kubo, “Ikasuri” is “Igashiri” which means “dwelling place,” hence the word “Ikasuri” in the text means the Court-ground of the Emperor, and the authors of the Kogoshui probably understands by it the special guardian spirits of the Imperial Court-grounds.
64. Here the sword is the Murakumo Sword, which Susano-o-no-Mikoto received from the monster serpent’s tail when he slew it in Izumo; and the Yata-no-Kagami (the Eight-handed or large Mirror) is believed to be the same mirror which Ishikori-Tome-no-Mikoto made and with which he enticed the Sun-Goddess Amaterasu-O-Mikami to quit her retreat in the Rock-Cave and restore blessings to mankind by illuminating the heavens and the earth with the radiance of her bounteous light.
65. This Ritual is included in the Engishiki or Institutes of the Engi Period. Vide Sir E. Satow’s English translation of the same (T.A.S.J., Vol. IX, p. 190).
66. By this Imbe-no-Hironari may mean either some other book than the Kogoshui which is from Imbe-no-Hironari’s own pen, or a book very well known to him, but the reader should not mistake it for the Engishiki, which was not yet compiled in Hironari’s time.
67. The case is similar to the above.
68. The heavenly offences are those which, for example,
