3rd month, 1st day of the Serpent[1] (the 2nd). The Emperor went to the Park, and there held revel by the winding streams.
(XV. 19.) Summer, 4th month, 11th day. The Emperor made an order, saying:—"The means by which a sovereign encourages the people is no other than the granting of office: that by which a country is exalted is naught else but the granting of rewards for merit. Now the former Governor of Harima, Kumebe no Wodate [his other name was Ihadate], sought Us out, came to meet Us, and raised Us up. His merit is manifold. Let him not hesitate to express his wishes." Wodate thanked the Emperor, saying:—"The mountain office[2] has always been my desire." He was appointed to the mountain office, and a new title was granted him, viz. the House of the Yamabe no Muraji.[3] Kibi no Omi was associated with him, and the Yamamori Be were made their serfs. The Emperor praised his good qualities, made conspicuous his deserts, showed gratitude for his services, requited his kindness, and treated him with the utmost affection. His prosperity was unequalled.
5th month. Karabukuro no Sukune, Kimi of Mount Sasaki, who was implicated in the assassination of the Imperial Prince Oshiha, when about to be executed, bowed down his head to the ground, and his words expressed extreme sorrow. The Emperor could not bear to put him to death, so he added him to the misasagi guardians, making him at the same time mountain-warden,[4] and erasing his name from the census registers. He was then handed over to the jurisdiction of the Yamabe no Muraji.[5]
- ↑ This unusual way of designating the day of the month suggests that a different document is here quoted from.
- ↑ i.e, Warden of the Mountains, or, as we should say, "Woods and Forests." It included the charge of game.
- ↑ Muraji of the Mountain Be.
- ↑ Game-keeper.
- ↑ The erasure of his name from the register was on account of his being attached to the service of the misasagi; the mountain wardenship placed him under the jurisdiction of the Yamabe no Muraji.
May not these guardians of the Imperial tombs have been among the ancestors of the Eta or Hinin, a pariah caste (abolished by the revolution of 1868), who lived in villages by themselves, and did not intermarry with or have any social intercourse with other Japanese? They followed the occupations of leather-dressers, shoemakers, buriers of dead animals,
