26
Nihongi.
(I. 20.) which was called Naga-chi-ha[1] no Kami. Moreover, he threw down his upper garment, which was called Wadzurahi[2] no Kami. Moreover, he threw down his trowsers, which were called Aki-gui[3] no Kami. Moreover, he threw down his shoes, which were called Chi-shiki[4] no Kami.
Some say that the Even Pass of Yomi is not any place in particular, but means only the space of time when the breath fails on the approach of death.[5]
Now the rock with which the Even Pass of Yomi was blocked is called Yomi-do ni fusagaru Oho-kami[6]. Another name for it is Chi-gayeshi[7] no Oho-kami.
When Izanagi no Mikoto had returned, he was seized with regret, and said, "Having gone to Nay! a hideous and filthy place, it is meet that I should cleanse my body (I. 21.) from its pollutions." He accordingly went to the plain of Ahagi at Tachibana in Wodo in Hiuga of Tsukushi, and purified himself. When at length he was about to wash away the impurities[8] of his body, he lifted up his voice and said, "The upper stream is too rapid and the lower stream is too sluggish, I will wash in the middle stream." The God which was thereby produced was called Ya-so-maga-tsu-bi[9] no Kami, and then to remedy these evils
- ↑ Long-road-rock.
- ↑ Disease or trouble.
- ↑ This might mean open-bite, but the derivation is very doubtful.
- ↑ Road-spread-out.
- ↑ Motoöri treats this suggestion with supreme contempt. He prefers to accept the identification of the "Kojiki" (Ch. K. p. 39) with a place in Idzumo. Other parts of the world also, boast entrances to the lower regions. The Chinese have one at Têng-chow, and the Roman and Greek legends need not be more particularly referred to.
- ↑ Yomi-gate-block-great-God.
- ↑ Road-turn-back.
- ↑ Izanagi's ablutions are typical of the ceremonial lustration required after contact with death. A Chinese traveller to Japan in the early centuries of the Christian era noted that "when the funeral is over the whole family go into the water and wash." Ovid makes Juno undergo lustration after a visit to the lower regions, and Dante is washed in Lethe when he passes out of Purgatory. For lustration as a widespread practice, consult Dr. Tyler's "Primitive Culture." Vol. II., p. 435, et seqq.
- ↑ Eighty-evils-of-body. Cf Ch. "Kojiki," p. 41.
