on the top of her forehead there had been produced millet; over her eyebrows there had been produced the silkworm; within her eyes there had been produced panic; in her belly there had been produced rice; in her genitals there had been produced wheat, large beans[1] and small beans.[2]
Ame-kuma-bito carried all these things and delivered them to Ama-terasu no Oho-kami, who was rejoiced, and said:—'These are the things which the race of visible[3] men will (I. 28.) eat and live.' So she made the millet, the panic, the wheat, and the beans the seed for the dry fields, and the rice she made the seed for the water-fields. Therefore she appointed a Mura-gimi[4] of Heaven, and forthwith sowed for the first time the rice seed in the narrow fields and in the long fields of Heaven. That autumn, drooping ears bent down, eight span long, and were exceedingly pleasant to look on.
Moreover she took the silkworms in her mouth, and succeeded in reeling thread from them. From this began the art of silkworm rearing."[5]
Upon this Sosa no wo no Mikoto made petition, saying:—"I will now obey thy instructions and proceed to the Nether Land. Therefore I wish for a short time to go to the Plain of High Heaven and meet with my elder sister, after which I will go away for ever." Permission was granted him, and he therefore ascended to Heaven.
After this, Izanagi no Mikoto, his divine task having been
- ↑ Soja hispida. Hepburn.
- ↑ Phaseolus radiatus. Hepburn. Compare with this the Chinese myth of P'an-ku quoted above. There are Indian and Iranian myths of a similar character. See "T.R.A.S.," Jan., 1895, p. 202. "Creation from the fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being is common to Chaldaeans, Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, Tinnehs, Mangaians, and Aryan Indians." Lang, "Myth, Religion, Ritual," I. 246.
- ↑ As opposed to the unseen gods.
- ↑ Village-chief.
- ↑ The "Kojiki" makes Susa no wo to slay Uke-mochi no Mikoto, but the "Kiujiki" agrees with the version just given, which is more likely to be the original form of the story as it is an explanation of the reason why the sun and moon are not seen together, and has parallels in myths of other countries. Ama-terasu no Oho-kami (now called Ten-shō-dai-jin) and Ukemochi no Kami are the two principal Deities worshipped at Ise. See Satow's "Handbook of Japan," pp. 175, 176.
