(I. 39.) no Obito, dug up a five-hundred branched True Sakaki[1] tree of the Heavenly Mt. Kagu.[2] On its upper branches they hung an august five-hundred string of Yasaka jewels. On the middle branches they hung an eight-hand[3] mirror.
- ↑ The Sakaki or Cleyera Japonica, is the sacred tree of the Shinto religion. It is used in Shinto religious ceremonies at the present day.
- ↑ Mt. Kagu is the name of a mountain in Yamato. It is here supposed to have a counterpart in Heaven.
- ↑ In Japanese yata-kagami, which is literally "eight-hand mirror." The
any general calamity befalls the tribe. Things had not been going well with the Swinomish Indians for some time. There was much sickness among them, and Big Bob was regarded as responsible for it. So at a meeting of the tribe four Indians were appointed to execute him. The day upon which the murder took place Big Bob was waylaid by four assassins, who seized him, held him, and cut his throat from ear to ear. The red men were arrested and bound over for murder by the Justice of the Peace of Laconner."
In the "Nihongi" times the Imibe occupied a subordinate position in performing the ceremonies of Shinto, and at a still later period this term became a mere surname. Vide Satow, "Ancient Rituals," in "J.A.S.T.," Vol. VII., Pt. II., p. 126.
The Be, or heredilary corporations, were a peculiar institution of Old Japan. This term has been rather inadequately rendered by clan, tribe, or guild. But they differed from clans, as it was not even supposed that there was any tie of blood-relationship between the various classes of members. And if we call them guilds we lose sight of their hereditary character, and of the fact that they were essentially branches of the Government. Perhaps if we imagine the staff of one of our dockyards in which the director and officials should be drawn from the governing class, the artisans being serfs, and the whole having a more or less hereditary character, we shall have a tolerable idea of a Be. The origin of some, as of the Imibe, is lost in antiquity, but many were instituted in historical times, and for all manner of objects. There were Be of weavers (Oribe), of figured-stuff weavers (Ayabe), of executioners (Osakabe), of fishers (Amabe), of farmers (Tanabe), of clay-workers (Hasebe or Hashibe), and many more. The sole function of some was to perpetuate the name of a childless Emperor or Empress. The local habitation of these corporations was also called Be, just as our word admiralty may mean either a body of officials or the building where they discharge their duties. This accounts for the frequency with which this termination occurs in names of places. A familiar example is Kobe, the open port in the Inland Sea. Kobe is for Kami-be, and meant originally the group of peasants allotted to the service of a Deity (of Ikuta?), and hence the village where they lived. A good number of Japanese surnames contain the same termination.
O-bito is a title of nobility, perhaps for Oho-bito, great man. It is represented by a Chinese character which means head or chief.
