Page:Nihongi by Aston volume 2.djvu/264

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Saimei.

257

One book says:—"The Imperial Prince Arima, with Akaye, Soga no Omi, Konoshiro,^[1] Shihoya no Muraji, Oho-ishi, Mori no Kimi, and Kusuri, Sakahibe no Muraji, divined the future of their treasonous conspiracy by drawing (XXVI. 10.) slips of paper." One book says:—"The Imperial Prince Arima said:—'First of all we will burn the Palace. Then with five hundred men for a day and two nights we will waylay (the Empress) at the harbour of Muro, and speedily with a fleet cutting off the Land of Ahaji, make as it were a prison. This can be easily accomplished.' Some one objected, saying:—'It cannot be so. For all your plans, the faculty (of carrying them out) is wanting. At the present time, Your Imperial Highness is only nineteen years of age, and has not yet attained to manhood. You must first reach manhood and then you will gain the faculty.'" Another book says:—"When the Imperial Prince Arima was plotting treason along with a judicial officer, the leg of the Imperial Prince's arm-rest broke of itself without cause, but he did not cease from conspiring, and was eventually executed."

In this year, Hirafu, Abe no Hikida no Omi, Warden of the Land of Koshi, went on an expedition against the Su-shēn.^[2] He presented to the Emperor two live white bears.^[3]

↑ The "Shūkai" is clearly right in thinking that 戈 of the text is a mistake for 代. The name is therefore Konoshiro, as above, and not Wohoko.
↑ See above, Vol. II. p. 58. It may be inferred from the narrative given below, XXVI. 16, that the Manchus here referred to were not resident on the mainland, but occupied a trading-post in Yezo or some of the adjoining islands.
↑ The character used here, viz. 羆, is read shiguma by the Japanese, and the description of this animal given in Yamada's dictionary and in the "Sansaidzuye" refers plainly to the Polar Bear. Dickins, in Murray's "Handbook of Japan," says that the Polar Bear is sometimes found on the shores of the Hokkaido, but it is rare. Seventy 羆 skins are mentioned below (XXVI. 15), a number which makes one suspect that the animal here referred to may be after all not the Polar Bear, but the Ursus Arctos, a large brown bear which abounds in all these northern regions from Yezo to Kamtchatka, and which is quite distinct from the much smaller black bear of the Japanese islands. It is possible, however, that the Polar Bear may have been more abundant in Yezo at this time.

[1] The "Shūkai" is clearly right in thinking that 戈 of the text is a mistake for 代. The name is therefore Konoshiro, as above, and not Wohoko.

[2] See above, Vol. II. p. 58. It may be inferred from the narrative given below, XXVI. 16, that the Manchus here referred to were not resident on the mainland, but occupied a trading-post in Yezo or some of the adjoining islands.

[3] The character used here, viz. 羆, is read shiguma by the Japanese, and the description of this animal given in Yamada's dictionary and in the "Sansaidzuye" refers plainly to the Polar Bear. Dickins, in Murray's "Handbook of Japan," says that the Polar Bear is sometimes found on the shores of the Hokkaido, but it is rare. Seventy 羆 skins are mentioned below (XXVI. 15), a number which makes one suspect that the animal here referred to may be after all not the Polar Bear, but the Ursus Arctos, a large brown bear which abounds in all these northern regions from Yezo to Kamtchatka, and which is quite distinct from the much smaller black bear of the Japanese islands. It is possible, however, that the Polar Bear may have been more abundant in Yezo at this time.

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