Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/94

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Age of the Gods.
63

sand and five hundred. Amongst them one was very wicked, and would not yield compliance to my instructions. He slipped through between my fingers and fell. This must be that child, let him be loved and nurtured.' This was no other than Sukuna-bikona no Mikoto."[1]

  1. Sukuna-bikona is a popular God at the present day. Hirata has devoted two volumes (the "Shidzu no ihaya") to a glorification of him as the inventor of medicine and of the art of brewing sake under the name of Kushi no Kami. The "Kojiki" relates his legend somewhat differently. See Ch. K., p. 85. Sukuna means small (in modern Japanese few) and bikona is honorific.

    Hirata identifies Sukuna-bikona with Yebisu and Oho-na-mochi with Daikoku. See Anderson's B. M. Catalogue, p. 36. All these identifications, of which Hirata is profuse, are somewhat problematical.