These two Deities were likewise Deities born alone, and hid their persons. The names of the Deities that were born next were the Deity Mud-Earth-Lord, next his younger sister the Deity Mud-Earth-Lady;[1] next the Germ-Integrating-Deity, next his younger sister the Life-Integrating-Deity;[2] next the Deity Elder-of-the-Great-Place, next his younger sister the Deity Elder-Lady-of-the-Great-Place;[3] next the Deity Perfect-Exterior,[4] next his younger sister the Deity Oh-Awful-Lady;[5] next the
- ↑ U-hiji-ni-no-kami and Su-hiji-ni-no-kami. The names of this pair lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. Motowori’s view of the meaning of the first three syllables in each seems best, as it is founded on the Chinese characters with which they are written in the parallel passage of the “Chronicles”, and it has therefore been adopted here. Hirata interprets the names thus: First-Mud-Lord and First-Sand-Lady, and takes ni to be an alternative form of the Honorific ne found in so many proper names. This view of the meaning of ni has been followed by the translator. On the other hand Mabuchi explains the names to mean respectively Floating-Mud-Earth and Sinking-Mud-Earth. The only thing therefore that is granted by all is that the names in question refer to the mud or slime out of which the world was afterwards made.—The reader will bear in mind that “younger sister” and “wife” are convertible names in Archaic Japanese. (See Introduction p. XXXVIII.)
- ↑ Tsunu-guhi-no-kami and Iku-guhi-no-kami. The interpretation given is one in which the commentators agree, and which has some probability in its favour. It must however only be accepted with reservation.
- ↑ Oho-to-no-ji-no-kami and Oho-to-no-be-no-kami.
- ↑ Omo-daru-no-kami. We might also render omo-daru by “perfect-face,” i.e., “perfectly beautiful.”
- ↑ Aya-kashiko-ne-no-kami. For “awful” we might substitute “venerable.” Hirata, commentating on this name and the seven which precede it, says: “U-hiji-ni and Su-hiji-ni are so named from their having contained the germs of what was to become the earth. Oho-to-no-ji and Oho-to-no-be are so called from the appearance of the incipient earth. Tsunu-guhi and Iku-guhi are so called from the united appearance of the earth and the Deities as they came into existence. Omo-daru and Kushiko-ne are so called from the completion of the august persons of the Deities. Thus their names were given to them from the gradal progress [of creation].”
of nushi, “master” (or more vaguely “the person who presides at or does a thing”). Mabuchi in his “Dictionary of Pillow-words,” Article Sasutake, argues that the syllables in question should be interpreted in the sense of “coagulated mud”; but this is less satisfactory.
