island has one body and four faces, and each face has a name. So the Land of Iyo is called Lovely-Princess;[1] the Land of Sanuki[2] is called Prince-Good-Boiled-Rice;[3] the Land of Aha is called the Princess-of-Great-Food;[4] the Land of Tosa[5] is called Brave-Good-Youth.[6] Next they gave birth to the Islands of Mitsu-go[7] near Oki,[8] another name for which [islands] is Heavenly-Great-Heart-Youth.[9] Next they gave birth to the island of Tsukushi.[10] This island likewise has one body and four faces,[11] and each face has a name. So the Land of Tsukushi is called
- ↑ Ye-hime. For the rendering of hiko and hime as “prince” and “princess” see Introduction, p. xvi.
- ↑ Probably derived, as Hirata shows, from saho-ki, “pole-trees,” a tribute of poles having anciently been paid by that province. Motowori adopts the unusual reading of the name given in the “Japanese Words Classified and Explained,” viz. Sanugi, with the last syllable nigori’ed.
- ↑ Ihi-yori-hiko. The translator, though with some hesitation, follows Motowori in looking on yori as a contraction of yoroshi, “good.” The character used for it in the original is 依.
- ↑ Oho-ge-tsu-hime. Remember that aha signifies not only “foam” but “millet,” so that we need not be astonished to find that the alternative designation of the island so designated is that of a food-goddess.
- ↑ Etymology uncertain, only fanciful derivations being proposed by the native philologists.
- ↑ Take-yori-wake.
- ↑ Mitsu-go signifies “triplets,” lit., “three children.” The three islets intended are Ama-no-shima, Mukafa-no-shima and Chiburi-no-shima.
- ↑ Oki probably here signifies “offing,” which is its usual acceptation.
- ↑ Ame-no-oshi-koro-wake. The syllables oshi, which recur in the names of many gods and heroes, are rendered “great” in accordance with Motowori’s plausible conjecture that they are an abbreviation of ohoshi (“great,” not “many” as in the later language). The translation of koro by “heart” follows a conjecture of Hirata’s (Motowori acknowledged that he could make nothing of the word), according to which it is taken to be an abbreviated form of kokoro, “heart.”
- ↑ None but fanciful derivations of this word are suggested by the native philologists.
- ↑ A note to the edition of 1687 says: “Should the word ‘four’ be changed to ‘five’?” For most texts enumerate five countries in this passage with slight
etymology of Iyo is quite uncertain. It is here taken as the name of the whole island called in modern times Shikoku; but immediately below we find it in its usual modern acceptation of one of the four provinces into which that island is divided. A similar remark applies to Tsukushi a little further on.
