Idzumo, whose name was Kihisa-tsu-mi,[1] having made an imitation green-leafed mountain,[2] placed [it] in the lower reach of the river, and was about to present the great august food,[3] the august child spoke, saying: “What here resembles a green-leafed mountain in the lower [reach of the] river, looks like a mountain, but is not a mountain. Is it perchance the great court[4] of the deacon[5] who holds in reverence the Great Deity Ugly-Male-of-the-Reed-Plains[6] that dwells in the temple of So at Ihakuma in Idzumo?”[7] [Thus] he deigned to ask. Then the Kings, who had been sent in august attendance [on him], hearing with joy and seeing with delight,[8] set the august child to dwell in the palace of Nagaho at Ajimasa,[9] and despatched a courier [to inform
- ↑ Motowori supposes Kihisa to be the name of a place, and tsu-mi to stand as usual for tsu mochi, “possessor,” according to which view the name would mean “lord” or “possessor of Kihisa.”
- ↑ No book of reference with which the translator is acquainted throws any light on this curious expression, and there is no parallel passage in the “Chronicles” to which to look for help.
- ↑ Viz., to the Prince (“the august child”). The preparations which Kihisa-tsu-mi is here said to have made are supposed by Motowori to have been prompted by a desire to add beauty to the feast. But the whole passage is very obscure.
- ↑ Viz., the court in front of, or the approach to, the shrine, which would naturally be planted with the sacred tree, the saka-ki (Cleyera japonica), and thus justify the prince’s comparison to it of the artificial grove at which he was looking.
- ↑ I.e., the priest attached to the worship of, etc. For “deacon” see Note 33 to Sect. LXII.
- ↑ Ashihara-shiko-wo, one of the many names of the Deity Oho-kuni-nushi (“Master of the Great Land,” see Sect. XX, Note 19), the Deity whom the Prince and his followers had just been worshipping.
- ↑ These names cannot now be identified, and are of uncertain etymology. Ikakuma seems, however, to mean “curve in the rock.” One would have expected in this place, instead of these unknown names, to find a reference to the main temple of the Deity, which was styled Kidzuki no oho-yashiro, i.e., “the great shrine of Kidzuki.”
- ↑ Some such words as “the changed and more intelligent appearance of the Prince, and his attainment of the power of speech” must be mentally supplied in order to bring out the sense which the author intends to convey.
- ↑ These names cannot be identified. Nagaho signifies “long rice-ear,” while ajimasa in modern usage is the name of a palm (the Levistona Sinensis); but Motowori supposes that it formerly designated the palmetto or some cognate tree.
