Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/355

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Vol. XXXV.]
Vol. III. Sect. CXXI.
269

Midzuha-wake. Again the Oho-kusaka Tribe[1] was established as the august proxy of King Oho-kusaka, and the Waka-kusaka Tribe[2] was established as the august proxy of King Waka-kusaka-be. Again people from Hada were set to labour, and the embankment at Mamuta[3] and also the granaries of Mamuta were made. Again the Pool of Wani[4] and the Pool of Yosami were made. Again the Naniha Channel[5] was dug, and [the waters of the rivers] led to the sea. Again the Wobashi Channel[6] was dug. Again the port of the inlet of Sumi[7] was established.

[Sect. CXXI.—Emperor Nin-toku (Part III.—He Remits the Taxes).]

Thereupon the Heavenly Sovereign, ascending a lofty mountain and looking on the land all round, spoke, saying: “In the whole land there rises no smoke; the land is all poverty-stricken. So I remit[8] all the people’s taxes and [forced labour] from now till three


  1. Oho-kusaka-be. This tribe of course took its name simply from that of Prince Oho-kusaka.
  2. Waka-kusaka-be. A similar observation to that in the last applies to this name.
  3. See Sect. LIII, Note 1.
  4. Wani no ike, in the province of Kubachi. Wani signifies “crocodile,” and it was also the name of the Korean personage mentioned in Sect. CX (Note 6). But the reason why the Pool here spoken of was so called does not appear. The Pool of Yosami has already been mentioned in Sect. LXII. (Note 85). Motowori supposes that it must have dried up during the interim.
  5. Naniha no hori-ye. Motowori tells us that the regularization of the channels of the Yodo and Yamato Rivers, whose mouths nearly meet at this point with various intersecting branches, is what is here intended to be referred to.
  6. Wobashi no ye. Wo-bashi (“little bridge”) is the name of a village in the province of Settsu.
  7. Suminoye no tsu. Close to Naniha; it is the modern Sumiyoshi. Conf. Sect. X, Note 22.
  8. Motowori’s reading of this Verb in the Imperative Mood (as if containing an order addressed by the monarch to his ministers) seems less natural than the older reading in the Indicative, which accordingly the translator has followed.