64
bly in order to get of this difficulty that Hirata suggested in the Koshi-Den, that they are located in the pole-star. The central globe, which is of medium size, is marked ‘earth,’ and contains five small circles arranged in pairs. Underneath is the third globe, marked Yomi, and containing two black spots to represent a pair of invisible deities; Yomi is shaded with black, to express the fact that it is in darkness, owing to the interception of the sun’s light by the earth. In the Sandaikô the diagram is similar, but the globes are not perfectly round, and the two black spots placed by Hirata in Yomi, are placed above the five pairs of circles in the earth.
Hatori acknowledges that neither the Kojiki nor the Nihongi contain any tradition as to the formation of Yomi, but that probably something grew downwards from the underside of the Thing, which developed into Yomi, just as from its upper surface something had sprouted up which became Ame.
Hirata, however, finding in one of the parallel passages quoted in the Nihongi, the sentence “Next there was a Thing like floating fat, which came into existence in the sky, from which a god originated named Kuni-no-toko-tachi no kami,” converts this in to “Next, [from the root of the Thing which was drifting about like a floating cloud], a Thing came into existence. The name of the god who originated from this thing was Kuni-no-soko-tachi no kami.” It may be observed that the original text does not connect the second Thing with the first, from which the Ame is supposed to have been formed, and in the Koshi-seibun he afterwards omitted the sentence enclosed between square brackets. To this he added part of a passage from the Kojiki, which speaks of Toyo-kumu-nu no kami. These two gods were single gods, and were invisible, for which reason they are represented in the diagram by black spots. They were succeeded by four pairs of deities, Uhi-jini and Suhi-jini, Tsunu-guhi and Iku-guhi, Oho-to-no-ji and Oho-to-no-be, Omo-daru and Aya-kashiko-ne, Izanagi and Izanami. The word imo, which means either sister or wife, is
