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awo-una-bara means simply the ‘blue waste of sea,’ and that the ancient inhabitants of Japan amongst whom these different legends sprang up, never thought of trying to make them consistent with each other. Hirata’s theory seems to have been invented to prove that Susanowo was first made ruler over the earth, but preferred to go to his mother in the moon, thus leaving the earth vacant for Ninigi no mikoto, who being in a certain sense the joint offspring of Susanowo and the sun-goddess, united in his person all the rights of Izanagi and Izanami. The rest of the Tama no Mi-hashira is occupied by the legends relating to Oho-kuni-nushi’s first occupation of Japan and the descent of Ninigi no mikoto, which have already been briefly summarized in a former part of this paper. The separation of the moon from the earth, which is figured by him in his tenth and last diagram, is supposed to have taken place after the visit of Oho-kuni-nushi to the lower world. Hatori agrees with him on this point, but supposes Oho-kuni-nushi to have gone to the moon after his surrender of the Empire to Ninigi no mikoto, whereas Hirata maintains that he rules over the Hidden World, which is on the earth.
In the year 1813 Hirata wrote the Niugaku Mondô, a short work on the elements of the ancient way, intended for beginners. It is au excellent introduction to his other works on Shintô, and may be recommended to those who do not care to gain more than a general view of his opinions. At the end of the volume is an useful bibliographical list of all his acknowledged works, compiled by some of his disciples. Two years later he completed the Amatsu norito kô, a commentary on a norito which is not contained in the Yengi-shiki, but which, if genuine, supplies a lacuna in the Ohobarai no kotoba, and serves to clear up a point therein which had considerably puzzled all preceding commentators. During this period he was busily working at the Koshi-Den, which he did not live to complete. Besides this, he completed a new edition of Hatori’s Sandaikô, an account of a curious stone found by him in Kadzusa, which he christened Ama-
