sabre[1] that was augustly girded on him, cut off the head of his child the Deity Shining-Elder. Hereupon the names of the Deities that were born from the blood that stuck to the point of the august sword and bespattered the multitudinous rock-masses were: the Deity Rock-Splitter,[2] next the Deity Root-Splitter, next the Rock-Possessing-Male-Deity.[3] The names of the Deities that were next born from the blood that stuck to the upper part[4] of the august sword and again bespattered the multitudinous rock-masses were: the Awfully-Swift-Deity,[5] next the Fire-Swift-Deity,[6] next the Brave-Awful-Possessing-Male-Deity,[7] another name for whom is the Brave-Snapping-Deity,[8] and another name is the Luxuriant-Snapping Deity. The names of the Deities that were next born from the blood that collected on the hilt
- ↑ One “grasp” is defined as “the breadth of four fingers when the hand is clenched,” so that the meaning intended to be conveyed is of a big sabre ten hand-breadths long. The length of sabres and of beards was measured by such “grasps” or “hand-breadths.”
- ↑ The original names of this deity and the next are Iha-saku-no-kami and Ne-saku-no-kami.
- ↑ Or the Rock-Elder-Male-Deity, i.e. the Male Deity the Elder of the Rocks, if with Motowori we regard the second tsu of the original name Iha-tsutsu-no-wo-no-kami as being equivalent to chi or ji, supposed to be “the honorific appellation of males” elsewhere rendered “elder.” The translation in the text proceeds on the assumption that this tsu represents mochi. The purport of the name remains much the same whichever of these two views be adopted.
- ↑ Explained by reference to the parallel passage of the “Chronicles” through a character signifying “the knob at the end of the guard of the sword.”—(Williams’ “Syllabic Dictionary.”)
- ↑ Mika-haya-bi-no-kami. Motowori seems to be right in regarding mika as equivalent to ika, the root of ikameshiki, “stern,” “awful,” and bi as the root of buru, a verbalising suffix.
- ↑ Hi-haya-bi-no-kami.
- ↑ Take-mika-dzu-chi-no-wo-no-kami, written with the characters 建御雷之男神. The translator has without much hesitation followed Motowori’s interpretation.
- ↑ Take-futsu-no-kami. The next name is Toyo-futsu-no-kami. Futsu is interpreted in the sense of “the sound of snapping” by reference to a passage in the “Chronicles” where it occurs written both ideographically and phonetically in the name of the deity Futsu-no-mi-tama.
