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58

“Ko-ji-ki,” or Records of Ancient Matters.

[Vol. VIII.

Heavenly Mount Kagu in a posy for her hands, and laying a sounding-board^[1] before the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling, and stamping till she made it resound and doing as if possessed by a Deity,^[2] and pulling out the nipples of her breasts, pushing down her skirt-string usque ad privatas partes.^[3] Then the Plain of High Heaven shook, and the eight hundred myriad Deities laughed together. Hereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity was amazed, and, slightly opening the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling, spoke thus from the inside: “Methought that owing to my retirement the Plain of Heaven would be dark, and likewise the Central Land of Reed-Plains would all be dark: how then is it that the Heavenly-Alarming-Female makes merry, and that likewise the eight hundred myriad Deities all laugh?” Then the Heavenly-Alarming-Female spoke, saying: “We rejoice and are glad because there is a Deity more illustrious than Thine Augustness.” While she was thus speaking, His Augustness Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord and His Augustness Grand-Jewel pushed forward the mirror and respectfully showed it to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, whereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, more and more astonished, gradually came forth from the door and gazed upon it, whereupon the Heavenly-Hand-Strength-Male-Deity, who was standing hidden, took her august hand and drew her out, and then His

↑ The original of these words, uke fusete, is written phonetically, and the exact meaning of uke, here rendered “sounding-board,” is open to doubt. The parallel passage in the “Chronicles” has the character 槽, which signifies a “trough,” “manger” or “tub,” and the commentaors seem therefore right in supposing that the meaning intended to be conveyed in both histories is that of some kind of improvised wooden structure used for the purpose of amplifying sound.
↑ Neither the text nor Motowori’s Commentary (which Hirata adopts word for word) is absolutely explicit, but the imitation and not the reality of divine possession appears to be here intended. In the parallel passage of the “Chronicles,” on the other hand, we seem to be reading of genuine possession.
↑ The subject of the Verb is not clear in many of the clauses of this immensely long sentence, which does not properly hang together. Some clauses read as if the different deities who take a part in the action did so of their own free will; but the intention of the author must have been to let a Causative sense be understood throughout, as he begins by telling us that a plan was devised by the deity Thought-Includer, which plan must have influenced all the subsequent details.

[1] The original of these words, uke fusete, is written phonetically, and the exact meaning of uke, here rendered “sounding-board,” is open to doubt. The parallel passage in the “Chronicles” has the character 槽, which signifies a “trough,” “manger” or “tub,” and the commentaors seem therefore right in supposing that the meaning intended to be conveyed in both histories is that of some kind of improvised wooden structure used for the purpose of amplifying sound.

[2] Neither the text nor Motowori’s Commentary (which Hirata adopts word for word) is absolutely explicit, but the imitation and not the reality of divine possession appears to be here intended. In the parallel passage of the “Chronicles,” on the other hand, we seem to be reading of genuine possession.

[3] The subject of the Verb is not clear in many of the clauses of this immensely long sentence, which does not properly hang together. Some clauses read as if the different deities who take a part in the action did so of their own free will; but the intention of the author must have been to let a Causative sense be understood throughout, as he begins by telling us that a plan was devised by the deity Thought-Includer, which plan must have influenced all the subsequent details.

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