Then he called the Deity Foot-Stroking-Elder and said: “Thee do I appoint Headman[1] of my palace;” and moreover bestowed on him the name of Master-of-the-Temple-of-Inada Eight-Eared-Deity-of-Suga.[2]
- ↑ Obito, written with the Chinese character 首, while the Japanese word is probably derived from oho-bito, “great man.” When used, as it often is, as a “gentile name,” the translator renders it by “Grandee.”
- ↑ Inada-no-miya-nushi Suga-no-ya-tsu-mimi-no-kami. It should be stated that Motowori, as usual, objects to the view that mimi signifies “ears” (its proper meaning) in this name. But he has no better explanation to offer, and the Chinese characters give us ya-tsu mimi, “eight ears.” The author of
Tachi-idzuru kumo mo
Tsuma-gome ni
Ya-he-gaki tsukuru yo!
I.e.—
“The uprising clouds even, to shut up the spouses, make an eight-fold fense.”
(See his discussion on this song in the “Idzu no Koto-waki,” Vol. I, pp. 1–3.)— The present writer has already stated in the Introduction (see p. lx,) his reasons for always rendering the native word for “eight” (ya) by “eight,” instead of by “many” or “numerous,” as is done by the two eminent scholars above quoted. With regard to the word Idzumo which they, in deference to the opinions of the native commentators, render by “clouds which come forth” or “forth-issuing clouds” (the Chinese characters 出雲 with which the word is written having that signification), the present writer cannot persuade himself that such a corruption as idzumo for ide-kumo either retained at the time of the composition of the song, or should now be credited with, the signification which this its supposed etymology assigns to it. The etymology moreover is far from being established, and in this, as in many other cases, the Chinese characters used to write the name of the province of Idzumo may well have rested on nothing more than a vague similarity of sound, and probably no European scholar would endorse the opinion of the native commentators, to whom the “Records” are a sacred book, that the province of Idzumo received its name from this very poem. On the other hand, we need have no difficulty in conceding that the Pillow-Word ya-kumo-tatsu, by which Idzumo is preceded in poetical compositions, did probably here originate.—This song is in the “Chronicles” only quoted in a note, for which reason some authorities dispute its antiquity. In the note in question, we find the reading -gome (the “Records” have -gomi), i.e., the Transitive form instead of the Intransitive. If this were adopted, the translation would have to run thus: … “The eight-fold fence of Idzumo makes an eight-fold fence to shut up the spouse[s?] in;” and probably “spouse” should be understood in the Feminine to mean “wife.”
