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82
“Ko-ji-ki,” or Records of Ancient Matters.
[Vol. XI.

[Sect. XXVI.—The Deities the August Descendants of the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land.]

So this Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land wedded Her Augustness Torrent-Mist-Princess, the Deity dwelling in the inner temple of Munakata,[1] and begot children: the Deity Aji-shiki-taka-hiko-ne,[2] next his younger sister Her Augustness High-Princess,[3] another name for whom is Her Augustness Princess Under-Shining.[4] This Deity Aji-shiki-taka-hiko-ne is he who is now called the Great August Deity of Kamo.[5] Again the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land wedded Her Augustness Princess Divine-House-Shield[6] and begot a child: the Deity Thing-Sign-Master.[7] Again he wedded the Deity Bird-Ears,[8] daughter of the Deity Eight-


  1. See Sect. XIII, Note 15 and Sect. XIV, Note 2.
  2. Aji-shiki-taka-hiko-ne-no-kami. The meaning of the first two members of this compound name is altogether obscure. Taka-hiko-ne signifies “high-prince lord.”
  3. Taka-hime-no-mikoto. Taka-hime is supposed by Hirata to be a mutilated form of Taka-teru-hime, “High-Shining-Princess,” which would make the two names of this personage properly complementary.
  4. Shita-teru-hime-no-mikoto. This goddess is popularly supposed to have been extremely beautiful, whence perhaps the name, which might be taken to imply that her beauty shone forth from under her garments as in the case of So-towori-hime (see Sect. CXXXVII, Note 9).
  5. Because there worshipped. The etymology of Kamo is not clear.
  6. Kamu-ya-tate-hime-no-mikoto. The translation here follows the Chinese characters. Another proposal of Motowori’s is to regard the syllables ya-tate as a corruption of iya-taka-teri, “more and more high shining,” which would give us for the whole name in English “Divine-More-and-More-High-Shining-Princess.”
  7. I.e., “the Deity who gave a sign of the thing he did.” The Japanese original is Koto-shiro-nushi-no-kami. The translation of the name here given follows Motowori’s interpretation, which takes it to contain an allusion to the act by which its bearer symbolized his surrender of the sovereignty of the land to the descendant of the Sun-Goddess. Lengthened forms of the name are Ya-he-koto-shiro-nushi-no-kami (“the Deity Eight-Fold-Thing-Sign-Master”) and Tsumi-ba-ya-he-koto-shiro-nushi-no-kami, the first three syllables of which latter are obscure. Both of the lengthened forms are supposed to contain a reference to the manifold “green branches” mentioned in the legend referred to,—that, viz., which forms the subject-matter of Sect. XXXII.
  8. Tori-mimi-no-kami. Motowori suggests that tori, “bird,” may be but the name of a place in Yamato.