Yard;[1] next the Deity Asuha;[2] next the Deity Hahigi;[3] next the Deity Refulgent-Mountain-Dwelling-Grandee;[4] next the Deity Swift-Mountain-Dwelling;[5] next the High Deity-of-the-Fire-in-the-Yard;[6] next the Great-Earth-Deity,[7] another name for whom is the Deity August-Ancestor-of-Earth.[8] (Nine Deities.[9])
- ↑ Niha-tsu-hi-no-kami. The interpretation of this name here adopted is not Motowori’s, who takes hi in the sense of “wondrous,” but Hirata’s. The latter author makes it clear that this deity (for whom Niha-taka-tsu-hi-no-kami, i.e. “the High-Deity-of-the-Fire-in-the-Yard,” is but a slightly amplified designation) was none other than the above-mentioned Deity of the Kitchen, and his name an inclusive one for the pair of deities Oki-tsu-hiko and Oki-tsu-hime.
- ↑ Asuha-no-kami. The signification of this name is obscure, and Motowori’s proposal to derive it from ashi-niha, “foot-place,” because the god in question may be supposed to protect the place on which people stand, is not altogether convincing. In fact he himself only advances it with hesitation. It should be added, however, that Hirata stamps it with his special approval, as he does also Motowori’s derivation of the following name, Hahigi.
- ↑ Hahigi-no-kami. Obscure, but ingeniously derived by Motowori from hahi-iri-gimi, i.e. “entering prince,” the deity in question being supposed to have been the special protector of the entrances to houses, and to have thence received his name. Mr. Satow has translated it in the Rituals as “Entrance Limit.”
- ↑ Kaga-yama-to-omi-no-kami. The name is almost identical with that in Note 10.
- ↑ Ha-yama-to-no-kami. The interpretation of the name is that proposed by Motowori, and which seems tolerably satisfactory.
- ↑ Niha-taku-tsu-hi-no-kami. See Note 24.
- ↑ Oho-tsuchi-no-kami.
- ↑ Tsuchi-no-mi-oya-no-kami.
- ↑ This number is obtained if (as is perhaps permissible from a Japanese point of view) we consider Oki-tsu-hiko and Oki-tsu-hime as forming a single deity. Otherwise there are ten. A similar remark applies to the number sixteen mentioned immediately below.
tell us that the deity was worshipped with arrows, that is to say, that arrows were offered at his shrine. Motowori’s proposal to consider 用 as an error for 成 or 化, and to interpret the clause thus: “the Deity who was changed into an arrow” is also worthy of notice. But a further suggestion of his to read 丹 for 用 and to interpret thus: “the Deity of the Red Arrow,” seems best of all when taken in connection with the tradition, which he quotes from the “Topography of Yamashiro,” to the effect that this god took the shape of a red arrow to gain access to his mistress Tama-yori-hime, such a transformation being one of the commonplaces of Japanese myth.
