fore when fighting with the Prince of Tomi,[1] His Augustness Itsu-se was pierced in his august hand by the Prince of Tomi’s hurtful arrow.[2] So then he said: “It is not right for me, an august child of the Sun-Deity, to fight facing the sun. It is for this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain’s[3] hurtful hand. I will henceforward turn round, and smite him with my back to the sun.” Having [thus] decided, he, on making a progress round from the southern side, reached the sea of Chinu,[4] and washed the blood on his august hand: so it is called the sea of Chinu.[5] Making a progress round from thence, and arriving at the river-mouth of Wo[6] in the land of Ki,[7] he said: “Ah! that I should die stricken by the wretched villain’s hand!” and expired[8] as a valiant man.[9] So that river-mouth was called the river-mouth of Wo.[10] The mausoleum, too, is on Mount Kama[11] in the land of Ki.
- ↑ Viz., Nagasune-biko.
- ↑ The wording of the original 負登美毗古之痛矢串 is very curious. Motowori reads it Tomi-biko ya ita-ya-gushi wo ohashiki. Immediately below we have 負賤奴之痛手.
- ↑ The character is 奴, properly “slave.”
- ↑ The most likely derivation of this name is from chi-numa, “eulalia lagoon,” the fact that it will also bear the interpretation of “blood-lagoon” being probably but a coincidence of which the mythopoeic faculty took advantage.
- ↑ Here written with characters signifying “blood-lagoon.”
- ↑ The characters rendered “river-mouth” are 水門, literally “water-gate;” but here, as elsewhere, “river-mouth” seems to be the signification meant to be conveyed. Rivers in Japan, even at the present day, do not bear one continuous name along their entire course, and there would be nothing unnatural in the fact of the water at the mouth of the river having a special designation. One of the significations of wo is “man,” and the legendary etymology of the name given immediately below rests on the assumption that such is the meaning of wo in this place. Even Motowori, however, is not satisfied with it, and it is probably erroneous.
- ↑ See Sect. XXII, Note 14.
- ↑ The Chinese character 崩, which is here used, is one that specially denotes the demise of an Emperor.
- ↑ Probably the sense meant to be conveyed is that he expired with a gest of anger and defiance.
- ↑ Here written 男, “man.” Conf. Note 37.
- ↑ Kama-yama, i.e. “furnace-mountain.”
