he had got the cross-sword. Takakurazhi replied, saying: “I was told in a dream that the two Deities the Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity[1] and the High Integrating Deity[2] commanded and summoned the Brave-Awful-Possessing-Male-Deity,[3] and charged him [thus]: ‘The Central Land of Reed-Plains[4] is painfully uproarious,—it is.[5] Our august children must he ill at ease. As [therefore] the Central Land of Reed-Plains is a land which thou specially subduedst, thou the Brave-Awful-Possessing-Male-Deity shalt descend [thither].’ Then he replied, saying: ‘I[6] will not descend [myself], but I have the cross-sword wherewith I specially subdued the land. (The name by which this sword is called is the Deity Thrust-Snap;[7] another name by which it is called is the Deity Awful-Snap,[8] and another name for it is the August-Snap-Spirit.[9] This sword dwells in the temple of the Deity of Isonokami.)[10] The manner in which I will send this sword down will be to perforate the ridge of [the roof of] Takakurazhi’s store-house,[11] and drop it through!’ {So the Brave-Awful-Possessing-Male-Deity instructed me, saying: ‘I will perforate the ridge of [the roof of] thy store-house, and drop this sword through.[12]} So do thou, with
- ↑ The character 御, “august,” which should form the penultimate member of this compound name, is here omitted.
- ↑ See Sect. I, Note 5.
- ↑ See Sect. VIII, Note 7.
- ↑ See Sect. IX, Note 18.
- ↑ Conf. Sect X, Note 1.
- ↑ "The humble character 僕, “servant,” is here used.
- ↑ Sashi-futsu no kami. The translator follows Tanigaha Shisei in considering sazhi (Tanigaha Shisei in his “Perpetual Commentary” reads sashi without the nigori) to mean “thrust.” For the rendering of futsu as “snap” in this and the two following names conf. Sect VIII, Note 8. Moribe, however, in his “Idzu no Chi-waki,” asserts that futsu is but an alternative form of futo, “broad,” “thick,” or “vast,” as shown by the existence of the phrase ma-futsu no kagami, “a true vast mirror.”
- ↑ Mika-futsu no kami.
- ↑ Futsu no mi tama.
- ↑ The name of this place, which is in the province of Yamato, seems to signify “above the rock.” It is well known as the Pillow-Word for the syllables furu.
- ↑ Properly what is known to Anglo-Orientals as a “godown.”
- ↑ The sentence here placed between braces is proposed by Motowori to supplement an evident lacuna in the text.
