is truly to be an answer[1] to our adoration of this Great Deity, may the heron dwelling on the tree by the Pool of Sagisu[2] here fall [through my] oath.” When he thus spoke, the heron that had been sworn by fell to the ground dead. Again on his commanding it to come to life [in answer to his] oath, it then came to life again.[3] Moreover he caused to wither by an oath and again brought to life again by an oath a broad-foliaged bear-oak on Cape Amakashi.[4] Then [the Heavenly Sovereign] granted to Prince Ake-tatsu the name of Prince Yamato-oyu-shiki-tomi-toyo-asakura-ake-tatsu.[5] So when the august child was sent off with the two Princes, Prince Ake-tatsu and Prince Una-kami,[6] as his attendants, it was divined[7] that [if they went out] by the Nara gate,[8] they would meet a lame person
- ↑ Lit., a “sign,” a “proof.”
- ↑ Sagisu no ike, a pool in Yamato. Sagisu signifies “heron’s nest.”
- ↑ The reading of the characters 爾者 (rendered “then”) in this passage has been a crux to all the editors. Fortunately they make no difference to the sense.
- ↑ Amakashi no saki. Perhaps “Amakashi Point” would be a better rendering if, as Motowori supposes, an inland place in the province of Yamato is meant. It might be the point or extremity of a hill or bluff. Ama-kashi signifies literally “sweet oak.” The “broad-foliaged bear-oak” mentioned immediately above is supposed by Motowori to be the usual evergreen oak, and not any special kind. The epithet “broad-foliaged” is not, as he remarks, specially appropriate, and he moreover supposes the word kuma, “bear,” to be a corruption of kumi or komori, words which would refer to the thick luxuriance of the foliage. The dictionaries do not help us much to a decision on the point.
- ↑ The component parts of this tremendous name, which is happily abbreviated to Ake-tatsu in the subsequent portions of the text, are somewhat obscure, especially the word oyu, whose reading rests only on a conjecture of Motowori’s, who emends the evidently erroneous character 者 to 老 (oyu), “old.” Toyo, “luxuriant,” is an Honorific, ake and tatsu signify respectively “dawn” and “rise,” while the rests seem to be names of places of which this Prince may be supposed to have been the possessor.
- ↑ Or, the Prince of Unakami, as Unakami is the name of a place in Kadzusal
- ↑ I.e., shown by divination.
- ↑ Nara in Yamato, which is here mentioned for the first time, was the capita, of Japan from A.D. 710 to 784, and has always been famous in Japanese history and literature. The name is derived by the author of the “Chronicles” from the verb narasu, “to cause to resound,” the hosts of the Emperor Sū-jin having, it is
