Again, having made a cross-mortar[1] at Kashifu[2] in Yeshinu, and having in that cross-mortar distilled[3] some great august liquor, they, when they presented the great august liquor [to the Heavenly Sovereign], sang as follows, drumming with their mouths:
“We have made a side-mortar at Kashinofu, and in the side-mortar we have distilled some great august liquor, which do thou sweetly partake of, oh our lord!”[4]
This Song is one which it is the custom to chant down to the present day when, from time to time, the Territorial Owners present a great feast [to the Sovereign].
[Sect. CIX.—Emperor Ō-jin (Part VI.—Various Deeds).]
In this august reign were graciously established the Fisher Tribe,[5] the Mountain Tribe,[6] the Mountain Warden Tribe,[7] and the Ise
- ↑ Yoko-usu or yokusu (横臼). It is not plain what sort of mortar the author intended to designate by this term. Motowori supposes it to mean a broad flat mortar in contradistinction to a high and narrow one. Keichiū’s view, which he quotes, to the effect that it was a mortar that had been carved out of the block against the grain of the wood, seems an equally good guess, where all is guess-work.
- ↑ In the Song this same name is read Kashinofu; but the commentators tell us that the Genitive Particle no (“of”) is simply inserted for the sake of rhythm, and it is not unlikely that they are right. The name seems to signify “[a place where] oak-trees grow.”
- ↑ See Sect. XVIII, Note 16. The character 釀, rendered by “distill” or “brew,” according to the view which one may take of the resulting liquor, would seem to be here used in the sense of “to pound.”
- ↑ In this simple Song the Territorial Owners of Yoshino beg the Monarch to deign to partake of the sake which they have made.
- ↑ Ana-be (written 海部 and read Una-be in the Old Printed Edition and in the edition of 1687, and perhaps better rendered “Sea-Tribe.”) The name of this guild or clan does not seem to have remained, like the two mentioned together with it, as a “gentile name.”
- ↑ Yama-be. Motowori thinks that this word has crept into the text erroneously through the influence of that next mentioned, as the functions of the tribes or guilds thus separately named were identical. The differentiation may have taken place after the terms had come to be used as “gentile names.”
- ↑ Yama-mori-be.
