Vol. XXXIV.]
Vol. II. Sect. CXVI.
261
raki.[1] (This was the august parent[2] of Her Augustness Princess Okinaga-tarashi.) So the things which Ama-no-hi-boko brought over here, and which were called the “precious treasures,”[3] were: two strings of pearls;[4] likewise a wave-shaking scarf, a wave-cutting scarf, a wind-shaking scarf, and a wind-cutting scarf;[5] likewise a mirror of the offing and a mirror of the shore,[6]—eight articles in all. (These are the Eight Great Deities of Idzushi.)[7]
[Sect. CXVI.—Emperor Ō-jin (Part XIII.—The Youth-of-the-Glow-on-the-Autumn-Mountains and the Youth-of-the-Haze-on-the-Spring-Mountains).]
So this Deity had a daughter whose name was the Deity Maiden-of-Idzushi.[8] So eighty Deities wished to obtain this Maiden-of-Idzushi
- ↑ Kadzuraki no Takanuka-hime. Kadzuraki is the name of a department, and Takanuka that of a place in that department, in the province of Yamato.
- ↑ Literally, “ancestress.” But see Sect. XXII, Note 1. It will be remembered that Okinaga-tarashi-hime was the Empress Jin-gō.
- ↑ Literally, “treasures of jewels.”
- ↑ Or, “beads.”
- ↑ I.e., a scarf to raise the waves and a scarf to still the waves, a scarf to raise the wind and a scarf to still the wind. Conf. the magic scarfs mentioned near the beginning of Sect. XXIII, by waving which the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land (Oho-kuni-nushi) kept off the snakes, the wasps and the centipedes.
- ↑ This seems to be the signification of the original terms oki tsu kagami and he tsu kagami, but we are not hereby helped to a very clear understanding of the nature of the articles which the author meant to describe. The parallel passage of the “Chronicles” tells us of a “sun-mirror.” Indeed it enumerates the “eight precious treasures” in a manner that diverges a great deal from the account given in these “Records.”
- ↑ Or, the “Eight-fold Great Deity.” As has already frequently been remarked, the distinction which we so rigorously draw between Singular and Plural does not occupy the Japanese mind, and “eight” and “eight-fold” are taken to mean much the same thing. In the following sentence we find these eight deities (or this eight-fold deity) spoken of in such a manner as to necessitate the use of the Singular Number in the translation. Motowori supposes that they (or he) took the form of a young man (as in several other legends) to become the father of the Goddess mentioned in the text.—Idzushi seems to signify “wonderful stone.”
- ↑ Idzushi-wotome no kami.
