state. Therefore he was again charged with the conduct of affairs, and the Emperor treated him as an intimate friend. This prince, however, was of a perverse disposition, and his natural bent was opposed to justice. During the period of sincere seclusion[1] his authority at last became independent, and concealing his malicious purposes, he plotted the destruction of his two younger brothers.
Now in the year Tsuchinoto U of the cycle, Winter, the 11th month, Kami-Nunagaha-mimi no Mikoto and his elder brother Kami-Ya-wi-mimi no Mikoto learnt privately his intentions and effectively prevented him. When the business of the misasagi was ended, they caused Yumi Be no Waka-hiko to make a bow, and Yamato no Kanuchi[2] Ama-tsu-ma-ura[3] to make a true-deer arrow-point, and the Ya[4] Be to prepare arrows. When the bow and arrows were ready, (IV. 3.) Kami-Nunagaha-mimi no Mikoto wished therewith to shoot to death Tagishi-mimi no Mikoto, who happened just then to be in a great muro at Kataoka, lying alone on a great couch. Then Kami-Nunagaha-mimi no Mikoto spake to Kami-Ya-wi
- ↑ i.e. of mourning.
- ↑ Yumi-be is the Be of bow-makers; Kanuchi, smith.
- ↑ Ama-tsu-ma-ura. This name is obviously identical with that of the smith-god, Ama-tsu-mara, mentioned in the "Kojiki" (see Ch. K., p. 55), upon which Chamberlain remarks, "Obvius hujus nominis sensus foret 'Cælestis Penis.'" Ma-ura means literally true-heart, or inwards, and hence came to be used as a decent term for penis, corresponding somewhat to our word "nakedness." In modern times it is a very vulgar word. This is Hirata's view. Another derivation connects it with Mâra, the Indian God of lust, sin, and death.
If Ama-tsu-ma-ura or mara stood alone, we might be disposed with Motowori to pass it by as a proper name of doubtful derivation. But Hirata ("Koshiden" v. 48) quotes from old books three other names of deities which contain this element, viz. Oho (great) mara no Mikoto, Ama-tsu-aka (red) mara no Mikoto and Ama-teru (shining) mara take-wo (brave male) no Mikoto. He thinks it sufficient to say that as these are the names of Gods, a phallic interpretation is inadmissible, but in this European scholars will hardly agree with him. There is a Mara no Sukune in the Japanese peerage of the ninth century, known as the Seishiroku. See Index—Phallic worship.
- ↑ Ya, arrow.
may suppose that he was at that time twenty years of age at least. We are now in B.C. 585, so that he must have been over 100.
