various Be[1] and allotted them severally to their various titles (or surnames). They afterwards took the various Be of the people, and made them reside in the provinces and districts, one mixed up with another. The consequence has been to make father and child to bear different surnames, and brothers to be reckoned of distinct families, while husbands and wives have names[2] different from one another. One family is divided into five or split up into six, and both Court and country are therefore (XXV. 35.) filled with contentious suits. No settlement has been come to, and the mutual confusion grows worse and worse. Let the various Be, therefore, beginning with those of the reigning Emperor and including those in the possession of the Omi, Muraji, etc., be, without exception, abolished, and let them become subjects of the State. Those who have become Tomo no Miyakko by borrowing the names of princes, and those who have become Omi or Muraji on the strength of the names of ancestors,[3] may not fully apprehend our purport, and might think, if they heard this announcement without warning, that the names borrowed by their ancestors would become extinct. We therefore make this announcement beforehand, so that they may understand what are our intentions.
The children of rulers succeed one another in the government of the Empire, and it is well known that the names of the actual Emperor and of his Imperial ancestors will not be forgotten by the world. But the names of sovereigns are lightly given to rivers and plains,[4] or common people are called by them. This
- ↑ Instituted in commemoration of Princes and bearing their names, or names intended to recall their memory.
- ↑ 名 or Names must here apply to surnames, or rather Be names. The Japanese at this time had no proper surnames, and the Chinese characters for the two kinds of names are not always rightly distinguished.
- ↑ The "Shukai" quotes here the instances of Kibitsuhiko no Mikoto, whose descendants were called Kibi no Omi, and Achiki, whose descendants were styled Achiki no Fubito.
- ↑ The "Shukai" editor instances Annei Tennō, whose name of Shiki-tsu-hiko is borne by the plain of Shiki in Yamato, and Yūriaku Tennō, whose name of Ohohatsuse is applied to the River Hatsuse-gawa. But it is more likely that the facts are the other way, and that the names of places were given to the Emperors.
The "Shoku-ni-hon-go-ki" (a continuation of the "Nihongi") records an edict which directed the alteration of names of persons, villages, mountains, or rivers, which coincided with the names (imina) of Emperors.
