The god is referred to both as 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami' (阿遅鉏高日子根神; Old Japanese: Adisuki1takapi1ko1ne-no2-Kami2) and 'Ajishikitakahikone-no-Kami' (阿遅志貴高日子根神; Man'yōgana: 阿治志貴多迦比古泥能迦微; O.J.: Adisiki2takapi1ko1ne[2]) in the Kojiki,[3] while the Nihon Shoki consistently calls him 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami' (味耜高彥根神).[4] Renditions of the name found in other texts include 'Ajisukitakahiko-no-Mikoto' (阿遅須枳高日子命; IzumoFudoki), 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Mikoto-no-Kami' (阿遅須伎高日古尼命神; HarimaFudoki) and 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Mikoto' (阿遅須伎高孫根乃命; Izumo-no-Kuni-no-Miyatsuko no Kan'yogoto).[5]
Aji (O.J. adi) may mean either "excellent" (cf. aji "taste, flavor") or "flock, mass, many", while shiki (O.J. siki2) is variously interpreted either as a corruption of suki (O.J. suki1, "spade" or "plough"), a derivation from the Baekjewordsuki "village", a word meaning "blade", or a place name in Yamato Province. (One factor that complicates a proper interpretation of the name is that ki1 and ki2are thought to be different syllables in Old Japanese.)[2][5]
Basil Hall Chamberlain, in his 1882 translation of the Kojiki, left the name untranslated (noting that "[t]he meaning of the first two members of this compound name is altogether obscure");[6] likewise, William George Aston (1896) merely commented that there is "no satisfactory explanation of this name."[7]Donald Philippi (1968) proposed two possible interpretations of the name: "Massed-Ploughs High-Princeling Deity" or "Excellent Shiki High-Princeling Deity" (with 'Shiki' being understood here to be a toponym).[2] Gustav Heldt's translation of the Kojiki (2014) meanwhile renders the name as "Lofty Little Lad of Fine Plows".[8]
Mythology
Parentage
The Kojiki describes Ajisukitakahikone as one of the two children of the god Ōkuninushi by Takiribime, one of the three Munakata goddesses, the other being Shitateruhime [ja] (also known as Takahime).[6][9]
He is frequently portrayed as a baby who is unable to sleep.[1] His mother carried him up and down a ladder in an attempt to make him sleep, this is what causes the sound of growing thunder.[1] In infancy, his crying and screaming were so loud that he had to be placed in a boat and sailed around the islands of Japan until he was calm.
In adulthood, he was the father of Takitsuhiko, a rain god.
When the sun goddess Amaterasu and the primordial godTakamimusubi, the rulers of the heavenly realm of Takamagahara, decreed that the earth below (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni) should be ruled over by Amaterasu's progeny, they dispatched a series of messengers to its ruler, Ōkuninushi, to command him to cede supremacy over the land. One of these, Ame-no-Wakahiko, ended up marrying Shitateruhime [ja], one of Ōkuninushi's daughters, and even plotted to gain the land for himself. After eight years had passed, a pheasant sent by the heavenly gods arrived and remonstrated with Ame-no-Wakahiko, who killed it with his bow and arrow. The arrow flew up to Takamagahara, but was then promptly thrown back to earth; it struck Ame-no-Wakahiko in the chest while he was asleep, killing him instantly.
During Ame-no-Wakahiko's funeral, Shitateruhime [ja]'s brother Ajisukitakahikone, a close friend of Ame-no-Wakahiko, arrived to pay his condolences. As he closely resembled Ame-no-Wakahiko in appearance, the family of the deceased mistook him for Ame-no-Wakahiko come back to life. Offended at being mistaken for his friend (as corpses were regarded as unclean, to be compared with or mistaken for a dead person was seen as an insult), Ajisukitakahikone in anger drew his ten-span sword, hacked to pieces the funeral hut (喪屋 moya) where Ame-no-Wakahiko's corpse was laid and the funeral held, and then kicked it away. The ruined hut landed in the land of Mino and became a mountain called Moyama (喪山, lit. 'mourning mountain').[a]
Ajishikitakahikone, still fuming, then flew off, the radiance that exuded from him being such that it illuminated the space of two hills and two valleys. Shitateruhime [ja], wishing to reveal to the mourners her brother's identity, then composed the following song in his honor:[13][14]
Strung on the cord of beads
Worn around the neck
Of the heavenly
Young weaving maiden!
Like this is he
Who crosses
Two valleys at once,
The god Ajishiki-
Takahikone!
Notes
^Two locations in Gifu Prefecture (the southern part of which is the historical province of Mino) have been suggested as possible candidates for this mountain or hill: a tumulus known as Moyama Kofun (喪山古墳) in Tarui, Fuwa District,[10] and Moyama Tenjin Shrine (喪山天神社, Moyama-Tenjinja) in Ōyada, Mino City.[11][12]
^ abcAshkenazi, Michael (2008). Handbook of Japanese mythology. Handbooks of world mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN978-0-19-533262-9.
^ abcPhilippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 450. ISBN978-1400878000.
^Aston, William George (1896). "Book I" . Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. p. 67 – via Wikisource.
^Heldt, Gustav (2014). The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters. Columbia University Press. pp. 38, 44. ISBN978-0231163880.
^Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 113. ISBN978-1400878000.
^ abcPhilippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. pp. 123–128. ISBN978-1400878000.
^Aston, William George (1896). "Book I" . Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. pp. 65-67, 73-75 – via Wikisource.
^Based on Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 428. The transcription system used to distinguish type A/B vowels in the original text had been changed to indexed notation.
