Prince Yamato-dake took on his expedition to the East the Prince
Mi-suki-tomo-mimi-take. The emperor gave him these instructions: “Subdue
and pacify the savage deities, and likewise the unsubmissive people of the
twelve roads(57) of the East.”
Prince Yamato-dake first visited the temple of the Sun Goddess in Isé,
where he worshipped at the shrine of his great ancestress. He must have
had a presentiment that he never would return alive from this expedition.
His aunt Yamato-hime,(58) who was the priestess of this temple, gave him
on his departure the sword(59) which the Impetuous-Male-Deity discovered
in the tail of the snake which he slew in Izumo. She also gave him a bag
which he was not to open until he found himself in pressing difficulty.
He came to the land of Owari, and appears there to have been smitten by
the charms of the Princess Miyazu. And, planning to wed her on his way
back, he plighted to her his troth and went on. Then he came to the
province of Sagami, where he met the chief of the land. But he deceived
him and said that in the midst of a vast moor there is a lagoon where
lives a deity. Yamato-dake went over the moor to find the deity. Whereupon
the chief set fire to the grass, expecting to see him consumed. But
Yamato-dake seeing his danger, and being assured that the time of pressing
difficulty had come, opened the bag which his aunt, Yamato-hime, had given
him. There he found a fire drill,(60) with which a fire could be struck.
He cut away the grass around him with the sword which had been given him,
and then set fire to the moor. When he was safe from the fire he sought
out and slew the traitorous chief and all the chiefs who were associated
with him.
From Sagami he undertook to cross in a boat the waters of Yedo bay to
Kazusa opposite. But the sea was rough and they were on the point of being
overwhelmed and drowned. Then his wife, the Princess Oto-Tachibana, who
accompanied him on this expedition, threw out mats from the boat, and
saying, “I will enter the sea instead of the prince; you must finish the
task on which you are sent,” she sprang from the boat and sat down on the
mats(61) she had thrown out. Immediately the waves were quiet and the boat
sailed on in safety. And the comb of the princess was washed ashore, and
the people built for it a sacred mausoleum in which it was kept.
Then Prince Yamato-dake penetrated the regions occupied by the Ainos(62)
and subdued them. Having accomplished this principal object of his
undertaking, he returned by way of the Usui pass opposite to mount Fuji.
As he stood in this lofty position and looked out on the sea where his
wife had sacrificed herself for his safety, he cried out: “Azuma ha ya!”
(O my wife!) Azuma is a name often used in poetry for the part of Japan
north of this pass. But whether this myth was invented to explain the
name, or the name was derived from the incident, it is impossible to
determine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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