Ajisukitakahikone

Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami
Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami
God of agriculture and thunder
	Ajisukitakahikone destroys the hut where Ame-no-Wakahiko's corpse lay with his sword
Other names	Ajishikitakahikone-no-Kami (阿遅志貴高日子根神, 阿遅志貴高日子根神, 阿治志貴高日子根神); Ajisukitakahiko-no-Mikoto (阿遅須枳高日子命); Ajisukitakahikone-no-Mikoto (味耜高彦根命, 阿遅須伎高孫根乃命, 味鉏高彦根尊); Takakamo-Ajisukitakahikone-no-Mikoto (高鴨阿治須岐託彦根命); Kamo-no-Ōmikami (迦毛之大御神)
Japanese	味耜高彦根神
Major cult center	Takakamo Shrine [ja], Asuki Shrine
Texts	Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, Sendai Kuji Hongi, Izumo Fudoki, Harima Fudoki
Genealogy
Parents	Ōkuninushi and Takiribime [ja]
Siblings	Shitateruhime [ja]; Kotoshironushi, Takeminakata and others (half-siblings)
Consort	Ame-no-Mikajihime
Children	Takitsuhiko, Yamuyabiko

Ajisukitakahikone (also Ajishikitakahikone or Ajisukitakahiko) is a kami in Japanese mythology. He is one of the sons of Ōkuninushi and the tutelary deity of Kamo.^[1]

Name

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; Izumo Fudoki), 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Mikoto-no-Kami' (阿遅須伎高日古尼命神; Harima Fudoki) 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 Baekje word suki "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 ki₂ are 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.

Ajisukitakahikone and Ame-no-Wakahiko

When the sun goddess Amaterasu and the primordial god Takamimusubi, 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]

Man'yōgana (Kojiki)		Japanese		Old Japanese		Modern Japanese (Rōmaji)		Translated by Donald Philippi^[13]
阿米那流夜淤登多那婆多能宇那賀世流多麻能美須麻流美須麻流能阿那陀麻波夜美多邇布多和多良須阿治志貴多迦比古泥能迦微曾^[15]		天なるや弟棚機のうながせる玉の御統御統にあな玉はやみ谷二渡らす阿遅志貴高日子根の神ぞ^[16]		Ame₂ naru ya Oto₂-tanabata no₂ unagaseru tama no₂ misumaru misumaru ni anadama pa ya mi₁tani puta watarasu Adisiki₂ Takapi₁ko₁ne no₂ Kami₂ so₂^[17]		Ame naru ya Oto-tanabata no unagaseru tama no misumaru misumaru ni anadama ha ya mitani futa watarasu Ajishiki Takahikone no Kami zo		Ah, the large jewel^[b] 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]
^ Literally "hole-jewel" (anadama)^[13]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Ashkenazi, Michael (2008). Handbook of Japanese mythology. Handbooks of world mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-0-19-533262-9.
^ ^a ^b ^c Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 450. ISBN 978-1400878000.
^ 古事記上卷 (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
^ 日本書紀卷第二神代下 (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
^ ^a ^b "阿遅志貴高日子根神". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
^ ^a ^b Chamberlain (1882). Section XXVI.—The Deities the August Descendants of the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land.
^ 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. ISBN 978-0231163880.
^ Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1400878000.
^ "喪山（その2）". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
^ "喪山（その1）". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
^ Yamamoto, Akira (2012). Ichiban yasashii Kojiki no hon (いちばんやさしい古事記の本). Seitōsha. p. 85. ISBN 9784791620609.
^ ^a ^b ^c Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. pp. 123–128. ISBN 978-1400878000.
^ 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.
^ Takeda, Yūkichi (1948). 記紀歌謡集 (Kiki Kayōshu). Iwanami Shoten. p. 17.
^ Takeda, Yūkichi (1956). "古事記 (Kojiki)". Aozora Bunko. Kadokawa Shoten. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
^ 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.