Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories
Relating to Swords'
Nelly Naumann and Roy Andrew Miller
0. During tiie 2"'^ century B.C. bronze weapons, especially
swords, spearheads, and halberds, produced either in the vicinity
of northeastern China, in the Liaoning region, or in Korea, were
brought to Japan for the first time. Chiefly found in northern
Kyüshü (Fukuoka and Saga Prefectures) as grave-goods in jar-
burials, these weapons of foreign provenience must have been
tokens of the social importance of their former possessors. Copies
of these imported artifacts believed to be local "adaptations" of
older Chinese models were soon manufactured in Japan too, but
not without further alterations in their shape; most conspicuous
was the broadening of the blade, which in the end was advanced
even to the extent of inutility. This shows that by this time the
function of these weapons must have changed; and indeed these
broad blades are no longer found as grave-goods, but are instead
buried as hoards in prominent places outside the settlements. The
biggest hoard hitherto detected consists of 358 bronze swords
buried on the slope of a hill in Köjindani, Shimane Prefecture.
As to the aim or function of these hoards, whether political,
economical, or religious, nothing definitive can yet be said.
Iron artifacts appear to have found their way into Japan at
about the same time as these bronze weapons. Short, two-edged
iron swords are known from the middle of the Yayoi period (ca.
300 B. C.-300 A. D.), if only in small numbers. Here too, local
manufacturing soon set in using iron ore imported from Korea.
Thus, from the beginning of the Tumulus period (ca. 300-
' Although both authors are jointly responsible for the entire paper, the former has been the principal author of the contribution as a whole, and has especially undertaken those sections that deal with texts, mythology, and archaeology, while the latter has been particularly concerned with those sections that deal with lin¬
guistic questions.
700 A. D.) two-edged iron swords were in full use, and now the
one-edged iron sword also made its appearance. Both are found
in the same tombs, but gradually the number of one-edged swords
increases, and toward the end of the Tumulus period one-edged
swords outnumber the two-edged ones.
0.1 The modern Japanese language uses the term tsurugi for a
two-edged sword, tachi for a long, one-edged saber, and katana
for a one-edged sword. The first two of these words are specialists'
terminology, and may in effect be regarded as learned borrowings
into NJ of now-obsolete OJ terms (OJ turugi, OJ tati, resp.)
through the intermediary of literary sources; only the third term,
katana, is a living word in the modern language.^ The specialists'
use of the terms tsurugi and tachi is more or less in accordance
with the entry in the Wamyö {ruiju) shö, a Chinese-Japanese lex¬
icon of the early Heian period, which asserts that a one-edged
sword is called tati, while a two-edged one is a turugi? The oldest
written records, however, the Kojiki (712) and the Nihongi (or
Nihonshoki, 720), and also genuine documents of the S"' century"
make no such distinction: they use both words indiscriminately
for both kinds of swords. In the poems of the Man'yöshü, on the
other hand, we meet mostly with the compound turugitati and
only with a few instances of tati alone; the single term turugi\s
met with only once as part of a place name: turuglnö ike
(M 3289). Thus we may well ask what these words themselves can
teach us, and what their context, as well as what their history, i.e.
their etymology, may eventually reveal.
0.2 The oldest written records also contain stories, mostly
mythical or legendary, in which swords figure that are designated
by proper names. Behind these stories and behind the mostly
somewhat enigmatic names of the swords themselves lie concepts
that also deserve to be studied. The elucidation of these concepts
as well as of the etymology of the proper names of these famous
2 See the Excursus at the end of the present paper for the etymology of Icalana.
' Cf. Shohon shüsei Wamyö ruju shö p.254: ed. Kariya V: 39b-40b; p. 705: ed.
Masamune Atslio Xlll: 14b. While the "Japanese name" for the one-edged sword is given in phonogram writing as tali, for the two-edged one only the Chinese graph s'j chien a two-edged sword' is inserted.
' Tsuchihashi 1981: 144b cites the Tödaiji inventory list of offerings where several tsurugi are to be found, one of them expressis verbis characterized as one-edged, another as two-edged.
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 375
or fabulous swords may well shed light on the religious beliefs of
Early Japan, and also on history itself.
Taking all this into consideration, our task will be to follow up
the linguistic implications, the etymology, i.e. the history, of the
designations and proper names given to swords, with an inves¬
tigation of the "context" in which the sword appears in early
Japan, whether mythical, legendary, historical, or poetical.
1. Interestingly enough, the two oldest extant sword inscrip¬
tions in Japan,^ supposed to date from the 5"^ century A. D., both
use the Chinese graph V tao 'a knife; a sword; a razor' for their
own designation, even though the sword from the Sakitama Ina-
riyama tumulus is a two-edged sword, while the one from the
Eta Funayama tumulus is one-edged. The Japanese reading-tradi¬
tion for T) is tati, but the orthography for tati may also be ^ 77
ta-tao, Tts 7] t'ai-tao 'a big sword', or ,t| v heng-tao 'a cross-
sword'.
OJ turugi is the traditional gloss for the Chinese graph s'J chien
'a two-edged sword'. Like OJ tati, the word that has become NJ
tsurugi also appears in the oldest extant texts written with Chinese
graphs used as phonograms, and there it becomes clear that orig¬
inally there must have been two different linguistic forms, OJ
turuki alongside OJ turugi, both used in the Kojiki as well as in
the Nihongi.
1.1 Let us first look at the Nihongi where both forms occur in
the prose text. There the phonetic gloss for 'M ^ tJ is given as
'1^ It SUF ffl'fi kusanaglnö turugi (NG, NKBT 67: 122/
123), i.e. the name of the famous sword lying behind the one that
still serves today as one of the Japanese imperial regalia (see
further § 2.2.2). To the important stories centering on this sword
we shall return later. It should be mentioned, however, that the
Kojiki has the Chinese graphs n (KK, NKBT 1 :88) added to
the sword name kusanagi where the Nihongi has turugi There is
a second instance where for '^'1 the orthography % turuki is
given (NG, NKBT 67: 193). But here the context does not tell us
anything of interest.
1.2.1 In the Kojiki the two different linguistic forms
turukl/turugl appear in two different poems. The following poem
' For a discussion of these sword inscriptions see Murayama/Miller 1979; see esp. p.434 note 28 for their use ofthe Chinese graph TJ .
which uses the form turuki is ascribed to the legendary hero Ya-
mato-taiceru who is said to have sung it on the verge of his death:
4 turuki.nö tati # '^L li-iz n'e ^'^
5 sönö tati Fa ya t ^ ^j^; 'A f<c
(KK, NKBTl: 222/223; Tsuchihasi 1981: 144-47, No.33;
Philippi 1969: 432, No. 34).
Philippi (1969: 249) translates:
(1) Next to the maiden's
(2) Sleeping place
(3) I left
(4) The sabre, the sword -
(5) Alas, that sword!
We notice that the same sword - the kusanagi-sv/ord mentioned
above - is called a tati in line 5, but turuki.nö tati in line 4, turuki
here evidently showing what kind of a tati, namely a turuki, is
meant The JBKD (424b) points out that, as in this instance,
turugi is seldom found alone, but rather in composition as, e.g.,
in turugitati, or komaturugl (a sword from Koma [= Koguryö]').
Thus tati seems to have been used as a general term for swords,
and turugi for a subdivision, a special kind of sword, although
Tsuchihashi (1981: 144b) shows some reticence in regard to this
opinion.
Taking into consideration the fact that tati appears to be a
deverbal noun to tat- 'to cut, sever', the definition of tati as a
cutting instrument in general does not seem out of pla, c. The verb
OJ tat- 'to cut, sever' appears to have a convincing etymology that
is strongly suggestive of continental connections, indeed perhaps
continental origins. It has been compared (Martin 1966: 229,
no. 59) with MKor. cälü- (Nam 1972: 413 a) > NKor. calu- 'cut
off, chop' (Martin et al. 1967: 1376b); and these Korean forms
further are to be compared (Ramstedt 1949: 24) with such Tungus
verbs as 01c. cälü-, cäli- 'cut off, chop', Na. cal'i- 'id.', as well as
with other Tungus forms in secondary -o-, such as Neg. coli'- and
Ma. coli-, comli- 'id.' (TMS 2.405 a), where the -a-/-o- 'Ablaut'
variation (itself a morphological phenomenon well attested in all
1 wotöme.nö 2 tökö.nö be.ni
3 waga okisi
i'f nl ^')? 1^
t t(T
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 377
Stages ofthe history of Japanese) may most probably be the sec¬
ondary and relatively recent consequence of an earlier reflex of
the -m- (< *-lm-l) attested in Manchu (cf. also the deverbal noun
Ma. coliku 'chopping knife, cleaver').
Implicit in these comparisons is the neo-grammarian hypothesis
that a single consonantal phoneme in Proto-Altaic may be recon¬
structed that will account for the correspondence of Kor. -/-::J
-t-. Martin (1966: 210 no. 12) wrote *-/- for this phoneme. While
the selection of written symbols for all linguistic reconstructions
is to some extent a matter of aesthetic choice, in this particular
case it must nevertheless be pointed out that Martin's *-/- is not
a felicitous symbol, if only because it tends to obscure the struc¬
tural patterns of the proposed phonology. This same Kor. -/-::J
-t- correspondence is usefully referred to the wider Altaic histori¬
cal-linguistic horizon by Starostin (1991: 74-75), where he re¬
constructs Proto-Altaic *-r'- (our *-r2-) for a number of words
displaying Tk. -z-::Mo. -r-::Tg. -r-::Kor. -/-::J There are sev¬
eral unsolved purely linguistic problems remaining in the
Starostin formulation (e.g., he does not recognize that for *-rj-
Japanese actually has two different reflexes, -t r-, which ap¬
pear in an alternation conditioned by original suprasegmentals);
but for all that, his reconstruction represents a considerable ad¬
vance over Martin (1966), and for our present purposes it serves
excellently to reassure us of the validity of the correspondence J
-/-::Kor. -/- in the forms cited.
1.2.2 The other Kojiki poem that contains the form turugi is,
said to be a song of the Kuzu of Yoshino in praise of Prince
Homuda (Öjin Tennö):
1 Fomuda.nö
2 FT.nö miko
3 oFosazaki 4 oFosazaki
5 Fakaseru tati
6 mötö turugi
7 suwe Fuyu
8 Fuyuki.nö
9 sukara.ga sitaki.nö
10 saya saya
-t /i <>■
y if- ^ r|e
ft. 4x
A- 1 f
4' % 'l^ J^^ d.i.
'Jn % r.ü
f- % Jp
1. ^
/tl * 61
t)P 1 ¥ /-^ ^.c
Mi ik^
(KK, NKBTl: 246/247; Tsuchihashi 1981: 209-213, No. 47;
Philippi 1969: 434, No. 48)
Philippi (1969: 282) translates:
(2) The sun prince
(1) Of Pomuda (3) Opo-sazaki
(4) Opo-sazaki -
(5) The sword which you wear
(6) At the hilt is a saber, (7) But the tip is wondrous,
(9) Like a small shrub by the straight trunk
(8) Of a winter tree -
(10) - saya saya -
Our own (highly tentative) translation of lines 5-10 of the poem
reads: "... the sword he wears/the hilt (supports?)/the tip
(swings?)/[like?] at the winter-tree's/bare trunk the shrub/[rus-
tling] saya saya".
This poem contains many uncertainties and difficulties, and
any translation hinges first of all on the interpretation of lines 6
and 7. There is the evident parallelism of mötö turugi and suwe
Fuyu, and there are in addition several cases of word-play: saya
also means 'sheath' and thus points to tati as well as to turugi
'sword', and Fuyu of line 7 corresponds to Fuyu 'winter' in Fu-
yuki (line 8). But what does this Fuyu mean? Philippi (1969: 282
n.3) in remarking on the difficulty of these two lines lists all the
usual interpretations of Fuyu (his puyu): 'spiritual working' (ac¬
cording to Takeda); or a verb like Furu (his puru) meaning 'to
shake'; or, still "another possible translation" of Fuyu, 'to freeze'.
The JBKD (643 c) declaring Fuyu "not clear" points to the same
"possibilities" without giving preference to any one.
The parallelism of the two lines, 6 and 7, requires that turugi
and Fuyu correspond to each other, so that both should be either
nouns or verbs. Tsuchihashi (1981: 211) favors the latter possi¬
bility, explaining Fuyu as a form in -y- of Furu 'to shake' with a
special meaning connected with the concept of tama vital force':
the shaking of the tama or vital force as a magical practice re¬
stores, enlivens, strengthens its vitality.'' Thus, for Tsuchihashi
' Tsuchihashi's idea of Fuyu = Furu is intimately connected with tama, and
this in turn necessarily involves an endre constellation of related problems only
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 379
the shaking or swinging of the sword point is not to be taken
literally, instead it is the symbolic expression of the movement of
the strong vital forces of the prince. Whether we accept this inter¬
pretation or not, we should note that his next step is to explain,
with the help of a hypothesis of word-formation by contraction,
turugi too as a deverbal formation: turugi < turuki < turi-Faki
{Fak- 'to wear').
To substantiate this "etymology-by-contraction", Tsuchihashi
first lists the several extant examples of phonogram writing of
turuki/turugi:
1) KK poem 33 ±'>'i 2) KK poem 47 v* |l 3) NG (a)i'^^ f^" il
4) NG (b) Ji. % 5) Izumo fudoki %^ % £ ( a ^ ^ )
Taking these into consideration he comes to the conclusion that
I of ex. 4 is in the Nihongi used for unvoiced ki, that of ex. 5
too is unvoiced ki, that ^\ of ex.1 and '11 of ex.3 are used for
unvoiced ki as well as for voiced gi, but that in the Kojiki J'^ is
used for unvoiced kl Thus it is only the |f of ex.2 that indeed is
used for voiced gl The difficulty this voiced form presents he
removes by the assumption that ^ too might be taken as repre-
some of which we may touch upon here. The OJ collocation mi-tama.no Fuyu is
initially of the most concern. The JBKD (704b) lists the term and cites as refer¬
ences three passages in the Nihongi, but none of them is convincing. There is a
"reading" for the first passage cited according to a certain Nihongi manuscript, which cannot be earlier than the Kamakura period, while the other two passages with different kanji orthography have no "reading" at all, hence this mitama.no
Fuyu is not much more than a modern interpretation. One passage is Suinin 99.
year (NKBT 67: 280/281), written >itjl. It is in the poem by Tajima Mori, which Aston (1956: 1.187) translated "Thus, trusting in the spirits of the Emperors", without any further ado. The third and last passage is in Keikö 40. year (NKBT 67:
302/303), where it occurs twice in the speech of Yamato-takeru, once written
si L /t\ , and once 'SL . Aston (1956: 1.204) translated these "trusting in the might of the Imperial spirit" and "trusting in the spirits of the Gods of Heaven and Earth". The JBKD additionally cites the Myögishö which has xf.
mitama.no fuyu. The NKDJ (18: 584a), on the other hand, gives as its eariiest reference for such a term the Nihongi kyö'en waka with a poem ofthe year Tengyö (Tenkei) 6 (= 943): kuni muke shi/hoko no saki yori/tsutahe kuru/mitama.no fuyu [written with phonograms] ha/kefu so ureshiki "directed towards the land/from
the point of the spear/being transmitted/the mitama.no fuyu (wavering of the
spirit)/how glad I feel today" - easy to translate but difficult to comprehend. And as its second reference the NKDJ gives one text tradidon (the Mi-kannagi-bon) of the Nihongi shi-ki with the same passage that the JBKD lists at the beginning (or perhaps it is the same text?). Thus this "reading" mi-tama.no fuyu seems highly suspect and in no way genuine, i.e. valid evidence for OJ.
senting unvoiced ku Tlie now establisiied original turuki he in
turn explains as a contraction of turi-Faki 'to wear (a sword)
hanging down'. We would normally expect that turi-Faki would
be contracted to become turaki, but Tsuchihashi further argues
that there are other examples that show that a may be changed
into u, either spontaneously or by assimilation: kgbututi -
kubututi; kargno - karuno; turg - turu; etc. Thus turuki.nö tati
was, in his opinion, originally turiFakunö tati, an expression of
the same structure as kakihaki.no wotachi ^* ''/a, i_ j, ifl 'the small
hang-up sword' in Man'yöshü-pocm 1809 (NKBT 5: 418/419; the
expression ^f- % T] kakihaki.no tachi is also found in the Tödaiji
inventory list). The development turuki < turiFaki < turiFakunö
tati would correspond with the development of miFakasi 'sword
(= something that is worn at one's body)' out of miFakasi.nö tati
'a sword worn at the body' (Tsuchihashi 1981: 144-145).
1.2.3 Any attempt at suggesting an etymology of OJ turuki/
turugi must for the present at least begin with the frank admission
that we are far from a satisfactory understanding of the many
etymological elements and lexical-semantic changes that most
likely have entered into the history of this word. But by the same
token, this does not mean that we are totally in the dark about its
ultimate origins, nor that we lack a number of more-or-less convin¬
cing arguments that do more than merely suggest continental, i.e.
extra-Japanese linguistic connections for this OJ term.
Initially, it should be pointed out that our knowledge of Ja¬
panese historical linguistics, in particular the set of regular voic¬
ing and unvoicing alternations in the OJ consonantism that are
usually categorized as "Lyman's Law" (Miller 1984; 1985),
throws a certain amount of light upon the otherwise puzzling var¬
iation in the texts between the -A:rand -^r alternants of this word.
Typically, we find no mention of this well-known and obviously
relevant phonological phenomenon anywhere in the kokugogaku
literature as exemplified by Tsuchihashi's speculations and "ety¬
mology-by-contraction" summarized above; but ignoring histori¬
cal linguistics is the hall-mark of most similar speculative scholar¬
ship in Japan.
Of the two forms, turuki and turugi, it is turuki thdX we should
regularly expect to find according to the stipulations of "Lyman's
Law". After the voiced -r- in turu-, a voiceless -k- in the suffix
would be regular and normal; in this position, the form with -g-
would be exceptional and unexpected ("irregular"). (And even
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 381
though Tsuchihashi does not advance his argument in terms of
"Lyman's Law" or indeed any other historical linguistic criteria,
it may well have been his Sprachgefühl for OJ, growing out of his
acknowledged familiarity with the OJ text corpus, that led him to
postulate the "regular" turuki as the "original" form for the pur¬
poses of the remainder of his discussion.)
"Lyman's Law" does not enable us to identify the older or "more
original" of the two forms in absolute terms. But it does make it
possible for us to categorize turuki as "regular" and turugi as "ir¬
regular" ; and other considerations being equal, it would not be im¬
possible to argue that there is a higher probability that the "irregu¬
lar" turugi is the older of the two, in the sense of being an aberrant
form that originally deviated from the normal OJ phonological pa¬
radigm, while the "regular" turuki is the newer, resulting from the
subsequent imposition of that paradigm upon the earlier aberrant
form. It is of course the underlying reason for this phonological
aberration or deviation (a loanword?) that we would most like to
know; but that secret is for the present at least not revealed to us.
Otherwise, the vocalization of the suffix -ki/-gi makes it clear
that the morpheme involved is not OJ ki' 'tree'; unfortunately, it
does not make it clear what instead it is. The posthumous sugges¬
tion of Haguenauer (1976: 35) that this is a borrowing from Chin.
ch'i 'instrument; tool' is not to be taken seriously, and is indeed
unworthy of the memory of the great French Japanologue.
Haguenauer's other etymological attempts at explaining
turuki/turugi 6: 34-35) are studded with fantastic ghost-word
"citations" of Tungus and Korean words that cannot be verified.
This means that it will be necessary for us to undertake an entirely
new survey of the available sources in order to propose an ety¬
mology for OJ turuki/turugi, not only for the final -ki/-gi hui the
turu- as well, and ideally, for the word as a whole.
A word of caution is in order in this connection. In order to
propose an etymology for any word by means of the comparative
method, it is necessary to know the meaning of the word in ques¬
tion. It is only when we already know the meaning of word X in
language A that we are able to compare it with words X2, X3, Xn
...in language B, C, D, etc. This is because the comparative
method works by placing in juxtaposition words of "similar mean¬
ing and similar form". But in a certain and important sense, the
meaning of both tum- and -ki/-gi in turuki/turugi is precisely
what we do not know.
This last statement also requires some small amount of explana¬
tion and amplification. We do of course, on one level, "know what
turuki/turugi means" : obviously, it means a kind of sword'. The
early Chinese glosses, not to mention the modern language, es¬
tablish that much. But what we do not know - and this problem
involves yet another, second level - is the meaning (or meanings)
of the constituent elements that go to make up this word - the
meaning, e.g., of the tu- or of the -^ror of the turu-, etc. With a
"transparent" compound of the order of katana (see Excursus),
we at least have substantial clues at our disposal for suggesting
the identity of the constituent morphemes, kata- and -na. But this
is precisely the kind of clue we lack with the decidedly far-from-
"transparent" word (or perhaps compound?) turuki/turugi We
know that it means 'a kind of sword'; but why does it mean that?
The true question of the why of the meaning of any word can
only be answered by historical etymologies assembled according
to the canons of the comparative method.
A somewhat skewed but nevertheless instructive parallel to the
problem that we shall encounter in the following attempt to study
the etymology of turuki/turugi may be provided by a brief con¬
sideration of the etymology of NE sword; the two cases, mutatis
mutandis, throw a certain amount of light on one another. On one
level, the same first level of meaning alluded to above, we of
course "know what sword means", and thanks to this fact we are
able immediately and with no difficulty to compare NE sword
with, e.g., MHG and OHG swert, OE sweord, and a host of
equally obvious cognates, similar in sound and sense, until even¬
tually and by this process of comparison we are able to recover
("reconstruct") the now-lost Germanic original *swerda- of which
all these attested words are later changed forms. Etymology on
this level of meaning is satisfying, secure and sound; we feel,
correctly enough, that it really tells us "where the word came
from".
The parallel exercise with OJ turuki/turugi would involve the
comparison of all recorded modern dialect forms and earlier his¬
torical forms attested in written records. But this would not help
us very much, since none of these available forms differs from any
of the others except in suprasegmental pitch-accent, so that the
OJ turuki/turugi of our eighth-century written records is in effect
as far back as we can go within Japanese itself in the direction of
the history of this word. And, as we have seen, that at best leaves
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 383
an important question about tlie form itself moot, while at the
same time it does not notably advance our understanding of why
this word means 'a kind of sword'.
For that, in both Germanic and Japanese, we must advance to
the other, second level referred to above. For NE sword, after we
have recovered Gmc. *swerda-, we are at liberty to look to the
other non-Germanic Indo-European languages. We will not find
words in those languages that are of the general shape of *swerda-
and at the same time "mean sword". Instead, we find a scattering
of words that seem to have some general formal resemblance to
the desired form, and whose meanings may, especially with the
addition of some imagination on our part, appear to relate to the
function of a sword as an instrument for inflicting suppurating
wounds. Lexical candidates that have been suggested include
Avestan Jt*ara- 'mit einer Waffe zugefügte Wunde', ChSl. chyra
'Gebrechlichkeit, Krankheit', Olr. serb 'bitter, scharf ', and Skt.
svr- 'quälen, verletzen'. None of these proposed cognates is im¬
possible on either phonological or semantic grounds; but at the
same time, whatever light these words may shed upon "the mean¬
ing of sword" is not only on another level but also rests upon a
far less secure basis than does the earlier comparison entirely
within Germanic. Throughout our survey of the available non-Ja¬
panese lexical materials, it is important to keep in mind that since
we are here operating on this second level of meaning, any con¬
clusion based upon even the best comparative etymological mate¬
rial that may be discovered will never be more than a careful
guess. It will not really ever explain for us what we do not already
know, i.e. what turuki/turugi meant in OJ.
Nevertheless, and even in the absence of this all-important et¬
ymological clue of meaning, a speculative search for prototypes
may be conducted, as below, by considering words as possible
etymological candidates on the basis of the form and function
of the item itself Parallel to turning to the other Indo-European
languages cited in connection with NE sword, we shall in the case
of Japanese turn to the other Altaic languages, particularly to
their Tungus branch, where lexical candidates for this comparison
appear to be particularly well represented. Of course, we cannot
be absolutely certain that OJ turuki/turugi etymologically re¬
flected the form and/or function of the item thus designated. But
if indeed it did, then at the very least the following Altaic forms
are plausible candidates:
(1) In Tungus, Ev. turu 'column, pillar, post; mast; shamanist
tree; perch, pole (for display of shamanist cult objects)', turu- 'to
prop something up'; Neg. toro 'perch, pole, staff (relig.); site of
sacrifice'; Oroc. tü 'perch, pole, staff (shamanist)'; Ulc.
türa—türü 'column', toro 'perch, etc. (shamanist)', Ma. tura
'column; prop, support' (borrowed as Yak. turu 'shamanist tree') ;
cognate with WMo. tura 'fortress, stronghold', and OTk. tur- 'to
stand, stay' (TMS 2.221 a-b). The fuller range of this proposed
Altaic etymon, *tur- (verb) 'stand, arise', *tura (noun) 'structural
support; fortification' is exhibited in Poppe (1960: 14, 79, 123; cf
Street 1974: 28, 37) to which the more detailed Tungus data cited
above (and not available to Poppe [I960]) should be added.
Poppe's citations of "Kor. tari 'Pfosten im Haus, Stützpfeiler'"
(1960: 79) and "Kor. tori 'Dachsparren, Tragbalken'" (1960: 14)
are somewhat problematic; the second is NKor. toli 'a beam upon
which the rafters of a house rest' (Martin et al., 1967: 465 a); but
the first is not so immediately to be identified (and apparently is
not to be taken as MKor. tali [Nam 1972; 135b], NKor. tali
'bridge'). Curiously enough, neither of these Korean-Altaic com¬
parisons by Poppe appears to originate in Ramstedt (1949), which
is unexpected. Additional cognates are available in VEWT 500,
which exhibits both the verbal and deverbal noun reflexes of this
presumably Altaic root in the Turkic branch of Altaic.
This etymological constellation, particularly in view of the
documented religious, resp. shamanist connotations of many of
the Tungus forms, would seem entirely plausible as a genetic
source for OJ turu- in the words at issue, particularly as possibly
reflecting the sociological-religious symbolism of the object.
(2) Most recently Starostin (1991: 288 no.278) has attempted
to reconstruct for Proto-Altaic a root that he writes as *cualV. This
reconstruction is especially important because it is one of the
relatively few of Starostin's proposed Proto-Altaic forms that is
supported by lexical evidence (cognates) from the entire Altaic
linguistic domain, i.e. the three so-called "Inner" language fami¬
lies of Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus plus both Korean and Ja¬
panese.
For the meaning of this reconstructed root Starostin is less
than clear. We do not understand why (p. 288) he glosses his re¬
construction as 'a kind of larch plant'. From the semantic evi¬
dence of the bulk of his cognates it is clear that the Altaic proto-
form had reference to any straight stalk or stem, typically without
?
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 385
foliage. Among the forms Starostin cites we may note OTk. tai.
Yak. talaq 'willow' (cf. also VEWT 457 b); WMo. doluyana,
Kaim. äfo/ä«a 'hawthorn'; Tg. Neg.Jdlta, Ud.jalikta, Na.jalaqta,
jarikta. Lam. jalikta 'hawthorn' (TMS 1.246 b); MKor. culki
'stalk, stem without foliage' (attested in a MKor. source unavail¬
able to us), NKor. culki, culgoli, colkali 'stalk, stem, trunk, cane,
haulm', and finally "OJ turu 'rod, twig'".' This last lexical entry
(1991: 271) is oddly enough the only part of Starostin's ety¬
mology that causes particular problems. The OJ form as cited is
not attested; perhaps Starostin intended NJ tsuru 'climbing (of
a plant or vine)' or its variant NJ tsura 'id.'. But whatever he may
have had in mind, the problem is not an important one for our
present purposes at least, and in actual fact we do not have to
look far for a more convincing Japanese cognate with which to
fill out this etymology. It is immediately at hand in our OJ
turuki/turugi.
Furthermore, within the entire lexical repertory of the
Starostin etymology, it is obviously MKor., NKor. culki that
brings us most closely to within striking distance of OJ
turuki/turugi, so far as both phonetic configuration and semantic
description of the form of the object is concerned: the distance in
meaning separating 'sword' and 'stalk, stem' is hardly a major
obstacle. As usual in these studies, we wish we knew more ofthe
history of the Korean word(s). The Korean suffix -\-ki~ + V usu¬
ally derives deverbal nouns; unfortunately our available Korean
lexical sources register no verb that might have served in this
formation. But it is also possible that Kor. culki is a denominal
noun in onto the noun NKor. cui 'string, rope, cord, line',
cf. OJ turu a cord, a line', OJ tura 'an ordered alignment or
arrangement', OJ tur- 'catch fish (on a line)'. All in all, a semantic
association of Proto-Altaic *cualV, especially as this root is re¬
flected in the secondary formation documented in Kor. culki, with
'straight, upright (sc. as a stalk or stem, resp., as a line or cord)'
seems secure enough; and such a sense would hardly have been
out of place as a designation for a sword. Indeed, so striking is
the phonological parallel between MKor. culki and OJ
' Note also that like most of the data in Starostin (1991), a book that lacks even the hint of an index, one must search long and hard for the relevant passages.
In the case of his *cualV, various entries, in addition to p. 288, will be found on pp.14, 187, 224, 242, 257 and 271!
i
turuki/turugi that one is even tempted to regard the OJ term as a
loanword from the (to us still unknown) Old Korean prototype
underlying the former.
(3) Isolated within three Tungus languages only are additional
words that may eventually also throw light upon the etymology of
OJ turuki/turugi i e. Ev. tiri, Lam. tin'. Ma. turu 'belt, strap;
girdle' (TMS 2.187 b). Unfortunately nothing more is known of
the history of these words or of their ultimate Altaic connections
(if any). For the present it may only be remarked that their limited
distribution within the Tungus linguistic domain might well point
to all three languages cited having received the forms as loans (but
if so, from where?).^ The sense of these words reminds us of
course of attempts (see supra) to relate OJ tumkl/turugl to OJ
tur- 'to hang, suspend', a verb that itself has frequently been
suspected of being cognate with OJ turu 'a cord, a line'. The
semantic and phonological correlations of these words, and their
obvious overlap with the forms involved in (2) supra, can hardly
all be fortuitous; but for the present it is difficult to say more.
(4) Less impressive, because it presently lacks cognates else¬
where in Altaic, but nevertheless still worth serious future etymo¬
logical consideration, is the verb NKor. toli- 'cuts (out) round,
gouges (out a wound with a knife)' (Martin et al., 1967: 465 a-b).
Again, the etymological connection, if one is eventually estab¬
lished, would be related to function. Unfortunately nothing ap¬
pears to be known of the history of this NKor. word; in particular,
we would like to know what historical affinity, if any, it bears to
NKor. calu- 'cut off, chop' and its Tungusic kin cited above.
Each of the four etymological assemblages sketched above has
its own strong points as well as its problems; and it is impossible
to settle upon any single one as definitely superior in plausibility,
mainly because of the semantic-factor limitations already ex¬
plained. For all that, however, it is neither impossible nor without
utility to attempt to evaluate them in terms relative to one another.
Of the four, (2) is all-in-all the most promising, mostly since it
is the only one that phonologically and morphologically accounts
' A fortuitous but for all that usefully representative example in which the attestation of a word for 'sword' in only a limited number of the Tungus languages correlates with its having been borrowed from outside Altaic is provided by Oroc.
lauca, Olc. laua(n-), Orok. iavtain-)- lauta(n-) 'sword', borrowed from Gilyak lavzas 'cutlass' (TMS 1.495 b).
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 387
for the entire linguistic form in question, i.e. the -ki/gi as well as
the turu-. It also is more than satisfactory on the semantic level
as well. Its implied metaphoric reference to the sword as a 'stalk'
or 'stem' or 'rod' surely raises no serious questions' - far fewer,
indeed, than does the received I. E. etymology for 'sword' as 'in-
flictor of suppurating wounds'! Since it is only in Korean that
etymology (2) completely accounts for both the turu- and the
-ki/-gi, this etymology also implies particularly close (or in
chronological terms, proximate) relationship between the words
in question in OJ and Old Korean, perhaps even a relationship
of borrowing from Korean to Japanese, rather than a genetic con¬
nection; but this too hardly detracts from the value of the ety¬
mology.
Etymology (1) is flawed in that it does not account for the
-ki/-gi; otherwise it has, as already remarked, much to recom¬
mend it. Especially to be noted is the obvious semantic bridge that
may easily be postulated to link the 'stalk, stem, rod' of (2) with
the prop, support, column' senses of (1). Indeed, it would not be
going too far to say that semantically (even if not formally), (1) is
only an appendage of (2), and that each of these two etymological
assemblages reinforces the other.
Viewed in this light, etymolgy (3) appears to be a semantic (or
metaphoric) "mirror image" of (1) and (2). The former two appar¬
ently refer to the form of the sword as a stalk or pole standing
upright, an object conceptualized as a column or as a pole or as
providing support, while (3) seems to view the sword in exactly
the opposite fashion, as something suspended downwards, e.g.,
from the waist, with semantic-metaphoric adumbrations of
'straight; in a line or row'. But with this we have once more
returned to the semantic realm of (2), and hence by implication
also to that of (1), so that in a manner of speaking it is possible
to view each of these first three etymological assemblages as rep¬
resenting nothing more than three different aspects of a single
original etymon. Unfortunately, (4), which again focuses on func¬
tion rather than form, is too fragmentary to justify further com¬
ment.
' It has only to be remembered that sharp pointed sticks which are supposed
to have served as spear-like weapons have been found already in Torihama, an
Early Jömon site (Fukui Pref.; cf. Aikens and Higuchi 1982: 127).
In this manner, a good deal may be suggested, if not finally
actually settled, about the history of OJ turuki/turugi hy compari¬
son with putative cognate forms in the other Altaic languages;
nevertheless, it is important to stress yet once more that since the
meaning of OJ turuki/turugi remains unknown, in the sense ex¬
plained above, a final and thoroughly convincing etymology also
and by that same token remains impossible. All that may be done
is, as here, to note prospectively promising etymological candi¬
dates.
1.3 These two Kojiki-poems connected with the sword offer no
context at all with any special background or meaning so far as
we can understand them. But what may be said about the
Man 'yöshü -poems'?
1.3.1 There are in all four Man'yöshü -poems in which the term
tati appears (M 199, 2906, 4347, 4456), but these poems too offer
no context that might elucidate any concept concerning the sword.
Thus we must instead study the compound turugitati. This com¬
pound is used either in a literal sense or as a makurakotoba; three
times the term is written with Chinese characters used as phono¬
grams, but in all other instances we find the usual semantogram
orthography. The reading tradition for this semantogram ortho¬
graphy is turugitati, but two out of the three different graphs used
for the phonogram writing of the last syllable of turuki/turugi ■^X
(M 804) and it (M 3485) are used in the Man'yöshü for unvoiced
kl as well as for voiced gl; it is again only |f (M 4467) which is
unambiguously voiced gl
The Man'yöshü-poems use the term turugitati mostly in a stereo¬
typed way, showing the sword in the context of daily life : it is hung
up, clad, worn at the hips or on the body (M 478, 604, 804, 2635,
4094, 4164), and it is unsheathed (M 3240). M 3227 alludes to the
offering of swords otherwise known from the records of the Kojiki
and Nihongi An unhappy lover compares his feelings with trea¬
ding on the sharp edges of a sword - may he even die in doing so
(M 2498, 2636); and in M 4467 0tomo.no Yakamochi asserts that
like a sword that has to be polished, the good old family name has
been held clean - playing with the homonymy of na 'name' and
-na 'edge', and of saya 'sheath' and sayakeku 'clean, clear'.
It is uncertain whether in turugitati togisi kökörö.wo 'the heart
polished like a sword' (M 3326) turugitati is used simply for com¬
parison or as a makurakotoba, and the same holds true for
turugitati as a makurakotoba suggesting closeness: turugitatim'l.ni
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 389
soFu 'near the body like a sword' (M 194, 217, 2637, 3485); but
combined with na 'name' or na 'you; l' as homonyms of -na
'blade, edge', turugitati as a makurakotoba is only brought in
because of this homonymy and conveys no meaning in the context
of the poem: 1. turugitati na.nö osikeku-mo 'sorry for the
name/blade of a sword' (M 616, 2499, 2984); 2. turugitati na.ga
kökörö 'sword blade/your (my) heart' (M 1741). The same holds
true for M 2983 where instead of turugitati we find Koma-turugi,
'a Korean [Koguryo] sword'.
OJ na 'name' (NJ na.mae 'id.') is still apparently without an
etymology, but the other two members of this involved triple-
semantic conceit {na 'you; l' and -na 'blade, edge') are most
easily explained by direct reference to Korean, cf. MKor. na
(Nam 1972: 85 b), NKor. na '2; self, ego', NKor. no 'you (to a
child or inferior)' (Martin et al., 1967: 284b, 329b), and MKor.
.näl.h-, NKor. nal 'blade'. It is important to note that the MKor.
form is also attested (Nam 1972: 95b-96a) as glossing Chinese if
feng 'a sharp point; tip of a lance or bayonet', and Chineselt
mang 'a sharp point', as well as Chinese i'i e 'edge; point .
1.3.2 There is only one Man'yöshü-poem, M 3833, that uses
turugitati in an unusual and significant context:
1 (hu) tora.«/ (ch'eng) nori Tt, -i^
2 (ku wu) furuya. )vo (yüeh) koete ii ^ ^ uO
3 (ch'ing yüan) aobuchi.«/ 'M
4 (chiao-lung ch'ü chiang lai) M iL
mizuchi torikomu
5 (chien'" tao) tsurugitachi. moga 4? 7] ^ ^
(NKBT7: 142/143)
A tentative translation might be:
1 Mounting a tiger
2 and thus crossing the old house
3 in the blue abyss
4 to catch the water-dragon :
5 oh but had I such a sword!
On the surface this poem seems easy to understand, but actually
there are several interesting concepts involved. There is the anti-
'° ^fi seems to be a variant of > ^'J
thesis of the tiger and the dragon, a decidedly Chinese idea which
finds expression e.g. in the 'Blue Dragon' as the animal standing
for the east, for spring and for new life, and the 'White Tiger'
symbolizing the west, autumn and death. That these concepts
were known among the upper classes in Japan in the V"' century
at the latest is shown, e.g., by the wall paintings in the Takamat-
suzuka tomb built toward the end of this period." The 'Animals
of the Four Quarters' as they appear on the walls of this tomb (the
'Red Bird' belonging to the south was destroyed when the south
wall of the chamber was broken into by grave robbers) are painted
in the same manner as was customary in Chinese tombs from the
Han Dynasty on, and also in Korean tombs (Koguryo, Paekche).
Another Man 'yöshü -poem speaks of the tiger as a 'god' and con¬
nects it with Korea (M 3885). Indeed, while there were no indi¬
genous large Felidae in Japan, the tiger not only roamed about
the Korean mountains but was held by the Koreans to be a man¬
ifestation of the mountain god; and knowledge of this idea may
well have been brought to Japan by early Korean immigrants.
The water-dragon, on the other hand, is a purely mythical
beast, and thus in its case we have to reckon also with the possi¬
bility of a genuine Japanese concept more or less similar to the
Chinese one. The original text of this poem uses the Chinese
graphs chiao-lung as semantograms. The 1^: chiao was a
snake-like creature living at the bottom of rivers, a being rather
hostile and malevolent towards men. The lung , on the other
hand, was the 'real' dragon who lives at the bottom of lakes and
rivers only during winter, while in spring, with the first thunder,
he ascends to heaven causing the rains to fall. Thus he is a well-
meaning, friendly being bringing good luck, and as he is the giver
of the fertile rains he is prayed to when a drought is impending,
or when, to the contrary, too heavy rains threaten to drown every¬
thing. The chiao cannot ascend to heaven and provides neither
rain nor fertility (cf Eberhard 1968: 378). These two originally
different concepts, that of the chiao, the ill-meaning snake-like
'water-dragon', and that of the lung, the luck-bringing 'real
dragon', were conflated with one another quite early, as even the
compound chiao-lung proves. But what concepts were connected
with OJ mituti, the word that evidently translated chiao-lung? It
" Cf Takamatsuzuka hekigakan. Kaisetsu. Asukamura 1980.
!
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 391
is only the Wamyöshü, however, that gives the form mituti, and
there is no consensus in regard to the etymology of this word.
Traditional Japanese scholarship would find in this form a suf¬
fix consisting ofa morpheme -ti 'spirit, etc' that is often invoked
in order to provide totally Japanese etymologies for difficult, resp.
obscure early words and names. But in the case of at least one
such difficult form, OJ worö.ti 'serpent' (a word to which we will
later come back), this analysis will not hold, since it is hardly
possible to separate worö.ti from Tg. Ev. irgici 'wolf', lit. 'with
tail, the tailed one'. OJ worö 'tail (of a mountain bird)', attested
in M 3468, a poem in the non-standard Azuma dialect OJ, and
standard OJ wo 'animal or bird's tail' have an Altaic etymology:
pTg. *xürgü, Ev. irgi, Ork. xudu, etc. ::OJ worö, wo 'tail'. In this
connection OJ worö.ti is doubly important, both for its -ti suffix,
which has, as above, significant Tungusic parallels, but also for
its fuller representation of the original morpheme (cf. Miller
1987: 45, no (25), with the details of the etymology). So in this
word at least the was hardly the ubiquitous -ti 'spirit, etc' of
the modern Japanese lexical sources and secondary literature. The
same secondary literature also wavers between a pronunciation as
OJ mituti, as in the Wamyöshö (cf. JBKD 709b) and another as
OJ miduti (e.g., NKBT7: 143); in terms of "Lyman's Law" (see
supra) the variant as miduti is the expected ("normal") one, and
probably to be preferred when not contradicted by explicit phono¬
gram evidence. Thus miduti could be interpreted as a 'water-be¬
ing, the one from the water'.
It is possible that a passage in the Nihongi (Nintoku 67"' year,
NKBT 67: 414/415) using the Chinese graphs A -tX ta-ch'iu'a hig
young dragon' refers to miduti, and here the beasts are clearly
hostile, causing the death of many people by their poison. In
regard to the Chinese chiao Eberhard (loc.cit.) remarks that the
"best description seems to be that a chiao looks like a snake with
a tiger head, is several fathoms long, lives in brooks and rivers,
and bellows like a bull; when it sees a human being it traps him
with its stinking saliva, then pulls him into the water and sucks
his blood from his armpits ... Most commonly then, the chiao are
close to the snakes, and snakes are connected with metal. Snakes
occur as money and as metal from which weapons are made ...
Therefore, metal was let down in the water as protection against
the chiao which are themselves metal." We encounter this inter¬
esting connection between snakes and metal, or snakes and
swords, in Japanese mythology and folklore as well, and it is quite
evident that this tradition is of foreign origin in Japan (cf.
Naumann 1971: 221 ff.). But this also makes it clear that the
sword, being made from iron or from bronze, is the proper
weapon for fighting the malevolent and dangerous water-dragon,
while the tiger as the traditional antagonistic animal with respect
to the dragon would be the proper mount for such an adventure.
The poem, while thus conveying a cluster of ideas originating
in China, also contains an allusion that leads us into Japanese
matters. Line 2 speaks of Furuya, an 'old house' that shall be
crossed. The question has been raised whether Furuya could itself
be a place-name, or whether the form consists of ya 'house' added
to a place-name Furu. But as soon as the place-name Furu is
mentioned in connection with a sword one cannot but think of
Iso-no kami Furu, one of the oldest shrines in Yamato, mentioned
as Iso.no kami Furu in several Man'yöshü poems (e.g. M 422,
1019, 1353 etc.). The Nihongi records that "Inishiki no Mikoto,
while dwelling in the palace at Kahakami of Udo in Chinu, made
a thousand swords. Therefore those swords were called the
Kahakami set. [Gloss: Another name was the Naked Compan¬
ions.] They were deposited in the shrine of Iso no kami. After this
the Emperor gave orders to Inishiki no Mikoto, and made him to
have charge of the divine treasures of the shrine of Iso no kami"
(Aston 1956: 1,183; cf. NKBT 67: 276/277). The same occur¬
rence is also related in the Kojiki (NKBT 1: 188/189; cf. Philippi
1969: 211). As we will see later, there are other famous swords
said to have been stored in this shrine; the shrine is mentioned in
the Kojiki and in the Nihongi as a recipient of swords as offer¬
ings; and to this day it keeps as a treasure the so-called Seven-
Branched Sword presented to the Yamato ruler as a gift from the
king of Paekche around the year 370. A "pond of Iso.no kami" is,
moreover, mentioned in the Nihongi (NKBT 68: 343; cf. Aston
1956: 11,265), which may or may not have to be taken into con¬
sideration in regard to the 'blue abyss'.
The poem M 3833 thus merely touches upon the outer fringes
of a whole complex of ideas, some of which had, at that time,
been brought to Japan only quite recently, while others lead back
to much older connections with the continent. This will become
clearer as we now revert to the stories handed down in the Kojiki
and Nihongi.
2. The stories we now turn to are either mythical or legendary.
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 393
They are in many ways interlocked, and the swords, or the names
of the swords they feature, show up in different situations. Thus,
for the beginning, we must go back to the First Parents of the
Japanese mythology.
2.1 When the mother-goddess Izanami gave birth to the fire-
god she was burnt and died. Thereupon here husband Izanagi was
wroth, and he drew his sword and slew the fire-god and cut his
body into pieces. These pieces as well as the blood dripping from
the sword all transformed themselves into gods. The number and
the names of the gods thus coming into existence differ in the
various accounts as given in the Kojiki (NKBT 1: 60/61-62/63;
Philippi 1969: 59-60) and three variants of the Nihongi (variants
VI, VII and VIII, NKBT 67: 91-92/93, 96/97-98/99; Aston
1956: 1,22-23, 28-29). Apart from this we can discern two ten¬
dencies: var. VIII of the Nihongi seeks to give an etiological ex¬
planation for why there is 'fire' within all the herbs, trees, and
pebbles - it is the splashed blood of the fire-god adhering to all
of them. In the same var. VIII, and also in the Kojiki, the pieces
of the cut-up body of the god all change into mountain-deities.
This could also be an etiological explanation hinting at volcanoes,
if only the names of these mountain-deities would support this
supposition, but unfortunately they do noL'^ But here, a second
tendency becomes visible: an attempt at creating numerical units
of symbolic significance. In the just-mentioned var. VIII of the
Nihongi it is the number 'five'": the fire-god is cut into five parts
which change into five mountain-deities; in var. VI and var. VII
he is cut into three parts changing into deities, while the Kojiki
favors the number 'eight'''': though Izanagi cut off only the head
" A short discussion and refutadon of the interpretadon of this myth as an
explanation of volcanism favored by Matsumura Takeo and Matsumae Takeshi
is to be found in Obayashi 1981: 13-15.
" The number 'five' represents the total arrived at by the addition of the four cardinal points and the center. In Chinese philosophical speculation 'five' is, in accordance with this scheme, the basic number for the arrangement ofthe primary elements, and thus also for a host of other categories. In Japanese mythology and historical legend 'five' is the preferred number in connecdon with politically rel¬
evant groupings.
" In Japanese mythology the number 'eight' represents a totality, the whole.
Here too the Chinese model may not be overlooked. Cf. Naumann and Miller
1990: 24ff, 43 ff.; Naumann 1971: 199ff. The significance ofthe number 'three' needs no further comment.
of the god, eight mountain-deities come into existence in his
body; three come into existence from the blood adhering to the
tip of the sword, three from the blood adhering to the sword-
guard, two from the blood adhering to the hilt, altogether again
eight deities. Tn var. VI of the Nihongi the blood dripping from
three parts of the sword, hilt-ring, point, and head, changes into
three deities each, but the blood which dripped from the edge of
the sword becomes the 500 rocks which are in the bed of the
Heavenly Yasu-River.'^ In var. VII, however, the blood which
gushed out and stained the 500 rocks in the midst of this Heavenly
River becomes the deities Iwasaku and Nesaku, their children
Iwatsutsu.no wo and Iwatsutsu.no me, and the child of the latter
two named Futsu-nushi. The names of these deities appear also
in var. VI, and three of them, Iwasaku, Nesaku, and Iwatsutsu.no
wo, in the Kojiki as well. Together with Mikahayahi and Hihaya-
hi, who according to the Kojiki and var. VI of the Nihongi also
came into existence from the blood of the fire-god, they will later
be mentioned again as the ancestors of Futsu-nushi and
Takemikazuchi respectively. (In the Kojiki version, however,
Takemikazuchi comes into existence from the blood adhering to
the sword-guard.) But, as is true of most of the other deities
named in the several variants, they remain nothing but more or
less obscure, empty names, and as such they owe their existence
mainly to speculation. Thus it is no wonder that speculation also
prevails in the attempt to "explain" this myth.'* We will later have
occasion to come back to this.
Apart from the "ancestors" just mentioned, only six out of the
total of 22 gods named are either further mentioned within the
myths or worshipped in a shrine. They are the gods Kuraokami
and Takaokami, both rain-providing gods worshipped in the Nibu
Kawakami and the Kibune shrines; and there is the god Öyama-
tsumi, a mountain-god and at the same time a god of fate who
fixed the length of human life. He reminds us of the Korean
mountain-deity who, appearing in the shape of the tiger, is also
a god of fate. Thus it seems rather consistent that the legend
For the Heavenly Yasu-River', ame.no yasu.no kaFa, as part of the heavenly geography see Naumann [1994?].
" For an example of this kind see Obayashi 1981: 12, 15 sqq. In a highly
speculative manner he takes the names of some of the deities to represent the
process of forging an iron sword.
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 395
connected with the principal shrine of the god Öyamatsumi in the
province of lyo tells us that during the time of Nintoku Tennö
this god came over from the Old Korean kingdom of Paekche and
went to Mishima in the province of Tsu, whence he moved to lyo
(SDJ I: 260, 261). There is furthermore the god Ikazuchi whose
name means 'thunder' and who may be a relative of the thunder-
gods Ho.no Ikazuchi and Wake-ikazuchi connected with the
Kamo shrine." But Ikazuchi may also be connected to or perhaps
even identical with the next god we must mention, Takemikazu¬
chi, whose name is also written ii'iSp 'f and thus explained as OJ
take-mi-ikaduti > takemlkaduti. However this may be, the Kojiki
gives Takefutsu and Toyofutsu as two "other names" for this god;
and these names connect him also with the next and last god we
must mention, Futsu-nushi. Takemikazuchi is worshipped in the
Kashima shrine, Futsu-nushi in the Katori shrine, and both of
them later in Kasuga as clan gods of the Fujiwara. As we shall
see later, both these gods are intimately connected with the sword.
Last but not least we must mention the name of the sword
Izanagi used for slaying the fire-god, and thus creating all these
gods. It is, according to the Kojiki, OJ ame.nö woFabari or itu.nö
woFabari. The Nihongi, however, gives it no name.
2.1.1 We encounter this name again in the Kojiki at an impor¬
tant junction in Japanese mythology, but here it is a god who is
called Ame.no wohabari or Itu.no wohabari. When the god
Takaki (= Takamimusubi) and the sun-goddess Amaterasu wish
the land to be pacified before they send down their offspring to
rule it, their first attempts fail. Now the gods propose to send
either this Ame.no wohabari or his son Takemikazuchi, and
Ame.no wohabari consents to send his son. Together with the god
Ame.no toribune he descends to the beach of Inasa in Izumo, and
there "they unsheathed the swords ten hands long and stood them
upside down upon the crest of the waves; then, sitting cross-
legged atop the point of the swords", they inquire of the god
Okuninushi whether he will surrender and cede the land he rules
to the heavenly offspring. Okuninushi directs them to his sons,
the first of whom surrenders, while the second one proposes a test
of strength and asks for the arm of Takemikazuchi. But when he
grasped the arm, Takemikazuchi changed it first into an icicle and
" For the Kamo shrine and its gods see Naumann 1988: 188-193.
then into a sword blade, so that he could not hold it. But when
Talcemikazuchi took the arm of Ökuninushi's son, he crushed it.
Thus this son too had to surrender, and Ökuninushi followed the
advice of his sons. Their mission completed, Takemikazuchi and
his companion returned to heaven (NKBTl: 118/119-122/123;
cf. Philippi 1969: 129-134).
The main text of the Nihongi relates more or less the same
story, and differs only in some small though important details. It
is Takamimusubi alone who manages the whole enterprise, and
after the first disappointments he intends to commission Futsu-
nushi with the subjection of Ökuninushi. But here Takemikazuchi
comes forth and asks to be sent too. The two of them then descend
and put their swords upside down on the ground and sit cross-
legged on their points, asking Ökuninushi to surrender. Here
Ökuninushi has only one son, accordingly there is no test of
strength (NKBT 67: 138/139; cf. Aston 1956: 1,67-69).
We notice that Futsu-nushi has not only taken the place of
Ame.no Toribune, an otherwise insignificant god, but that he
precedes Takemikazuchi. The genealogy of Takemikazuchi given
in the Nihongi is divergent from the one in the Kojiki: his father
is Hihayahi, the grandfather Mikahayahi, and the great-grand¬
father is Itsu.no wobashiri who is thought to correspond to Itsu.no
wohabari, his father in the Kojiki version mentioned above.
In var. I of the Nihongi Amaterasu commissions Takemikazuchi
and Futsu-nushi (NKBT 67: 146/147; Aston 1956: 1,76), in
var. II the "Heavenly Deity" sends Futsu-nushi and Takemikazu¬
chi, both without further elaborating the story as in the main text
and in the Kojiki, but with var. II giving further details concerning
the worship of these gods (NKBT 67: 149-150/151; Aston 1956:
1,79-81).
The significance of the cross-legged sitting of the two gods on
the points of their swords escapes us - anything that can be said
is purely speculative. All that is clear is that it is a superhuman
feat, probably to be understood as something extraordinary even
" This at least is the equation at which the SDJ (1, 133 a) arrives after having brought together all the variants of this myth and that of slaying the fire-god which mention the names. But, the SDJ argues further, ifltsu.no wohabari and Itsu.no wobashiri are only two different names for one and the same god, then the same
must hold true for Takemikazuchi and Futsu-nushi as well; the two different
names again cannot but designate one and the same god.
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 397
for the gods, and as such giving the impression of superiority. Or
in this collocation do we find a semantic reflection of the tentative
etymology stated above [§1.2.3 (1)] in which turu- may have been
'support, column, pillar'? It will suffice, for the time being, to
note the intimate connection of the gods with the sword that is
documented by this feat. In connection with the "changing of his
arm into an icicle" and then into a "sword blade", late OJ turara
'icicle' may point in the direction of the other tentative etymology
sketched above [§ 1.2.3 (2)]." But before we return to this we will
take cognizance of still another story relating to the god
Takemikazuchi.
2.1.2 This story too is connected with an important point in
Japanese legendary history. When Kamu Yamato Iwarebiko, bet¬
ter known as 'Jimmu Tennö', was fighting in the mountains of
Kumano on his way to conquer Yamato, a large bear was seen
moving around and then disappeared, and Iwarebiko and his
troops all lost consciousness. At this time Takakuraji of Kumano
brought a sword to where Iwarebiko was lying and presented it.
Iwarebiko woke up, his troops all woke up, and all the unruly
deities in the Kumano mountains were cut down spontaneously.
When asked about it the man who had brought this sword said
that he had dreamt that Amaterasu and Takaki had ordered
Takemikazuchi to descend and help Iwarekibo defeat his ene¬
mies. But Takemikazuchi thought it sufficient to send his sword;
thus the sword was dropped down through the roof into the store¬
house of this Takakuraji and he was told in his dream to go in
the morning and take it and present it. And behold, there was the
sword as announced in the dream! This is the story as told in the
Kojiki, and here the sword also has a personal name, or rather
" Unfortunately, further pursuit of this etymological hint is impossible because
we do not know what OJ word underlies the Chinese text of the Kojiki at this
point in the narradve. The text (ed. NKBTl: 120) has Chin, i K li ping, lit.
'standing, erect ice'. This compound has traditionally been "read" in Japan as tachihi (thus, the ed. in NKBTl: 121), i.e. OJ *latiFi (tat- 'to stand erect', Fi 'ice'). But this compound is a lexical ghostword, otherwise unattested in Old Japanese as in the later language, and surely was coined to calque this particular passage. (Interesdngly enough, the usual lexical sources go on to explain this ghost-form as meaning not 'icicle' proper, i.e. a hanging mass of ice, but instead as a stalagmite-like column of ice pushing its way up out of the suddenly frozen earth.) The possibility that the attested late OJ turara 'icicle' underlies the Chinese li ping ofthe text seems never to have been considered.
more than one. It is called saziFutu[.nö]kami, with the other
names mIkaFutu[.nö]kami and Futu[.nö]müama, and this
"sword dwells in the shrine of Iso.no kami" (NKBT 1: 150/151-
152-153; Philippi 1969: 167-168). The Nihongi speaks of a "poi¬
sonous vapor" causing the exhaustion of the army. The sword that
is sent down by Takemikazuchi the god himself calls Futsu.no
mi-tama, and it is found standing with the point upwards when
Takakuraji enters his storehouse. (NKBT 67: 194/195; Aston
1956: 1,115).
2.1.3 In order to understand the meaning and the significance
of these stories which are connected with the sword in different
ways we must consider several points that at first may seem ir¬
relevant yet in the end will prove important. Japanese myths are
of a highly involved character. What now appears as a smooth
homogeneous story often consists of different layers of different
ages and different origins, some corrupted and distorted, but all
aptly linked, adjusted, and garnished with additions either of a
speculative character or else directed by political intentions.
We have already pointed to the tendency to etiological explana¬
tion in the story of the Slaying of the Fire-god; but the deepest
layer of this story is more than just an explanation. As a true myth
it gives the reason for the fact that there is fire in pebbles, trees,
and herbs. The mythical deeds done in primeval times effect all
the essentials of this world and of human life. Thus, as this myth¬
ical deed has brought fire into the objects named, it continues to
be effective to this day; it is irreversible. Fire is one of the essential
elements in human life; therefore we can assume that this layer
of the myth goes back to a very early age. But then it is possible
that the sword, a relatively new achievement, may not be the
original weapon but a later substitute. This might be the result of
a natural development, but it might also be a deliberately effected
alteration, an alteration in connection with other, specific addi¬
tions to this myth, in this case, the addition of certain gods also
associated with the sword. The inherent logic or coherence of the
original myth provides no necessity for any such addition, but
there must be reasons given in the story itself and/or outside it
that made the addition desirable and possible.
To slay and kill is the trade of the warrior. Thus the story of the
slaying of the fire-god was an appropriate place at which to in¬
troduce two gods that appeared on another, politically important
occasion in a warrior-like attitude. For the immediate reasons for
Old Japanese Sword Names and Stories Relating to Swords 399
introducing these gods we will have to look for individuals espe¬
cially interested in them and influential enough to effect their
introduction. The appearance of the gods Takemikazuchi and
Futsu-nushi at the essential turning point within the political
myth, that is in connection with the ceding of the land to the
Heavenly Grandson, shows their political bond with the Yamato
court, while a glance at the shrines of the two gods and their
connections reveals their close relationship with the Nakatomi
clan and its later offspring, the Fujiwara. During the second half
of the 7"', and also during the S"' century, the Nakatomi were at
the zenith of their influence. Like the other clans around the
ruling house they were keen on their privileges and prerogatives,
but to insist on these they needed a precedent, if possible in
history, or even better, also in myth.
As already mentioned, we cannot otherwise trace the interesting
motif of sitting cross-legged on the point of a sword. Yet when we
leave out Takemikazuchi's magical changing of his arm into an
icicle and then into a sword and thereby defeating the second son
of Ökuninushi (an episode found only in the Kojiki), it is only
this imposing posture (if not their own peaceful mind) that in¬
duces Ökuninushi and his other son to surrender - there is no
battle, we hear only that afterward "the two gods put to death all
the rebellious spirits and deities" (Aston 1956: 1,69). Again,
when Takemikazuchi is asked by the sun-goddess to assist Iware¬
biko who is on the way to conquer Yamato (the next important
point in establishing the Yamato court), he only sends down his
sword, and it is solely by the magic force of this sword that his
enemies, the "unruly deities", are vanquished; again, there is no
battle.
The Hitachi-kuni fudoki not only gives proof of the relation
between the Nakatomi clan and the "Great Heavenly God of
Kashima" with special reference to the year 649, but it also cor¬
roborates the story of his coming down from heaven when the
Heavenly Grandson was about to descend. It furthermore tells of
the offering of a great number of weapons by the Yamato king
Mimaki (Sujin Tennö), and how the god promised through an
oracle to bestow on the king the sovereignty over all provinces,
big and small, as a reward for his offices; again, it was a Naka¬
tomi who explained this oracle {Hitachi-kuni fudoki, NKBT 2:
64/65-66/67). This is no historical fact, of course, but it never¬
theless shows the importance of the god and his shrine for the
