Emperor Chuai仲哀天皇

Emperor Tarashinakatsuhiko dwelt in the palace of Toyura in Anato (穴門之豐浦宮) and in the palace of Kashihi in Tsukushi (訶志比宮), and ruled all under heaven.

This Emperor took to wife Ohonakatsuhime no Mikoto, the daughter of Ohoe no Miko, and the children born were Kagosaka no Miko (香坂王) and Oshikuma no Miko (忍熊王).

He also took to wife Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto (息長帶比賣命), and she was the great queen. The children born were Homuyawake no Mikoto (品夜和氣命), and next Ohotomowake no Mikoto (大鞆和氣命), whose other name was Homudawake no Mikoto (品陀和氣命).

The reason this crown prince was named Ohotomowake no Mikoto is that when he was first born, flesh in the shape of an archer's arm guard had grown on his arm. So they gave him that name. By this they knew that he would settle the land while he was still in the womb.

In this reign the Awaji no Miyake (淡道之屯家) was established.

That great queen, Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto, was at that time one upon whom the gods came down.

The Emperor dwelt in the palace of Kashihi in Tsukushi, and when he was about to strike the land of Kumaso, the Emperor played the koto, and Takeuchi no Sukune, the prime minister, sat in the court where the gods come down (沙庭) and asked the command of the god.

Then a god came down upon the great queen and taught them, saying, "There is a land to the west. Gold and silver first of all, and every kind of rare treasure that dazzles the eye, are there in plenty in that land. I now give you that land."

The Emperor answered, "I climbed to a high place and looked to the west, but no land is to be seen. There is only the great sea." He said it was a lying god, and he pushed the koto away and did not play, and sat in silence.

Then that god was greatly angered and said, "This realm under heaven is not a land for you to rule. You are to go one road."

Takeuchi no Sukune, the prime minister, said, "We are in awe, our Emperor. Still asobase — play on — that great koto."

Then he slowly drew the koto to him and played namanamani — half unwilling. Before long the sound of the koto was no longer heard. When they raised a light and looked, he had already died.

In fear and dread they laid him in the mourning palace (殯宮), and they gathered the great offerings of the land and sought in every way, and they cleansed away such sins as flaying alive, flaying backward, breaking down the ridges of the rice fields, filling in the ditches, scattering filth, marriage between close kin, marriage with horses, marriage with cattle, marriage with fowls and marriage with dogs, and made the great purification (大祓) of the land. Then again Takeuchi no Sukune sat in the court where the gods come down and asked the command of the god.

Then the teaching was as it had been before. "This land is a land to be ruled by the son who is in your womb."

Takeuchi no Sukune said, "We are in awe, our great god. What child is the child in the womb of this god?"

The answer came, "It is a boy."

Then he asked more closely, "I wish to know the name of the great god who teaches us thus now."

The answer came, "This is the heart of Amaterasu Ohokami, and it is also the three great gods Sokotsutsunoo, Nakatsutsunoo and Uwatsutsunoo. If you truly seek that land now, offer up the cloth offerings to all the gods of heaven and the gods of earth, and to the gods of the mountains and to all the gods of the rivers and the sea, and set my spirit upon the ship, and put the ash of oak into a gourd, and make many chopsticks and many leaf plates, and scatter them all upon the great sea and float them, and cross over."

So they made everything ready as they had been taught, and they set the army in order and put the ships side by side and crossed over, and the fish of the sea, great and small alike, all bore the ship on their backs and crossed. A fair wind rose strong, and the ship went with the waves.

The waves that carried that ship pushed up into the land of Silla and reached as far as the middle of the land. Then the king of that land was afraid and said, "From this time on I will follow the command of the Emperor and be a keeper of his horses, and every year I will put ships side by side and let neither the bellies of the ships dry nor the poles and the oars dry, and to the end of heaven and earth I will serve without drawing back."

So the land of Silla was made a keeper of horses, and the land of Baekje was made the Miyake across the sea (渡屯家).

She thrust her staff upright at the gate of the king of Silla, and she set the rough spirit (荒御魂) of the great god of Suminoe there as the god who guards the land, and she crossed back again.

Before that work was finished, the child she carried was about to come forth. To quiet her belly she took a stone and bound it at the waist of her skirt, and she crossed over to the land of Tsukushi, and her son was born after she had crossed. So the place where she bore that son is called Umi (宇美). And the stone she bound at her skirt is in the village of Ito (伊斗村) in the land of Tsukushi.

She also came to the village of Tamashima (玉嶋里) in the agata of Matsura (末羅縣) in Tsukushi, and it was the first days of the fourth month when she took her meal by that river. She sat on a rock in the middle of the river and drew a thread from her skirt and used a grain of rice for bait, and caught the sweetfish of that river. And so in the first days of the fourth month the women draw threads from their skirts and use grains of rice for bait and catch sweetfish, and it has not ceased to this day.

When Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto was going back up to Yamato, she did not trust the hearts of the people, so she made ready one mourning ship and set her son in that mourning ship, and first let the word slip out that the son had already died.

As she went up in this way, Kagosaka no Miko and Oshikuma no Miko heard of it, and meaning to lie in wait and take her, they went out to Togano (斗賀野) and held an ukehi hunt.

Then Kagosaka no Miko climbed up and sat in a sawtooth oak, and a boar in great anger came out and dug up that oak, and at once bit and ate that Kagosaka no Miko.

His younger brother Oshikuma no Miko did not fear that evil sign, but raised an army and waited, and thinking the mourning ship an empty ship, he went to strike it. But soldiers came down from that mourning ship and closed with him and fought.

At this time Oshikuma no Miko made Isahi no Sukune (伊佐比宿禰), the ancestor of the Kishibe (吉師部) of Naniwa, his general, and on the side of the crown prince they made Naniwanekotakefurukuma no Mikoto (難波根子建振熊命), the ancestor of the Wani no Omi, their general.

They drove him back, and when they reached Yamashiro he turned and stood, and neither side drew back, and they fought. Then Takefurukuma no Mikoto used a ruse and had it said, "Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto has already died, so there is no reason to fight any longer." He cut his bowstring and made a false surrender.

Then the general on the other side believed the lie and unstrung his bow and put away his weapons. At that they took spare bowstrings out of their topknots and strung their bows again and pursued and struck.

So he fled to Ausaka (逢坂) and stood against them and fought again. They pursued him and broke him at Sasanami (沙沙那美) and cut down all his army.

Then that Oshikuma no Miko and Isahi no Sukune were pursued together, and they went aboard a ship and floated on the sea, and he sang:

Izaagi furukumaga Itateowazuwa nihodorino Afuminoumini kazukisenawa

— Come now, my friend, rather than take a wound from Furukuma, like a grebe let us dive into the sea of Afumi.

Then they went into the sea and died together.

Takeuchi no Sukune no Mikoto took the crown prince with him to wash his body, and as they went about through Afumi and the land of Wakasa, they built a temporary palace at Tsunuga (角鹿) at the near end of Koshi and stayed there.

Then the command of Isasawake, the great god (伊奢沙和氣大神) who dwells in that land, appeared in a dream at night and said, "I wish to exchange my name for the name of your son."

They spoke a prayer and said, "We are in awe. We will exchange it as you command."

The god spoke again, "Come out to the shore tomorrow morning. I will offer the gift for the exchange of names."

So the next morning they went out to the shore, and dolphins with wounded noses had already been driven in and filled the whole inlet. Then the son had it said to the god, "You have given me fish to eat."

So they called his name again and named him Miketsu, the great god (御食津大神), and now he is called the great god of Kehi (氣比大神). And because the blood from the noses of those dolphins stank, that inlet was named Chiura (血浦), and now it is called Tsunuga (都奴賀).

Then, when they came back up, his mother Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto offered the wine she had brewed while waiting. His mother sang:

Konomikiwa wagamikinarazu Kushinokami tokoyoniimasu Iwatatasu sukunamikamino Kamuhoki hokikuruhoshi Toyohoki hokimotohoshi Matsurikoshimikizo asazuose sasa

— This wine is not my wine. The god of wine, who dwells in Tokoyo, Sukunamikami, who stands like a rock, blessed it and blessed it as a god and brewed it, blessed it to overflowing and turned the blessing back and brewed it, and sent it here. Drink it to the last, come.

So she sang, and offered the great wine. Then Takeuchi no Sukune no Mikoto sang in answer in the son's place:

Konomikio kamikemuhitowa Sonotsuzumi usunitatete Utahitsutsu kamikerekamo Mahitsutsu kamikerekamo Konomikino mikino Ayaniutadanoshi sasa

— The one who brewed this wine set up his drum for a mortar, and did he brew it singing, did he brew it dancing? This wine, this wine, how strangely merry it is, come.

This is the sakakura (酒樂) song.

Emperor Tarashinakatsuhiko was fifty two years old. His tomb is at Nagae in Ega in Kawachi (惠賀之長江).