Ajisukitakahikone

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

See also: Kuni-yuzuri

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

1. 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]
2. Literally "hole-jewel" (anadama)[13]

References

1. Ashkenazi, Michael (2008). Handbook of Japanese mythology. Handbooks of world mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-0-19-533262-9.
2. Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 450. ISBN 978-1400878000.
3. 古事記 上卷  (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
4. 日本書紀 卷第二 神代下  (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
5. "阿遅志貴高日子根神". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
6. Chamberlain (1882). Section XXVI.—The Deities the August Descendants of the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land.
7. 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.
8. Heldt, Gustav (2014). The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters. Columbia University Press. pp. 38, 44. ISBN 978-0231163880.
9. Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1400878000.
10. "喪山（その2）". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
11. "喪山（その1）". 古事記学センター. Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
12. 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.
13. Philippi, Donald L. (2015). Kojiki. Princeton University Press. pp. 123–128. ISBN 978-1400878000.
14. 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.
15. Takeda, Yūkichi (1948). 記紀歌謡集 (Kiki Kayōshu). Iwanami Shoten. p. 17.
16. Takeda, Yūkichi (1956). "古事記 (Kojiki)". Aozora Bunko. Kadokawa Shoten. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
17. 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.

See also

• Ōkuninushi
• Takemikazuchi
• Ame-no-wakahiko