Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan. My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 52: The many loves of Nintoku.
Welcome back.
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That said, let’s get into the actual content.
This episode we are continuing with the story of Oho Sazaki, aka Nintoku Tennou. Last time, in episode 51, we went over some of the stories that seem to contribute to Oho Sazaki’s reputation as a virtuous sovereign, worthy of the throne on which he sat. We discussed how after several natural disasters, he halted taxation and conscription by the government so that the people could rebuild, allowing his own palace to fall into ruin in the process. This was seen as the hallmark of a ruler who cares for his people, that he was willing to take on such hardships for their sake.
Meanwhile, as virtuous as he may have been towards his people, his home life seems to have been a different issue.
Before we get into this, I do want to acknowledge, as I have in the past, that the morals of ancient Japan were not necessarily the same as what we might hold today. For example, we know that polygamy was common especially among the elites, where marriage alliances seem common. It should be noted that these arrangements were typically one man and multiple women, without much evidence for the opposite practice of one woman to multiple men. In fact, this gendered imbalance goes back to the time of Himiko, if the Wei Chronicles are to be believed, so this may not have been directly tied to the waves of misogyny that were coming over from the continent about this time, though there definitely was a strongly patriarchal bent to the narrative.
And I bring this up in part because we have to remember that this is not an unbiased history, so we can’t always assume that the views of the authors match those of the time they are writing about any more than an author today will have the same biases as someone from the 16th or 17th century. So, for instance, it is hard to know how accurate the position of the women being described might be. Iwa no Hime, whom we will talk quite a bit about, is described as the Queen, and this terminology often gets interpreted as meaning the primary wife of the sovereign, more or less, but was that all? Or did she maintain some power and authority in her own right? Unfortunately, since all the stories are filtered through an 8th century, Confucian inspired lens, it is hard to say. Certainly there were women in the 7th and 8th centuries who became sovereigns in their own right and held power equivalent to any male sovereign even as the place of women was changing with greater and greater adoption of continental norms and culture.
And finally, I just want to note again that the morals of the past often aren’t those of our own. Adultery, rape, and murder pop up again and again in the narrative, even committed by individuals otherwise coded, explicitly or otherwise, as virtuous. That such things were not a blemish against these legendary figures may speak to a different set of moral judgments that were being made at this time.
Let me be clear: I am not suggesting that we fall into the trap of moral relativism. Just because people of the time may have considered Oho Sazaki’s actions as virtuous and proper does not mean that we necessarily need to come to the same conclusion. Humans are complicated creatures—much more complicated than most narratives will allow for. However, part of our goal will be understanding, as best we can, what sort of ethical and moral compass was guiding the people of these ancient times to help us get a better understanding of what people did and why. That doesn’t mean we need to condone their actions.
With that said, let’s take a look at the love life of our virtuous Oho Sazaki no Ohokimi, and we’ll start, actually, back in the reign of his father.
You may recall that in the reign of Oho Sazaki’s father, Homuda Wake—aka Oujin Tennou—there was the beauty Kaminaga Hime, who arrived in truly awe-inspiring fashion in boats crewed by sailors all fitted out in deerskins with the antlers attached. Oho Sazaki was smitten by her as soon as they clasped eyes on one another, and though she was meant for his father, the lovesick Oho Sazaki was able to make his feelings known such that they were eventually married and she became one of his wives.
However, when he ascended to the throne as Oho Kimi, or Great Lord, it was not Kaminaga Hime who became his queen but rather another woman, whom we have also mentioned in passing, named Iwa no Hime.
We previously mentioned Iwa no Hime because, despite being the mother to several future sovereigns, she doesn’t seem to have had the credentials one might expect of a queen. Primarily she doesn’t have a clearly royal lineage. Rather, she is the daughter of Katsuraki no Sotsuhiko. As we mentioned several episodes back, talking about Sotsuhiko and Takechi no Sukune, he was only ever mentioned as a vassal of the Yamato sovereign, but there are some clues that he may have been more. He may have been some sort of sovereign in his own right, and for that matter, what did that mean for his daughter? What was up with her?
We aren’t really given any details as to how Iwa no Hime and Oho Sazaki met, but one can assume that it was through her father’s connections. But what political benefit was there in marrying the daughter of a vassal?
On the other hand, if Katsuraki no Sotsuhiko was a ruler in his own right, then his daughter may have been just the thing to help bring their domain or kingdom together with Yamato, perhaps further strengthening an alliance into something more. If this were the case, I have to wonder what Iwa no Hime’s status was. It is possible she was simply a pawn, bartered away on the political stage, and certainly there were many women in the elite families for whom this was their ultimate fate. On the other hand, we know that women held considerably more power back in the earliest times, and we’ve seen the stories of Okinaga Tarashi Hime, who was also related to the Katsuraki family. So it also strikes me as possible that Iwa no Hime may have also have had some political and administrative clout of her own.
She was certainly strong-willed, according to the Chronicles: despite the apparent cultural norm of a man keeping multiple wives, Iwa no Hime put her foot down, and would try to fight it tooth and nail. Of course, it may be that she had little choice in any wives that Oho Sazaki took before she was elevated to the rank of Queen, but after that point she really seems to have laid down the lawn.
The Chronicles claim that this stemmed from an innate jealousy. Even mentioning other women of the palace in her presence was enough to set her off. And so we see this theme throughout the stories we are told.
Now, going back to Oho-Sazaki’s first documented crush, Kaminaga Hime, we hear very little about her after the reign of Homuda Wake. We know that she produced several sons, but for the most part she seems to have faded from the story, her part in it complete.
There were plenty of other women, however, that caught Oho Sazaki’s eye, much to the chagrin of his principal wife and queen, Iwa no Hime. For example, in the Kojiki we are give the story of Kuro Hime.
Now Kuro Hime was the daughter of the Amabe no Atahe of Kibi, and, as is so often the case in these stories, her beauty “was of great renown.” Though the rumor mill version of Yamato Tinder sounds rather single-minded, I suspect that it went beyond merely the physical, even if that is what the chroniclers themselves were concerned with. After all, beauty might be shorthand for <<insert clip of “huge tracks of land”>>. Kibi, as we’ve discussed before, was quite powerful and populous in its own right, building kingly tombs that rivaled those of Yamato, so there was much for someone like Oho Sazaki to desire, and so he summoned her to his court, apparently with the intention of marrying her.
So Kuro Hime packed her bags and sailed over to Naniwa and the court. Once there, however, she started to hear rumors. Confidants in the Yamato court warned her about Iwa no Hime and her jealousy. Rather than risk Iwa no Hime’s ire, Kuro Hime decided that Oho Sazaki wasn’t worth it, and she threw her things back in the boat and prepared to head back home.
Oho Sazaki was apparently heartbroken. Watching out from a high tower he sang a song:
“In the offing / The small boats are stretched out in a row; / In one of them, / Masazuko, my beloved, / Goes down to her native land.”
As sentimental as he might have been, what Oho Sazaki wasn’t was quiet. Iwa no Hime heard his composition, and she became enraged. She sent out people down to the Bay and had them hound Kuro Hime out of her boat, her ride home, and forced her to walk back to Kibi on foot. That might have taken several days, possibly a week or more, depending on the quality of the roads and pathways.
And as arduous and incredible as that journey might have been, what really draws my attention is the power of Iwa no Hime. Her jealous tantrums were not merely biting commentary—she sent people out to physically hound and harass Kuro Hime. And where was Oho Sazaki in all of this? Why wasn’t he standing up to Iwa no Hime?
I guess that the narrative could be explained by the trope of the hen-pecked husband, which seems to be the tack that the stories take. Personally, I like to think that it demonstrated that, at least in Iwa no Hime’s mind, she and Oho Sazaki were equals. But perhaps that is just wishful thinking.
Regardless of why, Oho Sazaki was not one to oppose his wife. Well, not directly, at least. He still longed to see Kuro Hime, and so he went with one of the classic husbandly lies so trope-worthy that from the 8th century to today it is still being used. He told her he was just going out shopping, and he definitely wasn’t going down to the local pub to have a pint with his mates.
Well, okay actually he told her that he was going to Awaji, the island just off of Naniwa that had long been site of royal hunting grounds, where sovereigns had gone to participate in their more leisurely pursuits. He certainly said nothing about heading out from Awaji to Kibi. After all, what his wife didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
Standing on Awaji, looking out across the Seto Inland Sea, Oho Sazaki once again encapsulated his feelings in poetry:
“Setting out / from the point of Naniwa / Of the glittering waves, / I view the land / and behold the island of Awa, / The Island of Onogoro / the Island of Ajimasa / And of Sake tsu Shima.”
On its own, this probably was just a poem about kunimi, or viewing the country, a common ritual of kingship demonstrating hegemony over the land. But if you add an unspoken line, as suggested by Phillipi: “But nowhere do I catch sight of my beloved.” Well, then the whole thing takes on a different tone, one more fitting for the circumstances. And it is likely that this was the unspoken feeling one was supposed to deduce, even if it wasn’t directly stated.
It was certainly the unspoken feeling that was acted upon as Oho Sazaki set out to Kibi, where he found Kuro Hime, who took him to the mountain foothills and fed him there.
At that point, the narrative gives us several poems, or more likely, based on their structure, songs that were meant to be set to music of some kind. Phillipi points out how these poem-songs repeat certain words over and over, and many of these appear in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, but not always in the same places. That would seem to indicate that the songs were probably well known, passed down as part of a strong oral tradition, but that the actual context of the songs may have been lost. One of the songs is only found in the Kojiki, but then it is also recalled in the Tango Fudoki, but this time in the mouth of a supernatural woman of the Urashima legend. These were songs that the people likely knew well, and so it was easy to slot them in, much in the way that a modern television program might choose well known songs rather than creating a totally original soundtrack.
Looking back at our story, we aren’t really told how Iwa no Hime reacted once Oho Sazaki returned, though presumably she noticed something was off. Most importantly, however, Kuro Hime appears to have stayed in Kibi, and we don’t really hear any more of her. Iwa no Hime’s position remained secure, despite her husband’s dalliance.
In fact, it seems reasonable to conclude that Oho Sazaki may have learned his lesson, for the Nihon Shoki contains a story not about Kuro Hime of Kibi, but rather of Kuga Hime, a lady of the palace. Now Oho Sazaki, like a moth drawn to the flame, lusted after Kuga Hime, and desired to show her his affection—bidden or otherwise. But before going so far as to send her a basket of eggplants and a not so subtle invitation to visit him in his chambers he did something a bit uncharacteristic at this point. He paused.
It seems that his wife’s legendary jealousy had left an impression on Oho Sazaki, and he began to think through what his personal desires might mean for poor Kuga Hime if he actually acted on them. After all, he would be spared, but Kuga Hime would have to bear the brunt of Iwa no Hime’s wrath. On top of that, there is no way that she could ever be considered a queen, such as Iwa no Hime was.
And so, with apparent consideration for her age and not wanting Kuga Hime to waste the best years of her life, Oho Sazaki decided that he could do something better than bringing her into his harem. Instead, he could play matchmaker, himself. Of course it goes without saying that Kuga Hime had no real say in this un-asked-for good deed.
Thus, Oho Sazaki sang out a poem, presumably at a banquet where all the most eligible bachelors were gathered, asking if anyone would be willing to “nourish the daughter of the Omi, who sweeps along the bottom of the water.” The response to this question came from Hayamachi, the ancestor of the governors of Harima, who formed his response in the thirty-one syllable style, known as Tanka, that would eventually become the default for off-the-cuff poetry at the court. In this case, the poem was rather straightforward, stating simply: “I, Hayamachi of Harima / Where the dreadful tides are / though full of awe / like rocks tumbling down / I will nourish her.”
And with that, no doubt quite pleased with himself, Oho Sazaki simply gave Kuga Hime to Hayamachi.
It seems though, that Kuga Hime, who had not been consulted in any of this, had other plans. Even though Hayamichi went to Kuga Hime’s house to collect her, she would not comply. He insisted, however, on approaching her curtained space—a reference to the way that the large, generally open floor plans of early Japanese noble architecture would often be separated with curtains of fabric or reeds, often delineating between the male and female spaces, as well as public and private. In later eras, even when it was customary for women in the summer time to wear little more than an almost transparent gauze robe, it would be scandalous for a man to catch a glimpse of a woman’s uncovered flesh—even if it was just a hand reaching out beyond the curtain.
In the 5th century, however, it is unclear just how sensual such an act might be seen, but the 8th century writers are nonetheless conveying that separation between them—a physical barrier representing, at the same time, an intangible one. For Kuga Hime insisted that she would die husbandless, and that she could therefore not become Hayamichi’s wife.
Well, when Oho Sazaki heard of all of this, he certainly had egg on his face. For all the trouble he had gone through, and he had, in fact, promised Kuga Hime’s hand to Hayamichi. And so, believing this marriage to be for the best—or perhaps simply to avoid the embarrassment he felt—the sovereign, Oho Sazaki, commanded Kuga Hime to go with Hayamichi to Kuhada, where they would be married. However, it was not to be. Kuga Hime’s declaration proved to be prophetic—she tragically passed away during the journey and never made it to Kuhada. Thus, as she said, she died husbandless.
And so we get a glimpse of Oho Sazaki and his relationship with women in his life, but there is one more that stands out above the rest. It is found in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, with many of the poems showing up in both of them, though occasionally in slightly different parts of the narrative. I’ll try to weave the two accounts together as best I can.
Oh, and before I go much further, I should introduce the new woman in Oho Sazaki’s life. Although she isn’t exactly a new woman. In fact, we mentioned her several episodes back when we talked about the tug of war between Oho Sazaki and his brother, Uji no Waki Iratsuko, over who wouldn’t have to sit on the throne after dear old dad passed away. She was the woman given to Oho Sazaki by Waki Iratsuko on the moment—or even slightly after—his own death. Her name was Yata no Waki Iratsume, aka Yata Hime, Oho Sazaki’s own half-sister.
As you may or may not recall—we honestly didn’t spend too much time on it back then—Yata no Waki Iratsume was given to Oho Sazaki to take on as a wife because her full brother, Waki Iratsuko, had taken his own life. Remember that siblings were only considered to be truly blood relatives if they shared the same mother, and thus the ancient chronicles saw nothing strange in this arrangement. In fact, many would no doubt see it as strengthening the royal lineage, a concept that was popular in many places, not just Japan, leading to tragic things like, well, the Hapsburgs, for one.
Inbreeding aside, despite the fact that she had been granted to Oho Sazaki when he had taken the throne—or so we are told—she remains out of the picture for about 2 decades. Presumably, during this time, she was being well kept, but she was not Oho Sazaki’s queen—she wasn’t even one of his secondary wives. And one of the reasons for this may have been Iwa no Hime.
The Nihon Shoki claims that Oho Sazaki told Iwa no Hime that he wanted to take Yata Hime as his wife, but Iwa Hime would not allow it. Oho Sazaki tried to change her mind with poetry, but Iwa no Hime was just as quick witted, and clearly his equal. As translated by Aston, the exchange goes something like this.
Oho Sazaki sang: “As a means of raising up / Dear ones: / As a spare bowstring / To supply a vacancy / I would place her along with thee.”
But Iwa no Hime wouldn’t have it: “In the case of garments / To double them is well, / But my Lord who would set in a row / The couches of night- / I wonder if he is wise.”
Oho Sazaki persisted, however: “Like the shore of Narabi / Of Cape Naniwa / That projects (into the sea) / It must have been solely to be thy comrade / That the child came into being.”
Still, Iwa no Hime continued to object: “Like the summer insect, / The insect that seeks the fire / Wearing double garments, / That the palace precinct should be thus, / Nay! It is not good.”
Nonetheless, Oho Sazaki would not take a hint: “Even the traveller, / Who with unbared tears / Toils over the little pass of Hika / in Asatsuma - / Well for him had he a companion.”
Iwa no Hime could see he wasn’t going to let up, but neither would she give in, and so she finally just refused to keep going. She refused to answer him, and refused to give her consent.
And that might have been the end of it. The Nihon Shoki tells us that eight years went by, and apparently Oho Sazaki didn’t bring it back up, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have thoughts.
One day, according to both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, Iwa no Hime left the palace and made an excursion down the Kii peninsula. There she was looking for a special set of leaves, which came in clusters of three and which could be used as drinking cups for certain ceremonies. She was planning to host a lavish banquet, and we are told that she had an entire boatload of these leaf cups that she was bringing back with her.
It was during her absence that Oho Sazaki’s rebellious streak kicked in, and despite the Iwa no Hime’s clear refusal eight years prior, Oho Sazaki finally went ahead and married Yata Hime. They then apparently did what married couples do, and word got around. In fact, as Iwa no Hime’s retinue was returning with her to Naniwa, a common laborer approached one of her handmaidens. He began to give her the latest hot goss, talking about the scandalous way that the sovereign was disporting himself day and night with his newest bride.
Upon hearing this, the handmaiden, who had been in one of the boats near the back of the procession, urged her sailors to row faster, until she caught up with her mistress, Iwa no Hime. There the handmaiden told her everything that the laborer had said, and Iwa no Hime lost it. In a fit of rage she enacted her own table flip, dumping all of the leaf-cups into the ocean—perhaps one of the first great examples of an angry “table clearing”, which Hollywood directors love so much. She then gave the decision not to stop in Naniwa, but instead to sail on by and up the canal towards Yamashiro. She sailed by Naniwa, where her husband, Oho Sazaki, sat on shore, watching with no doubt a confused look on his face as her boats did not put in as expected, but rather continued up river. It was here that she sang:
“As I ascend / As I ascend the river, /The Yamashiro River / Of the connected mountain peaks,
On the bank of the River / There is growing / A Sashibu / A Sashibu Tree
Underneath it / There is growing / A wide-leaved / Sacred camelia tree.
Like its flowers / Shining Brilliantly, /Like its leaves / Wide and calm / Are you, my great lord.”
And so singing, she went on by.
As she arrived around Narayama, she again composed a song, found in some form in both of the chronicles:
o “As I ascend,
As I ascend towards the palace
Up the Yamashiro River
Of the connected mountain peaks,
o I pass by Nara
Of the blue clay
I pass by Yamato
Of the little shields;
o The country which I long to see
Is Takamiya in Kazuraki
Where my home is.”
And by this we can assume she was headed back to her family. Remember, she is the daughter of Katsuraki no Sotsu Hiko—Sotsu Hiko of Katsuraki—so going back to Takamiya, the high palace, may have been a reference to her going back to the site of her family’s territorial seat of power. However, we are told that on the way she took a detour, stopping in the house of one Nurinomi, a man of Kara who lived in Tsutsuki. Or that’s what the Kojiki tells us. The Nihon Shoki claims that she built her own palace on the south side of Tsutsuki Hill, with no mention of Nurinomi.
Now while all this was happening, Oho Sazaki was not exactly standing idle. First, he sent an attendant named Toriyama, once more with a line of verse to tell him what to do, but it appears that Toriyama was unsuccessful. And so he turned to another of his vassals: Kuchiko—or possibly just Kuchi—of the Wani no Omi.
Now Kuchiko was a loyal vassal, and it was apparently no secret where Iwa no Hime was staying. We are told that he went out to deliver a message from Oho Sazaki, but Iwa no Hime refused to hear it. Even though the rain was coming down hard, Kuchiko prostrated him in front of the house, until Iwa no Hime left and went to the rear quarters, at which point he ran around the outside of the house—after all, nobody had invited him in—and he prostrated himself, again, in the wet and the mud, by the back entrance. Iwa no Hime, her own stubbornness by now legendary, simply went back to the front of the building, and, once again, Kuchiko prostrated himself again in the yard.
All this time, the rain kept pouring down on poor, loyal Kuchiko. He had been given a message by the Sovereign, and he had to deliver it, but at the same time, he couldn’t exactly force Iwa no Hime to listen to it. And so he stayed there, in the rain, even though the courtyard was starting to flood, so that the waters were at his waist, and a red cord that he had began to bleed, staining the blue fabric of his clothing and turning it red. Still, Iwa no Hime did nothing.
Now it just so happened that Kuchiko’s younger sister, Kuniyori Hime, was serving in the retinue of Iwa no Hime, and when she saw the poor state that her brother was in, and realizing the futility of his mission, she started to weep for him.
And the rocky exterior of Iwa no Hime seems to have cracked, just a little. She asked her maiden why she was so upset, and Kuniyori Hime said to her: “I am moved to tears / At the sight of my brother / Speaking his message / At the Palace of Tsutsuki / of Yamashiro.”
She then said quite plainly that it was her brother and she felt bad for the situation he was in. Iwa no Hime, moved by Kuniyori’s grief, agreed that Kuniyori Hime could talk to him, even though she would not. And so Kuchiko was apparently brought inside—and hopefully given some dry clothes—and he conferred with his sister and with the master of the house, Nurinomi.
Here, it is the Kojiki that tells us what apparently happened. According to that version of events, the trio of Kuchiko, Kuniyori, and Nurinomi agreed to tell the sovereign that Iwa no Hime had simply come to visit Nurinomi and to see the silkworms that he cultivated. Of course, by this time, silkworms were likely well known on the continent, but I’m not sure how commonly known their lifecycle was. And thus it was possibly believable that Iwa no Hime might go to visit and see the process.
With this little white lie they apparently hoped to put off the sovereign and his curiosity—after all, it seemed as if there was no way that Iwa no Hime was going to change her mind. And for a little while it worked. But only a little while. A month went by, and Oho Sazaki was apparently beginning to wonder. He made his own way up the river towards Yamashiro, eventually reaching the palace in Tstusuki where Iwa no Hime had apparently put down some roots.
Once there, Oho Sazaki called out to her, with yet more poetic verses, asking that she come back with him, but it was no good. She refused to go with him and essentially told him that as long as *that* woman was still in the palace, she would never return to the palace.
Dejected and empty-handed, Oho Sazaki returned to Naniwa. We are told that Iwa no Hime kept her word, and they never saw each other again. According to the Nihon Shoki, Iwa no Hime would die five years later, leaving several heirs to the throne.
As for Yata Hime—she and Oho Sazaki continued to live in the palace, and several years after Iwa no Hime’s passing, Yata Hime was made Queen.
It is said that Oho Sazaki and Yata Hime would often spend their days and nights in one of the high towers, because the weather was so hot one autumn. While they were up there, they could hear the hauntingly musical cry of a deer out on the nearby Toga moor, and they would feel great pity for the animal. One evening, about mid-month, the moor went silent, and they both wondered what might have happened. The next day, a man of the Saheki-be showed up with an offering—a buck that head taken out on the Toga Moor. Oho Sazaki immediately deduced that this was likely the deer they had been hearing, and he was suddenly filled with resentment, even though, logically, he knew there was no way for the man to have known. Still, he had him banished from the royal presence, such that he was not allowed to approach the royal palace and he would be removed to Nuta.
There is an accompanying story in the Nihon Shoki about a man who went to Toga and spent the night on the moor. As he was out there, two deer, a buck and a doe, came and laid down beside him. In the morning, the buck miraculously spoke up, telling the doe about a dream he had had, where he was covered in white mist. He wondered what it could mean. The doe said that it must meant that if he went out that day, he would surely be shot. The white mist would be like the salt that would cover his body to help preserve the meat. Nonetheless, the buck went out, and sure enough there was a hunter on the moor, and he shot the buck, just as the dream had foretold. Thus there is a saying: “Even the belling buck follows the interpretation of a dream.”
Now Yata Hime and Oho Sazaki seem to have loved one another very much, but despite this, Yata Hime was never able to bear him any children. And here we get an interesting note from the Kujiki, which we should remember, was very keen not just on the royal lineage, but on the lineage of the once-powerful Mononobe clan, whose fortunes had declined somewhat by the 8th century. It tells us that because she was childless, the sovereign basically selected an attending minister, Mononobe no Oho Wake no Muraji, to be set up as a prince, the adopted son of the Queen, Yata Hime. Her name, “Yata” was turned into a surname, a new Uji, or clan group, and she was made the Uji no Miyatsuko and given the title of Yatabe no Muraji. This seems to be confirmed by the Shinsen Shoujiroku, who claims that the Yatabe no Muraji descended through Ikaga Shikowo, as Oho Wake was a descendent in the fourth generation.
There is one more story that I’d like to leave you with, for it turns out that even the sovereign had rivals, and he was not always lucky in love. This story comes to us in two versions, from the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
Now it came to be that Oho Sazaki wished to marry his half-sister, Medori no Miko, the sister to his wife, Yata Hime. And so he sent as an intermediary one of his younger brothers, a man by the name of Hayabusa Wake no Miko. Now the Kojiki places this story sometime during the reign of Iwa no Hime as queen, for Medori no Miko was concerned. She feared that, for all of his prestige, Oho Sazaki was not a good match because of the arrogance—or jealousy—of his wife, Iwa no Hime, which had even kept him from marrying Yata Hime for so long. Instead, she decided to marry Hayabusa Wake, instead. They got married in secret, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Hayabusa Wake decided not to return to the palace. After all, what was he going to say? “Sorry bro, I know I was supposed to chat her up for you, but, like, we got married, instead. Cool?”
Not hearing back from his intermediary, Oho Sazaki went to the place where Medori no Miko was staying. He stood at the doorsill while she was at a loom, weaving. He called out to her with a poem:
“For whom is intended, / The garment being woven / By my lady / Medori.”
Medori Hime must not have known that it was Oho Sazaki who stood at the door, because she replied:
“It is a cloth for a coat / for the high-flying falcon, / Hayabusa Wake no Miko”
Having heard her reply, Oho Sazaki, whose name means the “Great Wren” or “Great Wagtail”, realized that her heart belonged to Hayabusa, whose name means “Falcon”. According to the Nihon Shoki’s account, Oho Sazaki decided to just let it go at first. After all, there was no need to stir up trouble, and Medori was, after all, sister to his wife, Yata Hime.
Later, however, there were stories that started to drift out about Hayabusa Wake starting to get various ideas, and a song that his own attendants were heard singing:
“ The Falcon / Ascending to Heaven / With soaring flight-- / Let him seize the wren / On top of the Tsuki trees.”
Well, given their names, this seemed like a clear claim of rebellion. Oho Sazaki had been patient, for his wife’s sake, but he couldn’t let a private quarrel develop into full blown rebellion, and so he decided to nip the entire thing in the bud. Medori Hime and Hayabusa Wake heard about the plans for them, however, and they fled.
As soon as Oho Sazaki heard they had fled, he sent Kibi no Honchi-be no Wofuna and Harima no Saheki no Atahe no Aganoko to pursue and kill the couple. Before they left, however, Yata Hime stepped in. Though she recognized her sister’s error and the need for her to be punished, she asked the generals to help her, nonetheless, maintain some dignity. It was not uncommon, at that time, for the defeated to be slain and for their goods to be divvied up amongst the victors. Yata Hime asked for an exception in the case of her sister, requesting that she remain covered up, with some dignity, even in death.
Sure enough the two generals, Wofuna and Agonoko, caught up with the lovers around Uda, but the two escaped over Mt. Soni. Eventually they were caught and slain on the Komoshiro moor in Ise. Despite the orders, Wofuna searched the princess and took her jewels and then buried the princess and Hayabusa on the bank of the Ihoki River. The generals then returned and gave their report—conveniently skipping over what happened with the jewels.
Time went by, and later in that same year it came time for the Festival of First Fruits. During this festival, Yata Hime noticed some familiar jewelry on the hands of a couple of the women. She immediately asked where they had gotten them, and they pointed out that they had received them from Aganoko. When questioned more directly, Aganoko eventually came clean, admitting that he had stolen the jewels against the orders he was given.
The sovereign was furious, and the charge would normally have been death for Aganoko, but instead Aganoko offered up all of his own lands to the throne. Because they had been forfeit due to the jewels, or Tama, that Aganoko had stolen, these lands were known as “tamade”.
And that was the story of the Falcon and the Wren, and the last of our stories about Oho Sazaki’s love life. I hope you have enjoyed them. Next we will probably talk about some of the more miraculous and unbelievable tales from this reign.
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And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.
![Takechi no [Sukune] no Ōmi on a Japanese 1 yen note from 1916.](/s/Revised_1_Yen_Bank_of_Japan_Silver_convertible_-_front.jpg)