the 4260th and the 4261st Poem:
None of these poems were composed for Imperial Family in Ohmi

There are the 4260th and 4261st poems in Man'yoshu万葉集. It is said to composed for Imperial Family in Ohmi近江.


Our Emperor,
a very god,
has turned the fields
where red steeds wandered
into his capital city.

Our Lord,
a very god,
has turned the marshes
where nested flocks of waterfowl
into his imperial city.
(Translated by Ian Hideo Levy)

1. The interpretation which these poems composed in Ohmi after the War of Jinshin has many question. And each of these poems itself has a contradict in terms.

First, None of "Ohokimi, Great King,大王" is written in 4260th poem of Man'yoshu 万葉集 with all hand-written copies. In fact, all of old manuscripts of 4260th poem is written in "Sumerogi, 皇." This term of "Sumerogi, 皇" means Lineal Great Deity which a individual were deified in homage after his death as the highest existence, and commonly not used to a living individual.
Second, None of "miyako, 都, capital" is written in 4260th poem of Man'yoshu万葉集 with all hand-written copies. In fact, all of old manuscripts of 4260th poem is written in "Kyoushi, Palace, 京師." Kyoushi京師 that is written Chinese character literally means a large palace. Ohmi Capital is not a large palace.

Third, also none of "miyako, 都, Capital" is written in 4261st poem of Man'yoshu 万葉集 with all hand-written copies. In fact, all of old manuscripts of 4261st poem is written in "Kohto, Imperial Capital, 皇都." The term of Great King大王 and Imperial capital 皇都 are clearly not agreement. In fact, in no case should "Imperial capital, 皇都" referred to as palace for Great King. In addition, the place name of Minuma 水沼is presence of Chikushi in Kyushu with the description of Chronicles of Japan 日本書紀.
Therefore by reason above, there is no reason to suppose that these poems composed when the War of Jinshin was end in Ohmi.


2. Though in terms of both Great King 大王 and Imperial capital 皇都 are not agreement, we evaluate this poem for idea. Because all of old manuscripts of 4261st poem is written in itself so. The mechanism by which these poems are formed is very complex, but it is easy for us to understand for their.
First, the 4260th poem itself should be surely based on the new idea that hereditary Great Kings for generation had been out of the stretch of swamps (Tai) where chestnut horses sank, and afterwards they put there into the palace. And then, the deified spirit of hereditary Great Kings worshiped by the people as an Lineal Deities.
This new interpretation of 4260th poem is understanding that both the term of Lineal Great Deity 皇 and large Palace 京師 are agreement.
In addition in Yamato 大和, it is a presence of old place manes of Tai 田井 and Akao 赤尾. If this poem composed at Asuka in Yamato, It could be real that this poem composed Ohtomo.

Fig.2. Asuka map
Fig.3. Tai & Akao

Second,the new processes is attributed to the 4261st poem. The 4261st poem itself should be surely based on the new idea that it is the advent of Imperial Capital for the help of former Great King. He has settle of the large palace at Mimuma. After he died, his son took on Sons of Heaven as the same official name of the Chinese Emperor. Therefore, Minuma in Chikushi is called on Imperial Capital. This new interpretation of 4261st poem is understanding over the word.
It will explore and explain the apparent contradictory coexistence of Great King and Imperial capital, Lineal Great Deity and Palace of these poems.


3. By reasoning rightly described in the preceding paragraphs, it is necessary corresponding to the fact, especially 4261st poem.
By a Chinese Record, Wa King was in controlled of Chinese Emperor under the Southern Chinese Dynasty as Five King 倭の五王 in Sou-shu 宋書. But A.D.589, Southern Chinese Dynasty of Ch'en 陳 come to destruction conquered for Northern Chinese Dynasty of Sui 隋. Therefore, by the Chinese record for Sui shu 隋書, a person of Ame Tarishihoko 阿毎多利思北孤 took the same name as the Chinese Emperor on Sons of Heaven 天子 in A.D.600. Also he took a name of Bosatsu of Sons of Heaven for East Sea 海西の菩薩天子.
According to the Sui shu 隋書, once a diplomatic mission from the Sui dynasty reached the capital city in Wa state. And in this record, the location of the capital city is evaluated from being in Chikushi. By decisive of evidence to the capital city being Chikushi, a diplomatic mission observed an activity erupted volcano of named Mt. Aso in Kyushu.


4. By being Imperial Capital at Mimuma in Kyushu, it is supported by those fact. This approach has eight advantage.


1) It is a presence of Ama-no-Tyozya Legend 天の長者伝説. Ama-no-Tyozya managed in Chikugo river Distinct 筑後川流域 from Hita 日田 to Minuma 水沼 in Northern Kyushu. His offspring has Heike Refugee Legend 平家落人伝説 after A.D.1200. But nobody managed in Chikugo river Distinct, afterwards not only A.D.1200 but A.D.701. Koga suggest that Ama-no-Tyozya was directly to controlled the area of Chikugo river Distinct as Sons of Heaven of Kyushu dynasty.

2) It is a presence of a Spring Water Poetry 曲水の宴 to pleasure as Sons of Heaven 天子 by the Chikugo Provincial Office Site 筑後国府跡at Kurume 久留米. As a general rule, it is said to pleasure what is known as governor 国司. But this amusement could pleasured to Sons of Heaven only. In addition, in no case the Spring Water Poetry could be in Japan without at Kurume in Chikugo and Taga Castle at Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. It is a capital of Wa-state in Chikugo. In the other hand, it is a capital of Emishi-state蝦夷国 in Sendai.

3) It is a presence of old place name which is Shoin 正院 at Takeno District竹野郡 (now Tanushimaru District 田主丸町) with Chikugo provincial state exchange report 筑後国交替実録帳. It is probably that this Shouin正院 is in Palace Castle 宮城大垣 which a large outside wall on the double rock wall made of plastered with mud and mortar upon a tiled-coved slanting roof such a temple. "Shoin 正院" means Office Buddhist King that it is person of Monastery for ex-emperor. None of ex-emperor were in Chikugo in Heian-period to date. Also what is known as Sudo Emperor did not come here. Nevertheless, there are a number of old place name as temple. Through there are no temple almost all, there are fundamental stones for stepping stones, flagstones, and rock walls. In addition there, what is known Inomaru-Tyozya well井の丸長者井戸 is the best well in Chikugo. Therefore, it is presumably that it is in a monaster for ex-emperor.

Fig.5. Chikugo Provincial Office Site & The view of Chikugo river from Mt. Kora-shrine
Fig.6. Shoin & Inomaru-tyozya well
Fig.7. Jori System
Fig.8. Chikugo provincial state exchange report


4) It is a presence of old place name which is Shousoin 正倉院 at Ukiha Distinct 浮羽町 with Chikugo provincial state exchange report 筑後国交替実録帳. The first Sousouin Treasure Repository were in Cikugo. Sousouin Treasure Repository in Nara that we know well is the second. Who is known as Sudo Emperor has not come here. In fact, it is given a great number of objects as an offering from Chikugo for the Kinki Imperial Family近畿天皇家 with Chikugo provincial state rice report筑後国正税帳 in Shousoin Report 正倉院文書 after A.D.701. Yamato Dynasty has a Shousoin in Nara as part of its treasure.

For a example:
a) 30 hawkers and 15 hounds for hunting 鷹狩 as amusement of Sons of Heaven.
b) a number of coppersmith at a trade, perhaps, for the building of the Great Copper Budda of the Todaiji temple.
c) 113 pearls 白玉, 701 jasper碧玉(紺玉?), 933 glass for beads 縹玉, 42 emerald for beads 緑玉, four rubies for beads 赤勾玉, two set of cylindrical beads 管玉 (竹玉), a set of glass for beads 勾縹玉 , jade beads 勾玉  etc.
The Sons of Heaven天子 has only these offering subjects.

5) It is a presence of the definition of land boundaries (Jori System 条里制) around Tanushimaru District 田主丸. This definition said to hold on governor. But we have no record.

6) It is a presence of a large number of ancient burial mounds over the 300 mounds (over 900 mounds known in Meizi period) in forth and fifth centuries at president. For example, there are Ontsuka, Gongentsuka, and Mezurashitsuka mounted site.

7) It is a presence of a series of ancient fortresses that are called sacred-precinct stones 神護石 type mountain castles and Korea type mountain castles 朝鮮式山城 in the surrounding Chikushi include Dazaifu and Kurume. Through it is said to be built these castles for Yamato dynasty, it is still unknown, however, for what purpose these castles were built in the surrounding Chikushi.

Fig.9. Ancient Fortresses in Kyushu
Fig.10. Otsubo-yama mountain Castle for sacred-precinct stones type
Fig. 11. Ono-jo Castle for Korea type mountain castle


8) By reasoning rightly described in the preceding paragraphs, it would be best accommodated to archaeological technologies by both the Dendro chronology 年輪年代測定法 and the Radiocarbon dating 放射性炭素式年代測定法.
For example, the measuring at a carbon-14 dating did indicated in the rang to A.D.400-A.D.460 to be a wooden groove 木樋 found of a moat in Mizuki 水城 for defence of Dazaifu. Also, the measuring at a carbon-14 dating did indicated in the range of A.D.540-A.D.640 and A.D.590-A.D.650 for part of embankment at Kaneda Fortress 金田城 with beacon-fire in Tsushima. Similarly, the measuring at a carbon-14 dating did indicated in the range of A.D.385-A.D.475, A.D.465-A.D.555, A.D.515-A.D.605A, and A.D.565-A.D.655 to be a wooden groove 木樋 found of a moat at Korokan 鴻臚館 with build in for a diplomat mission at beach in Hakata Bay. While the Radiocarbon dating is not sophisticated as Dendro chronology, almost all of these value shifted for the age of build in these structure before a Battle of Hakusonko 白村江の戦い.
Evidently, archaeological Age of pottery recently has been shifted a hundred years by Dendrochronology. For example, the Yayoi Middle Period can be shifted from A.D.100-100B.C. to A.D.1-200B.C. Similarly, Gunga period 郡衛時代 of ruins with eighth century has been shifted before the sixth and seventh century.
As shown above, it is become clear that Mizuki had constructed at before the sixth century for defence of Dazaifu. Similarly, it is provide evidence that the build in date of beacon-fires placed in the island of Tsushima and Iki is certainly the sixth century before the Battle of Hakusonko. Similarly, it is provide evidence that a Spring Water Poetry 曲水の宴 and the definition of land boundaries (Jori System 条里制) and a series of ancient fortresses are certainly the sixth century before the Battle of Hakusonko.

These analyses are good agreement the existence of Kyushu Dynasty in Chikushi.


5. It is apparent that these poems were composed independently of the others in a case-by-case basis. The 4260th poem composed at Asuka in Yamato, on the other hand the 4261st poem composed at Minuma in Chikushi. The presentation of the analyses of these poems will help us to appreciate the potential of such poems and apply us more widely in turn.


4260
Our Lineal Deity,
a very god,
Out of the stretch of swamps, Tai
Where chestnut horses sank, Akao
into their palace.
4261
Our Lord,
a very god,
has turned teeth marshes of Minuma
where nested flocks of waterfowl
into his imperial city.
Has made his Imperial City
(Translated by Yukio Yokota)
---------------------------------
Man'yoshu
Ian Hideo Levy,
A translation of Japan's premier anthology of classical poetry
University of Tokyo Press
Princeton University Press
Volume one
INTRODUCTION
P14
Hitomaro is a poet without a biography. The only information we have about him comes from his poems and their headnotes in The Ten Thousand Leaves itself. We do know that the Kakinomoto clan was an old Yamato family, and one school of thought, represented by the late Orikuchi Shinobu, speculated that they were ceremonial reciters of ritual songs. Genealogical background may explain the only real "fact" we know about Hitomaro, his service to the Court (apparently with very low rank) as a composer of poems of praise and lament for the imperial family. It cannot, however, "explain" the conscious mind, with its own awareness of history, or the personal voice that begins to be heard from the suddenly expanded edifice of ritual language.
Hitomaro's first recorded step as a poet is a step backward, a rhetorical evocation of the mythic world, in whose eternal time the descent of the first Emperor from the "fields of heaven" is identical to the enthronement of the latest sovereign at the palace in Asuka. Hitomaro's task as a Court poet was one of crafting iconic images which "prove" the divinity of the imperial family. It was a task whose political basis may be traced back to two poems written following the victory of Emperor Tenji's younger brother in the succession dispute, know as the Jinshin War, which broke out after Tenji's death in 671. Upon defeating the forces of Tenji's son, this prince assumed the throne as Emperor Temmu in 673. Two Tanka glorify Temmu's construction of his new palace in Asuka as a divine act. Here we find for the first time the words "kami ni shi maseba," an explicit rhetorical device meaning "(but he is ) a very god":
Our Emperor,
a very god,
has turned the fields
where red steeds wandered
into his capital city.
Our Lord,
a very god,
has turned the marshes
where nested flocks of waterfowl
into his imperial city.
(XIX.4260 and 4261)
It is not the divinity of the Emperor which is new here, but the need to establish it explicitly language. This is a theme which Hitomaro would use in his iconic poetry. The simplest example is his turning a procession to Ikazuchi Hill by Empress Jito, Temmu's widow and successor following the death of the Crown Prince, into a divine ascent, based on a conceit on the mane "Ikazuchi," which means "thunder."
Our Lord,
a very god,
builds her lodge
above the thunder
by the heavenly clouds.
(II.235)
---------------------------------------------------
THE MANYOSHU
The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of
ONE THOUSAND POEMS
With a Foreword by Donald Keene
Columbia University Press
New York
P60
Ohtomo Miyuki
[XIX : 4260]
Written after the War of Jinshin *1) was ended.
OUR Sovereign, a god,
Has made his Imperial City *2)
Out of the stretch of swamps,
Where chestnut horses sank
To their bellies
*1) The civil war of 672.
*2) The Emperor Temmu built his capital on the plain of Kiyomihara of Asuka.
------------------------------------------------
NIHONGI
Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL CHINESE AND JAPANESE
by W.G. ASTON,
P40
I 36
The three female Deities born of the Sun-Goddess were made to descend and dwell at Usa-shima in the Reed-plain Central Land.*1 They are now in the middle of the Northern Sea province, and are styled the Michi-nushi no Muchi. There are the Deities which are worshipped by the Kimi of Minuma in Tsukushi.
*1 Ashihara no Naka tsu Kuni, i.e. Japan.
*2 Province-master--honored ones or possessors.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Cambridge History of Japan
Volume 1 Ancient Japan
Cambridge University Press 1993
Printed in the United States of America
THE CENTRAL OF REFORM
P164
The Sui empire
After the collapse of the Western Chin in A.D. 317, north China was overrun by non-Chinese people and torn by internal strife. For the next 250 year or more, the country was divided by a succession of regional states and kingdoms. Then in 578 a Northern Chou emperor united most of north China, and in 581 a well-connected Northern Chou general ( the famous Yang Chien who is known as Emperor Wen-ti) founded the Sui dynasty. In 589 he conquered the powerful Southern Court of Ch'en and brought the whole of China under on rule. The rise of the new empire was followed by the reestablishment of tributary relation ships with neighboring states and kingdoms throughout most of Asia. Visitors from such foreign lands as Japan were impressed by China's massive building projects, which included a walled palace-city about six miles long and five miles wide and an empirewide canal system. The foreigner's attention was also drawn to other achievement: a complex and effective bureaucracy that reached local communities in distant regions, an extensive revenue system, a huge military organization, and detailed conditions of law. Foreign observers interested in state building could also see that China's imperial rule had been reinforced by a ideology in which Confucian rites honored its emperors as Sons of Heaven. Confucian ethics valued obedience to heads of state, Buddhist texts, depicted rulers as agents law, and Taoist teaching added legitimacy to imperial control. *1
*1) Arthur F. Wright, " The Sui Dynasty, 581-617." in Denis Twitchett, ed., Sui ad T'ang China, 589-906, Part 1, vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of China ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1979), pp.148-9.

------------------------------------------------------------

What is JAPANESES ARCHITECTURE?
Kazuo Nishi and Kazuo Hozumi

translated, adapted, and with an introduction by H. Mack Horton
KOUDANSHA INTERNATIONAL, Tokyo, New York, London

P96
THE HISTORICAL DEVVELOPMENT OF CASTLES

Ancient Fortresses
At various sites from north Kyushu to the coast of the Inland one can find rock walls on the slope of certain hells. The lines of dressed stones stretch for several kilometers, and here and there are found the remains of walls and sluice gates. For years no one knew for certain what the purpose of these ancient constructions was. Some believed they had delineated holy areas, and they accordingly came to be called "sacred- precinct stones"( Kogoishi; fig. 188)
Much later, though on the basis of scientific investigation, it become clear that these walls were the remains of massive foundations, and that they had been built not as sacred precincts but as early mountain castles. Possibly the technology for them brought to Japan by Korean immigrants. It is still unknown , however, when and for what purpose these castles were built.


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