A mission stopped by water
During Yamato-takeru's eastern campaign, the sea at Hashirimizu rises so violently that his boat cannot cross. Ototachibana declares that she will enter the water in his place so that he can complete his commission and report to the sovereign. The narrative gives the decision to her in direct speech. It does not describe an order from the prince or an anonymous victim chosen without a voice.
Source: Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation · Kojiki §84
An exceptional act, a particular context
She spreads successive layers of mats upon the waves and sits on them. The sea calms, allowing the expedition to proceed. Her song recalls the prince amid the fire at Sagami and connects this loss with the preceding escape. The action belongs to an extraordinary narrative of royal service. Treating it as a general standard of a wife's duty would erase the specificity of the danger, the speaker, and the story's political setting.
Source: Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation · Kojiki §§83–84
The comb and the absence
Seven days later her comb washes ashore and is placed in a tomb. The object gives mourners something to receive when the person does not return. Yamato-takeru continues traveling, but his successful passage now includes an absence that his weapons cannot reverse. Reading the episode beside his final illness emphasizes that the campaign's progress is sustained by vulnerable bodies, including the companion who disappears before its conclusion.
Source: Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation · Kojiki §§84–85, 88–90
- Period / witness
- Kojiki presented in 712 CE; Chamberlain translation 1882. Narrative time is not a historical date.
- Recording context
- Kojiki, a Japanese court compilation attributed to Ō no Yasumaro from material recited by Hieda no Are; cited by Chamberlain’s numbered sections, not asserted as the origin of the tradition.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
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These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation ↗
Ō no Yasumaro (compiler, as identified in the preface); translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) · Court compilation presented 712 CE; translation published Yokohama, 1882
Edition & rights note