Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries

Abstract

Ochner reviews "Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries" by Michiko Y. Aoki.

Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries. By MICHIKO Y. AOKI. Monograph and Occasional Paper Series, Number 53. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 1997. xii, 347 pp. $36.00.

This scholarly English translation of all five major extant "old fudoki" provides accounts of the provinces of Hitachi, Izumo, Harima, Bungo, and Hizen in eighthcentury Japan. "Old fudoki" (kofudoki) refers specifically to those local gazetteers prepared according to the edict of A.D. 713, three years after the beginning of the Nara Period. The book comprises preface, introduction, the five fudoki in the above order, glossary, bibliography, and index.

The preface provides the historical background to the compilation of the gazetteers, clarifies the historical terms used, and explains the nature and importance of these documents. Collecting local information was a part of the Yamato Court's effort to strengthen its control of the nearly sixty provinces. Despite the richness in the kinds of information contained in the fudoki (such as topography, local products, legends about place names, etc.), it has been only partially available to Western readers through previous translations, most notably the Izumo Fud0ki (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1971) by Michiko Y. Aoki. Thus, the book under review is the first complete English translation of the five fudoki which comprise the main body of the writings known collectively as the Fudoki.

The introduction explains further the kinds of information sought by the Yamato Court: "surveys of products, animals, plants, and land conditions, etymologies of place names, and written versions of oral traditions" (p. 1). The introduction also discusses the complementary relationship of Fudoki with other early writings such as the Kojiki (712, Records of Ancient Matters) and Nihon shoki (720, Chronicles ofJapan), a history of Fudoki studies in the modern period in Japan, and the use and transmission of the gazetteers. For example, some families legitimized their power through a religious connection to important deities given in the Fudokl, myths and legends often reflected actual human events such as the struggles between the newcomers and the indigenous people; claims to land ownership were often judged based on the Fudoki references. The last use of the Fudoki explains why many "fragments" (itsubun) of the provinces other than these five were kept in other documents, even when the rest of the particular gazetteers were lost. The introduction examines the textual history of the five gazetteers and explains Aoki's choice of the basic text for this translation. Aoki uses the Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei (NKBT) text edited by Akimoto Kichiro, titled Fudoki (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1958), generally accepted as a definitive version, for Hitachi, Harima, Bungo, and Hizen provinces. For Izumo province, she uses the text edited by Kara Yoshinari titled Izuma no kuni fudoki sankyu (Tokyo: Hara Shoba, 1962), "the most recent and widely respected study of the Izumofudoki" (p. 28). The arrangement of the five gazetteers follows the order in the NKBT text. The introduction also explains the various marks used in the translation to indicate such matters as the translator's additions, English translations of proper nouns, and parts of the original text written in smaller-sized graphs (Chinese characters). (The original text is written in a texture of classical Chinese-the official written language of the time-and the man'yJgana which uses Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds.) Romanization ofJapanese words follows the historical orthography, e.g., kaha (river) instead of the modern reading kawa, except for well-established names like Izumo (the correct form is ldzumo). The introduction also states that macrons are omitted, a regrettable editorial decision, in my view, in a scholarly book on Japan.

While all five gazetteers describe the land and local legends, they also display regional differences. "The Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki" (for the present Ibaraki Prefecture), which is always placed first in any edition of the Fudoki, contains many legends and even occasional poems, a feature usually attributed to the hand of Takahashi no Mushimaro, a Many&hi@ poet, in its compilation. One legend explains why Mount Tsukuha (Tsukuba) is accessible and bountiful whereas Mount Fuji is inaccessible and barren. Legends about the Great God of Kashima, a tutelary deity of the Nakatomi (later Fujiwara) family, and those about the feats of Prince Yamato Takeru abound in the "Hitachi Fudoki.

Of the five gazetteers, "The Izumo no Kuni Fudoki" (for the present Shimane prefecture) is the most complete, providing even the names of compilers and the date of preparation (p. 733). It is also well organized: all administrative districts are described in the same sequence of details, such as the number of townships and other units in a district, old and new graphs for the names of townships, and the lists of shrines, mountains, rivers, and highways. All geographical items are described in their direction and distance from main reference points. The local products are also categorized in a set order (plants, birds, beasts, seafood, minerals). The most notable myth in Izumo is the kunihiki (land-pulling): the God Omidzunu one by one cut off pieces of land from nearby areas, tied a rope around each piece, and pulled it to Izumo, to enlarge the land. Most legends in Izumo are told more concisely than the ones in Hitachi.

An interesting contrast exists between the Izumo and Harima Fudoki (for the present Hy6go Prefecture). In Izumo, the God Ohonamuchi is also known as Okuninushi (the Lord of the Great Land), in Harima, he is called Ashihara no Shikowo, or Ugly Man in the Reed Field, and often depicted as losing the competition for the land. Aoki interprets these myths and legends as explanations of human events, such as marriage signifying political alliances, or gift giving signifying submission to a stronger leader. Harima Fudoki is also notable for the elaborate rating system of the quality of soil, showing the residents' great concern for agricultural productivity.

"The Bungo no Kuni Fudoki" (for OSita Prefecture) and "The Hizen no Kuni Fudoki" (for parts of Nagasaki and Saga Prefectures), shorter than the other three, give many accounts of such quasi-mythical figures as Prince Ohotarashi (Emperor Keik6) and Princess Okinaga Tarashi (Empress Jinga). The latter wore man's attire and led military missions. References to fighting and conquests abound. Volcanoes and spas are also prominent, with volcanic activities interpreted as divine omens.

Altogether, the five fudoki depict a fascinating landscape teeming with people, animals, plants, and deities of ancient Japan. In their pantheistic world view, "eight million gods" seems an apt expression indeed. Still, despite the richness of the five gazetteers, one wishes for an inclusion of selected familiar tales found in some forty fudoki fragments, such as the tale of Urashima Tar6 (actually Ura no Shimako) in the Tango fragment, or the tale of the white hare in the Inaba fragment.

Translation of Fudoki requires highly specialized linguistic abilities because of the archaic orthography, vocabulary, and grammar; the text also demands the translator's knowledge of ancient history. A complete checking of the translation against the original reveals that overall the present translation is quite accurate and precise. Aoki made a major change over her 1971 translation by giving the proper nouns in their original reading (e.g., Ohoshima) and adding English equivalents rather than just translating them (e.g., Big Island). It enables the researcher to locate the place names in the original text or to check them in other reference works. Ample footnotes throughout supply additional information on people (including minor officials), historical events, textual variants, Latin names of plants, etc. Even with this high level of scholarship and accuracy, however, the translation in its 271 pages is not entirely free of discrepancies from the original text. Some are numerical errors---e.g., the inside of a "cavern" is said to be 15 feet square and -70 feet" in height and width (p. 117); the original gives seven feet. Other minor discrepancies involve a small number of directional terms and romanization of names. On rare occasions, a sentence or two are omitted: e.g., the entries on Ihasuki Gaha (p. 143) and Awaka Yama (p. 213), and the etymology of Itsuma Yama (p. 237).

A twenty-two-page glossary, a thirteen-page bibliography, and a thirty-nine-page index, all add greatly to the usefulness of the volume. The glossary includes original graphs, English equivalents, and concise explanations. The index lists not only proper nouns but also some common nouns (the page numbers for common nouns appear to be selective).

Records of Wind and Earth, a major scholarly contribution to the field of Japanese studies, makes a highly important ancient text accessible to both specialists and nonspecialists. It will be a standard English version of Fudoki for many years to come.