Songs of the Righteous Spirit: “Men of High Purpose” and Their ...

152 MATTHEW FRALEIGH凝 爲 百 錬 鐵 Hardening, it forms the iron sword, tempered ahundred times,10 鋭 利 可 割 鍪 Which is sharp enough to cleave a helmet.藎 臣 皆 熊 羆 Each loyal retainer is fierce as a bear;武 夫 盡 好 仇 Every military man a trusted vassal.神 州 孰 君 臨 In this Divine Land, what sovereign reigns?萬 古 仰 天 皇 Since time immemorial, we have revered theEmperor.15 皇 風 洽 六 合 The Imperial way suffuses all space;明 德 侔 大 陽 His “shining virtue” equal to the Sun.不 世 無 汚 隆 True, no age is without its rise and fall;正 氣 時 放 光 But the Righteous Spirit shines forth each time.乃 參 大 連 議 It was manifest in the argument of the Ōmuraji,20 侃 侃 排 瞿 曇 Who resolutely called for the expulsion of Gautama.乃 助 明 主 斷 It aided the bright sovereign in his determination焰 焰 焚 伽 藍 To torch the Buddhist temple in a roaringconflagration.83中 郞 嘗 用 之 Nakatomi once drew upon this Spirit宗 社 磐 石 安 To place the state on a rock-solid foundation.8425 淸 丸 嘗 用 之 Wake no Kiyomaro once drew upon this Spirit妖 僧 肝 膽 寒 To subdue the fiendish monk, turning his innardscold.85忽 揮 龍 口 劍Suddenly, it appeared in the hefted sword atTakinokuchi,83The Nihon shoki records how Paekche’s presentation of a Buddhist statue and sutrasto the court in 553 prompted debates about whether the new doctrine should be accepted.The first couplet refers to Mononobe no Okoshi’s argument that to propitiate Buddhismwould incur the disfavor of Japan’s own gods, a position he staked out in opposition tothat of Soga no Iname. Emperor Kinmei decided to award the Buddhist statue to Iname,who installed it at the temple he founded at his home in Mukuhara, but a subsequent pestilencecaused Kinmei to reconsider, and he ordered the statue discarded and the Mukuharatemple burned.84The reference is to the 645 coup in which Nakatomi no Kamako (Fujiwara noKama tari) and Prince Ōe ousted Soga no Iruka and promulgated the Taika Reforms thefollowing year.85In 769, when the monk Dōkyō attempted to succeed to the imperial throne, Wakeno Kiyomaro insisted on ascertaining the will of the gods at Usa Shrine; when Kiyomaroreported that the oracle was opposed to Dōkyō, he was banished, but ultimately Dōkyōfell out of favor and Kiyomaro’s brave fidelity was celebrated.