Yamanobe no Ohotaka

• • Period: Legendary Period
  • Occupation: –
  • Family: –
  • Birth: –
  • Death: –

Yamanobe no Ohotaka

Yamanobe no Ohotaka is a man seen in the kojiki during the exploits to try and get Prince Homutsuwake to speak.

Though the prince had grown into a man he still could not speak, however, one day he saw a swan and remarked at it. And so Yamanobe no Ohotaka was sent to retrieve the swan by Emperor Suinin.

He followed the swan through Harima to Kii, Inaba to Tanba, Tajima then eastwards until Afumi,  Minu to Wohari, and finally Shinano to Koshi. There in the estuary of Wanami he caught it and brought it to the Emperor. Though this does not cause to prince to speak again.¹²

The accounts in the nihongi differ slightly with the name of the man being Amano Yukaha Tana volunterring to pursue the swan all the way to Tajima.

After capturing the swan, he returns and presents it to Homutsuwake and he finally learns to speak.³

Footnotes

1. Yasumaro. O, translated by Gustav Heldt. (2014) “Kojiki. An Account of Ancient Matters”. New York: Columbia University Press.
2. Chamberlain, B. H. (1932) “Translation of the Kojiki.” Kobe: J.L. Thompson & Co.
3. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.

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