52. The Empress Jin-gō Conquers Korea

1So the wave of the august vessel pushed up onto the land of Shiragi, reaching to the middle of the country. Thereupon the chieftain of the country, alarmed and trembling, petitioned [the Empress], saying: “From this time forward obedient to the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands, I will feed his august horses and will marshal vessels every year, nor ever let the vessels’ keels dry or their poles and oars dry, and will respectfully serve him without drawing back while heaven and earth shall last.” So therefore the Land of Shiragi was constituted the feeder of the august horses, and the Land of Kudara was constituted the crossing store. Then the Empress stuck her august staff on the gate of the chieftain of Shiragi, and having made the Rough August Spirits of the Great Deities of the Inlet of Sumi the guardian Deities of the land, she laid them to rest, and crossed back. So while this business was yet unconcluded, [the child] with which she was pregnant was about to be born. Forthwith, in order to restrain her august womb, she took a stone and wound it round the waist of her august skirt, and the august child was born after she had crossed [back] to the Land of Tsukushi. So the name by which the place was called where the august child was born was Umi. Again the stone which she wound round her august skirt is at the village of Ito in the Land of Tsukushi.