27. He is Slain by King Ma-yowa

1After this, the Heavenly Sovereign, being on [his] divine couch, was sleeping at midday. Then he spoke to his Empress, saying: “Is there anything on thy mind?” She replied, saying: “Being the object of the Heavenly Sovereign’s generous favour, what can there be on my mind?” Hereupon the Empress’s former child, King Ma-yowa, who was seven years old that year, happened to be just then playing outside the apartment. Then the Heavenly Sovereign, not knowing that the young King was playing outside the apartment, spoke to the Empress, saying: “I have constantly something upon my mind, namely [the fear] that thy child King Ma-yowa, when he comes to man’s estate, may, on learning that I slew the King his father, requite me with a foul heart.” Thereupon King Ma-yowa, who had been playing outside the apartment, and whose ear had caught these words, forthwith watched for the Heavenly Sovereign to be augustly asleep, and, taking the great sword [that lay] by his side, forthwith struck off the Heavenly Sovereign’s head, and fled into the house of the Grandee Tsubura. The Heavenly Sovereign’s august years were fifty-six. His august mausoleum is on the mound of Fushimi at Sugahara.