Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) · 157 of 191

[Sect. CL.—Emperor Yū-Riyaku, (I.—Genealogies).]

His Augustness Oho-hatsuse-no-waka-take dwelt in the palace of Asakura at Hatsuse, 1 and ruled the Empire. The Heavenly Sovereign wedded Queen Wake-kusaka-be, younger sister of King Oho-kusaka (no children). Again he wedded Princess Karu, daughter of the Grandee Tsubura, and begot august children: His Augustness Shiraka; next his younger sister Her Augustness Princess Waka-tarashi (two Deities).

Context

Yū-riyaku at last takes the throne after killing his brothers. This is the emperor most modern scholars identify with the King Bu (倭王武, the 'Martial King of Wa') of the Chinese Song-dynasty Sō Shu histories, whose 478 CE memorial to the Chinese emperor survives — claiming the conquest of eighty-five peripheral peoples and seeking imperial recognition of his rank. His name appears archaeologically on the Inariyama sword (excavated 1968 from a tumulus in Saitama prefecture, inscribed c. 471 CE with the formula 'Wakatakeru, Great King') and on the Eta-Funayama sword from Kumamoto, both in Old Japanese using Chinese characters phonetically. So Yū-riyaku, unlike every emperor before him in the Kojiki, is independently verifiable: his name was inscribed in iron in his own lifetime, in two separate parts of his realm, and the inscriptions still exist. He is the bridge between legendary chronicle and documentable history.Kojiki CL (Yū-riyaku Genealogies)

Footnotes 387:1 p. 387 For Hatsuse see Sect. CXLIII, Note 8. Several Asakuras are named in the pages of these "Records." That here named is in Yamato. The name seems to mean "morning store-house."