Read, reflect, pray
Kojiki: The people’s hearths and Emperor Nintoku
Kojiki · Story 20 of 22
民のかまどと、仁徳天皇
Looking over a land without smoke.
English translation of this site’s published story summary and reading notes. This is a selected reading guide, not a complete translation of the ancient chronicle.
Story summary
Emperor Nintoku’s section records works involving water and livelihood: embankments, ponds, and the excavation of Naniwa’s Horie channel to the sea. A story follows of reading people’s living conditions through smoke rising over the country.
Looking from a high mountain, the emperor sees no smoke and concludes the people are poor. He exempts them from levies and labor for three years. Even when his own hall deteriorates and leaks, he leaves it unrepaired, catching the rain or moving to places that do not leak.
Later he looks again, sees abundant smoke, concludes the people have prospered, and resumes the levies. The text praises this as the age of a holy emperor. The Kojiki contains accounts of desirable rule as well as myth.
Reading note
The exemption of people’s burdens is paired with postponement of the emperor’s own repairs. Looking across the country twice depicts a change in living conditions.
Connected figures
Names and relationships in a chronicle may differ from later traditions. Each figure’s introduction identifies its sources.
Sources and edition (1)
English explanations on this page were prepared by Inori no Mori from the cited text and its Japanese explanations. They are not an official translation or a prescribed liturgy.