12 See the curious legend in Professor Chamberlain's translation of the
Kojiki.
13 From a remote period there have been two Kokuzo in theory, although
but one incumbent. Two branches of the same family claim ancestral right
to the office,--the rival houses of Senke and Kitajima. The government
has decided always in favour of the former; but the head of the Kitajima
family has usually been appointed Vice-Kokuzo. A Kitajima to-day
holds the lesser office. The term Kokuzo is not, correctly speaking, a
spiritual, but rather a temporal title. The Kokuzo has always been the
emperor's deputy to Kitzuki,--the person appointed to worship the deity
in the emperor's stead; but the real spiritual title of such a deputy is
that still borne by the present Guji,--'Mitsuye-Shiro.'
14 Haliotis tuberculata, or 'sea-ear.' The curious shell is pierced with
a row of holes, which vary in number with the age and size of the animal
it shields.