The counsel to go east
The sons of Ugayafukiaezu are four: Itsu-se, Ina-hi, Mi-ke-nu, and the youngest, whom this atlas calls Jimmu. Itsu-se and the youngest dwell together in the palace of Takachiho, in the far southwest, and it is the two of them who take counsel and decide to move.
The Kojiki opens the second book with their conversation. They say: “By dwelling in what place shall we most quietly carry on the government of the Empire? It were probably best to go east.” Nobody in heaven commands this. The move that will make the imperial house what it is begins as a decision the two brothers reach on their own, in a sentence with a shrug in it. The journey is long and slow — a year at Wokada, seven years at Takeri, eight years at Takashima in Kibi — and the fighting starts only when they reach the haven of Shirakata.
Wounded facing the sun
The Prince of Tomi resists them, and his arrow finds Itsu-se’s hand. The wound carries a theological lesson:
吾者爲日神之御子。向日而戰不良。故負賤奴之痛手。自今者。行廻而。背負日以撃
“It is not right for me, an august child of the Sun-Deity, to fight facing the sun. It is for this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain’s hurtful hand. I will henceforward turn round, and smite him with my back to the sun” — Kojiki 中卷, tr. B. H. Chamberlain (1882)
The insight belongs to Itsu-se. He is the one who understands why the arrow hit him, and he is the one who orders the army round to attack from the south with the sun behind them. To fight facing the sun is to fight against your own ancestry, and that is why the wound came. The correct ritual orientation is established in this sentence, and the brother who works it out does not live to use it.
Dying at the river-mouth of Wo
Having given the order, Itsu-se makes his way south. He reaches the sea of Chinu and washes the blood from his hand — and that is why the place is called the sea of Chinu, blood-sea. He goes on from there, and at the river-mouth of Wo in the land of Ki, the wound kills him:
到紀國男之水門而詔。負賤奴之手乎死。爲男建而崩
“He said: ‘Ah! that I should die stricken by the wretched villain’s hand!’ and expired as a valiant man” — Kojiki 中卷, tr. B. H. Chamberlain (1882)
The valour is in the words, not in the killing. He dies cursing the wretched villain’s hand, and the story moves on to Jimmu, who will finish the eastern campaign with the sun at his back. Itsu-se is the elder brother who saw the truth and paid for it. The insight survives him.