398 Japanese Journal o f Religious Studies 19/4 Donald L. Ph ilipp i, Norito: A Translation o f the Ancient Japanese Ritual

Two well-known verses from the Man'yoshu eulogize Japan as a “land blessed by the spirit of word ” (kotoclama no sakhuau kuni) (No. 894) and a “land where word-spirit lends its aid ” (kotoclama no tasukuru kuni) (No. 3254). These epithets serve as succinct reminders of the important place given to the spoken word in ancient Japan, and o f the belief in the mysterious workings of creative speech. As Gary EBERSOLE has recently observed, orally recited verse was ^fre quently used and experienced as a form of the exercise of power. It was a lin guistic means of manipulating religio-politica) power in the human sphere as well as of manipulating the spiritual powers, including the kavii and the spirits of the dead ” (1989, p. 19). Yet the role of the word in effecting transformation is more often remarked upon in reference to the Hellenized West; its function as, in George STEINEK's phrase, a “force and medium of creation " (1984, p. i フ）has, until recently, been insufficiently addressed in studies of ritua] Japan. All the more reason to wel come this new publication of Donald Philippi s Norito, long unavailable sinc