[Aizumine February 2025 issue] Ina, Iide and Iizuna

World Heritage Sites and the Sea, Mountains, Rivers, and People, Part 2

I thought about the origin of the place name “Ina.” I understood that the place names (mountain names) Iide and Iizuna were derived from the stars in the night sky, but I never imagined that Hoshina Masayuki would lead me to search for the origin of “Ina” instead of “Takato.”

As mentioned in the November issue of last year,
a large number of immigrants from the ancient Korean state of Xin, the source of the Hata clan, migrated to the Ina Valley, and as pointed out by Ina-born historian Iwao Yamato, they made a great contribution to the nation-building of Yamato (“Research on the Hata clan,” “Continued research on the Hata clan”).

They could also be said to be a group of excellent engineers who were responsible for the main industries that could be said to be the backbone of nation-building.

Although it may seem a bit far-fetched, it would not be surprising if those people worshipped the god “I Nari” just like the Hata clan (who originated from Irogu) who worshiped the god “I Nari” in Fushimi, Kyoto.

However, there seems to be no word that corresponds to “I Nari” in ancient Korean. In modern Hangul, “ina” is written as “❘(아)니” which means “I”. However, this writing method was established by King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty in the 15th century, so it is not accurate to apply Hangul to Korean language from over 1,000 years ago, and even if there was a god that was worshiped by the people during the Three Kingdoms period (Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje 313-676), it is not recorded in the historical book (Samguk Sagi, 1145) that describes that period.

In other words, both “Inari” and “Ina” are nothing but Yamato words.
It seems to be a word with a similar meaning to the “ii” in “Iide” and “Iizuna”. Of course, it does not mean the “rice” or “meal” in the kanji “Inari”.
Did you know that there is a name “Iina” close to “Ina”? I’m sure you would be surprised if I told you that it is an old name for Mount Tsukuba, the mountain of Utagaki. It is a very meaningful word, but what kind of reaction would you get if this single vowel “i” also contains the meaning of “north”? It is exactly the “i” in “i-nari”.
According to a DNA-level study of the origin of language, modern humans acquired language 70,000 to 60,000 years ago (out of Africa) because the larynx, the exit point of the lungs’ airway, descended to the middle of the esophagus, making it possible to produce vowels. Based on this biological viewpoint, it would be no exaggeration to say that “i” is a word in the “Jomon language” or even a language that existed before that. Moreover, it occupies an extremely unique position among them. This is because it is a word that cannot be understood unless one has been looking at the starry sky for a long time. It is a word that has continued to this day without losing its meaning, so much so that one might even call it the “origin of a first-order triangle” of the starry sky. “Hoshina” is indeed a descendant of “i” and “na”.