Tokiwa no Kuni - The Land of Everlasting Life

Japanese: 常盤の国 - ときわのくに

The name of a country that appears in medieval narratives such as monogatari-zoshi and sekkyo-bushi, or in rice planting songs from various provinces. It is a country in the direction of Inui (northwest) where ancestral spirits reside, and was thought to be the source of wealth and fertility, and was believed to be mediated by birds such as swallows, hototogisu, and uguisu, which were thought to be messengers or vehicles of ancestral spirits. Tokiwa (Everlasting rock) means a rock that always exists without changing its nature, but it seems to have been confused with Tokoyo (Eternal world) and used almost synonymously with Tokoyo.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中世の物語草子や説経節などの語り物，あるいは諸国の田植歌などにあらわれる国の名。戌亥（いぬい）(北西)の方角にある祖霊のいる国で，富や豊饒の源泉と考えられ，燕（つばめ），時鳥（ほととぎす），鶯（うぐいす）などの祖霊の使者とか乗物と考えられている鳥が媒介すると考えられた。〈ときわ(常磐)〉はつねにその性質を変えずに存続する岩の意味であるが，〈とこよ(常世)〉と混同して，ほぼ常世と同意に用いられたものらしい。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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