Note (return) — Chapter III · - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS
Reading edition
A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed to writing, and orthodox Shintō commentators had learned science from the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's spear7 was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel spear.8 Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was formerly at the north pole,9 but subsequently removed to its present position. How this happened is not told.