SlLK-WEAVING AND HORSE-RIDING

In the fall of 1971, when I had an opportunity to visit President Zalman Shazar in his official residence, he made some very interesting comments on the ancient Silk Road:

"The Hebrew word for silk is 'Meshi,' after the name of a wealthy Middle Eastern silk merchant. And the Silk Road was named for the highway traversing the Asiatic Continent, because the Middle Eastern merchants traveled it for the promotion of silk trade.

"As you probably know, Professor Teshima, it was the Middle Eastern people who first developed the silk raising and weaving technique. The fact that Middle Eastern people were experts in this industry at the time of the Babylonian captivity was amply supported by documents. In later times, these Middle Eastern merchants settled in China and Japan, introducing the silk industry to the Orient. The result of it is, to this day, Japan is the world's largest silk producing country. "

Thus, it is almost certain that those immigrants from Takhla Makhan included Hebrew elements. In the Nihonshoki, we find a very significant account that implies the association of these Japanese ancestors with the Middle Eastern people. It is the story of quarrels between the Sun Goddess and her brother Susa.

One day, Amaterasu was weaving her silk cloth in her chamber with her help-maiden. And Susa-nowo, trying to annoy his sister threw into the chamber a corpse of a horse of which skin he had stripped off. Upon seeing the hideous corpse of the animal, the help-maiden died of shock. His brutality angered the Sun Goddess so greatly that she withdrew into a cave, thereby plunging the world into darkness. Susa-nowo was driven to earth mainly be cause of this mischief.

From this episode, one can easily notice that the Yamato clan, or the descendants of Amaterasu knew Silk weaving technique that the Middle Eastern people had cultivated. The Susa-nowo's misdeeds being associated with horse imply that the Izumo clan was of horse-riding people. Here, it is of special interest to note that "Susa" in Hebrew means "horse, " which further suggests the Hebrew origin of those immigrants. There are several Susa-shrines in the province of Izumo, which are all associated with horse. By putting these facts together, we can fairly well be sure that both Izumo and Yamato clans must have been part of those Middle Eastern immigrants from the Central Asian plateau.