"Slit Belly Swamp.".

This article analyzes the entry for Harasaki in Harima Fudoki and provides a fresh interpretation. Through comparisons with Lévi-Strauss's From Honey to Ashes, it is argued that in the Harasaki tale the kanji for "concubine" is not a copyist's mistake as previously thought. The drowned "concubine" is revealed to be Carp, a trope representing a licentious woman. Her internal organs float upwards to become individually the six visible stars of the star cluster Pleiades, thus accounting for their mythological origin. It is inferred that this Japanese version is a vestige of such myths that are found worldwide, and that its transmission may date from several thousand years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]