世間が金環日食だとか、次回６月６日に起こる金星の太陽面通過だと騒いでいる。私には金（きん）の２文字がどうも頭から離れない。７４９年続日本紀によれば、陸奥の国つまり現在の宮城県に日本で初めて金が発見されたのである。当時の天皇であった聖武天皇は歓びを元号に示し、天平感宝に改元したほどだ。それから年月が流れ、パルコポーロが日本を「黄金の国ジパング」と紹介した事を知っている人も多いと思う。これはあながち伝説でもなかったのである。２回に渡る蒙古襲来の原因も実は日本の「金」なのである。
People are talking about annular eclipse and transit of Venus across the sun, which will happen on June 6th. I cannot help to think about "Gold", the word that describes both these incidents in Japanese. According to Shoku Nihongi (second of the six classical Japanese history texts), gold was first discovered in Mutsu country, current Miyagi prefecture, in 749. Seimu Emperor at the time had changed the name of era to Tempyou-kampou era in order to express his excitement of this discovery. It is well-known that long year later Marco Polo introduced Japan to the world as "Golden country, Zipang". This is not just a legend. In fact, the reason for the Mongolian attack, which happened twice, was "Gold" in Japan.
