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One strong argument against this "realistic landscape" interpretation is that the sea cannot actually be seen from the top of Mt. Kagu. The second interpretation thus argues that the smoke and the gulls rising are not simply indications of the land's prosperity, but signs of the "life-force" (tama) of the realm, which are manifesting themselves in response to the sovereign's "magical act" of "looking." We can call this the "life-force" interpretation. The basis for this reading is that in many other "land-viewing" poems, what the sovereign sees is often something that is not part of the visible human world.
The third interpretation, which we can think of as the "metaphorical interpretation," argues that the significance of what the ruler "sees," i.e., "the plain of the land" and "the plain of the sea," is that it is a binary expression, which refers to the whole realm. According to this reading, the sovereign climbs Mt. Kagu, which is "in [the province of] Yamato, amidst a ring of hills," and when he looks upon the land, he sees the sum of the land and the sea, i.e., the entire realm. Thus, the sovereign's praise in the final lines, "a splendid land, the dragonfly island," refers not to the province of Yamato (modern Nara prefecture) but to the entire realm of Yamato (the ancient name for Japan).
In spite of the differences between these interpretations, it is not altogether impossible to reconcile them with each other. In all likelihood the "land-viewing" in this poem is meant to be interpreted in as comprehensive way as possible. Jomei is represented as a benevolent ruler looking upon a prosperous realm, as a magic king who can see the life force of the land, and as the supreme ruler of Yamato. The poem expresses the relation between ruler and realm by means of a visual metaphor, or a visual rhetoric. The extent of the ruler's power over the realm is expressed as the extent of his vision.
Let us turn now to another poem, this one from Nihon shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), which illustrates the relation between ruler and subjects from the perspective of, and in the voice of, the subjects.
On the seventh day of Spring in the New Year of the
Twentieth Year [612] wine banquets were held by the
governors of the provinces. On this day, the Great Omi
[Soga no Umako (d. 626)] presented the Sovereign [Emperor Suiko (r. 592-628)] with a poem of praise:
Our great lord of the eight corners,
emerges from the palace that hides her from heaven
and as we look up at the sky into which she steps
for a myriad years may it remain thus,
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