In the Palace of the Sea God (Japanese folktale)

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 501 CE–1000 CE

Country or Culture: Japan

Genre: Folktale

PLOT SUMMARY

Hoderi and his younger brother, Hoori, are great-grandsons of the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu. They excel in two different activities: Hoderi is an excellent fisherman, while Hoori an outstanding hunter. One day, the two brothers decide to switch their occupations. Hoderi fails at hunting and returns his brother’s bow and arrow. Hoori cannot catch any fish, but he loses his brother’s magic fishhook before he can return it. Hoderi refuses to accept any replacement or the offer of multiple new fishhooks, which grieves Hoori.

Hoori goes to the seashore and tells a friendly old man, Shiko-tsutsu no Oji, about his estrangement from his brother. The old man reassures Hoori with a promise to help repair the situation. Shiko-tsutsu makes a basket for Hoori and lowers him into the sea. Hoori climbs out once he has reached an underwater beach adorned with seaweed. From there, Hoori reaches the palace of the Sea God. He rests outside the palace at a well in the shade of a cassia tree. A young woman, Toyo-tama, spots him there and tells her parents about him. Her father, the Sea God, invites Hoori into the palace and listens to his story. The Sea God summons all the fishes, and Hoderi’s fishhook is found in the mouth of a tai fish.

Hoori marries Toyo-tama, but after three years of living under the sea, he becomes homesick. The Sea God gives Hoori the fishhook and advises him on how to return it to Hoderi, also giving him two jewels—one to raise and one to lower the tide—with which to fight his brother should he have to.

As Hoori prepares to leave, his wife reveals that she is about to give birth to their child. She tells Hoori that she will come to the seashore on a stormy day and asks him to build her a hut to give birth in.

Hoori returns home and finds Hoderi, who apologizes for his hostile behavior. Hoori forgives him.

On a stormy day, Toyo-tama comes ashore together with her younger sister. Toyo-tama gives birth to a boy in the hut Hoori has built before taking the form of a dragon and returning to the ocean. When their son reaches adulthood, he marries his aunt, Toyo-tama’s younger sister, and they have four sons. One of the four is Kamu-Yamato-Iwate-Biko, who becomes Jimmu Tennō, the first emperor of Japan.

SIGNIFICANCE

This folktale is based on traditional material collected in two Japanese classics. The oldest collection is the Kojiki, composed in 712 CE. Commissioned by Japanese empress Gemmei, court writer Ō no Yasumaro recorded the stories told to him by mythology expert Hieda no Are. Sections 28 to 44 of the Kojiki contain the oldest written material about the brothers Hoderi and Hoori. The Nihon Shoki (or Nihongi)—composed under the general editorship of Japanese prince Toneri in 720 CE—includes more variants of the story.

In 1912, F. Hadland Davis published his English text of the folktale in his anthology Myths and Legends of Japan. Davis based his rendition mainly on William George Aston’s translation of the Nihongi, which Davis acknowledges as source. In Davis’s hand, the multiple Japanese stories are formed into one streamlined version that contains most events from the original versions. One key omission is Toyo-tama’s warning to her husband not to watch her as she gives birth. She does so knowing that while giving birth, she will return to her true dragon, serpent, or crocodile form (depending on the version of the tale). When Hoori disobeys her and sees her thus, Toyo-tama feels forced to leave out of shame. In one version, she and Hoori exchange several love poems thereafter while separated forever.

Historically in Japan, a primary significance of the material rendered in this folktale was to establish an unbroken genealogy confirming the divine origins of Japan’s first emperor. By presenting the story of Jimmu’s grandfather (Hoori) and father (Hoori’s son), descendents of the goddess Amaterasu, both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki confirm the divine origins of Japan’s imperial line. This was taught as straight history in Japan until 1945.

In Japanese folklore, the two brothers are widely popular and the subject of many special folk customs. In folktales, Hoori is known primarily by his nickname of Yamasachihiko, or Luck of the Mountain. His nickname comes from his mountain hunting grounds. His travels to meet the sea god Ryūjin and his marriage to the god’s daughter Princess Otohime are the subject of a cycle of popular tales still told in Japan. His brother, Hoderi, known in folk tales as Umisachihiko, or Luck of the Sea, is less prominent in the popular Japanese imagination. However, his dance of submission to Hoori, which is part of the folktale material not incorporated in Davis’s rendition, is still performed at Japanese folk festivals. In this dance, Hoderi/Umisachihiko performs some acts related to an archetypal jester figure.

In Japan’s Shintō religion, there is a cult dedicated to Hoori, who is worshipped as the god of rice and other cereals under his alternate name of Hohodemi, which means “many harvests.” This name is derived from the Japanese character that is used to write the first syllable of his name, ho, indicating rice or another field crop. It is interesting that the hunter Hoori has become a guardian of farmers. This new occupation may reflect the influence of Buddhism in Japan after the sixth century. Then, society turned away from killing land animals for food and established a traditional diet of rice and fish.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aston, William George, trans. Nihongi. 1896. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.

Chamberlain, Basil Hall, trans. The Kojiki. Kobe: Thompson, 1919. Print.

Davis, F. Hadland. “In the Palace of the Sea God.” Myths and Legends of Japan. New York: Crowell, 1912. 34–37. Print.

Kitagawa, Joseph. Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987. Print.

Philippi, Donald. The Kojiki. Tokyo: U of Tokyo P, 1977. Print.