1 — Brothers at Odds
Ninigi’s three sons grow to manhood beneath Kyūshū’s peaks. Twin talents differentiate the elder two. Hoderi—“Fire-Shine”—revels in deep-sea fishing; his line rarely returns without silver flanks flashing. Hohodemi—“Fire-Subside”—is hunter of upland game, a marksman whose arrows never miss boar or stag.
One spring they trade skills for sport. Hoderi takes bow and arrow to the hills; Hohodemi borrows the elder’s cherished fish-hook to learn the ways of tides. Disaster follows. Hoderi cannot draw a string without overshooting; Hohodemi’s borrowed hook vanishes beneath churning surf. The hunter offers crafted replacements—ten hooks of iron, then ten of gold—but Hoderi demands the original, forged by their grandfather’s own hand, binding their fortunes like an amulet.
Each refusal is sharper than the last. Shame presses Hohodemi; he wanders the shore distraught, fingertips raw from sifting sand. There, among salt-bleached driftwood, stands an aged spirit, Shiotsuchi-no-Kami, “Old Man of the Tides.” White beard tangles with seaweed; eyes glint with moonlit compassion. He learns the tale and smiles: “Why chase one hook on land? The answer lies beneath the ninth wave.”
2 — Descent to Ryūgū
Shiotsuchi summons a wicker “tide-boat”—a coracle woven of reeds, immune to storm. Hohodemi kneels inside; the old man pushes off, chanting. Waves part; the boat sinks yet stays dry, sliding through green corridors of fish. Light dims, pressure eases as though entering dream. At last Hohodemi steps onto coral paths where crimson bream drift like petals and turtles scull past stone gateways.
He has arrived at Ryūgū—the Palace of the Sea-God Watatsumi. Guard crabs clack, sea-horse heralds blow conch trumpets. Watatsumi himself appears, draped in kelp, beard a waterfall of pearls. He greets the visitor with ancient courtesy: “Son of the Heavenly Grandson, why bear the face of sorrow beneath my roof?” Hohodemi tells of the lost hook, the brother’s anger, and his own honour in tatters.
The Sea-God fetches his daughter, Toyotama-hime (“Plentiful-Jewel Princess”), also called Otohime in softer songs. Her eyes mirror tidal pools; her kimono shimmers like abalone shell. At her father’s nod she leads the guest through vermilion gates into gardens of swaying anemone, where sea-cherry trees blossom with drifting spawn.
Hohodemi stays three full years—or three brief days, time is fluid in myth—forgetting grief in coral music. Inevitably love buds; Toyotama-hime and hunter wed beneath an arch of luminous squid-lanterns. Yet Hohodemi’s heart tugs homeward: the lost hook still pricks conscience. Watatsumi understands. He summons all creatures; a red bream coughs up Hoderi’s hook, lodged by chance in its throat.
3 — Farewell Gifts: The Tide Jewels
Before departure the Sea-God bestows two magatama-shaped gems:
- Shiomi-tama — Jewel of Flood-Tide.
- Shiotsu-tama — Jewel of Ebb-Tide.
“Should your brother assail you,” Watatsumi instructs, “command the ocean to rise or fall. Vengeance and mercy dwell in paired stones.”
Toyotama-hime is heavy with child; she follows Hohodemi up the water column, escorted by turtles. They surface on the same Kyūshū strand where the quarrel began.
4 — Clash of Tides
Hohodemi returns the hook, bowing low. Yet Hoderi’s resentment has fermented; he brands the younger a thief and draws blade. Hunter becomes target. Remembering the gems, Hohodemi grasps the Shiomi-tama. Tides surge; waves tower, swallowing Hoderi’s warriors and drenching rice paddies miles inland. Hoderi gasps, begging mercy. Hohodemi, heart softened, lifts the Shiotsu-tama; waters drain, releasing captives sputtering on seaweed.
The elder brother kneels, surrendering arms. He promises to serve as guardian of coastal clans so long as Hohodemi’s line reigns inland. That pact, myth asserts, became the bedrock of Yamato hegemony: fisher families acknowledge mountain throne; inland court ensures sea-borne prosperity.
5 — Birth in the Surf and the Broken Taboo
Toyotama-hime’s labour begins. She asks her husband to build a birthing hut thatched with cormorant feathers beside the wave-line, explaining that children of sea and land need threshold ground. One condition: he must not look inside. Curiosity, that eternal spark, ignites. Mid-labour, waves crash, the hut quakes, and Hohodemi peeks through a chink.
Inside, Toyotama-hime has shed human skin; she writhes in true form—an enormous dragon-serpent, scales glistening with birth-fluids. Their son slips free, crying like gulls. Shame floods the princess when she sees her husband’s face of mingled awe and dread. “If only you had trusted,” she whispers, “we might have shared both skins.” Clutching the newborn, she retreats to the sea, leaving the child on shore in a cradle of reeds. Her sister Tamayori-hime later emerges to raise the boy, named Ugayafukiaezu—“Cormorant-Roof Unfinished.”
That infant will father Jimmu, first emperor; but for now he sleeps to gull lullabies, halfway between driftwood and deep.
6 — Themes Flowing Through the Tale
Reciprocity and Apology
The lost hook embodies failure of exchange; genuine redress is personal effort, not lavish substitutes. Japanese social etiquette today still values sincere, specific apology over compensatory gifts.
Otherworld Marriage
Union across realms repeats Izanagi’s descent to Yomi but with sweeter promise. Joy and sorrow hinge on respecting taboos: crossing boundaries demands trust or transformation fails.
Gemini of Control
Tide Jewels dramatise power tempered by compassion—flood to subdue, ebb to release. The ideal ruler wields coercion and clemency in measured sequence, an ethic cited by medieval warlords negotiating coastal tax.
Impermanence and Secrecy
Toyotama-hime’s dragon self recalls the sea’s unknowable depths. Curiosity shatters liminal possibility; consequence is permanent separation, echoing Shintō’s caution: sacred mysteries lose potency under rational gaze.
7 — Cultural and Historical Resonance
Shrine Rituals
At Udo-jingū (Miyazaki) couples throw ceramic balls at a rock resembling the birthing hut, praying for safe delivery. Fishermen pour sake into surf on the anniversary of Hoderi’s submission, asking seas to rise only so far.
Noh & Kabuki
The Noh play “Toyotama” stages the dragon transformation behind gauze screens, audience catching dreamlike glimpses—mirroring Hohodemi’s illicit glance. Kabuki’s opulent “Ryūgū Jō Engi” features tide-controlled revolving stages to flood samurai actors mid-battle.
Popular Media
Modern manga “Spirited Away” echoes Toyotama’s bath-house palace; Pokémon “Kyogre” wields tide orbs; submarine research vessel Shinkai 6500 christened a camera “Otohime” to film deep-sea dragons (giant squids).
8 — Philosophical Overtones
Buddhist allegorists interpret the Tide Jewels as wisdom (rising insight) and compassion (falling ego), tools to tame samsaric seas. Confucian scholars cite Hohodemi’s mercy as model of benevolent rulership: force displayed, then withdrawn, ensures loyalty without hatred.
Environmental voices read the hook quarrel as parable of sustainable resource use—replacing what is lost does not erase damage; true repair lies in restoration, not substitution.
9 — Coda: Toward a Mortal Throne
Ugayafukiaezu matures under Tamayori-hime’s care; eventually he weds his foster-mother (a union of spirit and nurture) and sires four princes. The youngest, Jimmu, will lead a migration east, guided by three-legged crow and storm-forged sword, to found the Yamato court. That expedition—half conquest, half pilgrimage—forms the drama of Paper 7, where myth steps across the threshold into early legend and archaeological whisper.
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