was a gigantic yōkai in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...

, sometimes said to pose as a mountain range when sleeping.

Mythology

The size of a Daidarabotchi was so great that his footprints were said to have created innumerable lakes and ponds. In one legend, a Daidarabotchi weighed

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

and

Mount Tsukuba is an mountain located at the northern-end of Tsukuba, Japan. It is one of the most famous mountains in Japan, particularly well known for its double peaks, and . Many people climb the so-called "purple mountain" every year for the panorami ...

to see which was heavier, but he accidentally split Tsukuba's peak after he was finished with it. The ''Hitachi no Kuni

Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and ...

'', a recording of the imperial customs in the Hitachi Province compiled in the 8th century, also told of a Daidarabotchi living on a hill west of a post office of Hiratsu Ogushi who fed on giant clams from the beach, piling the shells on top of a hill. ''Izumo no Kuni Fudoki'' also mentions a legendary king of Izumo, Ōmitsunu, who was the grandson of

Susanoo __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory chara ...

and a demi-god. Having the strength of a giant, he performed Kuni-biki, pulling land from

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

with ropes, to increase the size of his territory.

Mythology

See also