goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

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

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

Watatsumi , also pronounced Wadatsumi, is a legendary ''kami'' (神, god; deity; spirit), Japanese dragon and tutelary water deity in Japanese mythology. is believed to be another name for the sea deity Ryūjin (龍神, Dragon God) and also for the , ...

Hoori , also known as , is a figure in Japanese mythology, the third and youngest son of and the blossom princess . He is one of the ancestors of the Emperors of Japan as the grandfather of Emperor Jimmu. He is also known as . Mythology Hoori's legen ...

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"vow not to spy on her while she goes through childbirth. The child she gave birth to was

Ugayafukiaezu is a Shinto ''kami'', and is in Japanese mythology, the father of Japan's first Emperor, Emperor Jimmu. Nomenclature and story In the ''Kojiki'', his name appears as , and in the ''Nihon Shoki'' as . Basil Hall Chamberlain glossed the ''Kojiki ...

.

Name

Toyotama-hime's name is believed to mean "a ''

miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as Shamanism, shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained ...

'' (shrine maiden) who makes rich pearls attract divine spirits," in which ''toyo'' (豊) stands for "rich" and ''tama'' (玉) stands for "pearl".

Myth

The account of Toyotama-hime and

Hoori , also known as , is a figure in Japanese mythology, the third and youngest son of and the blossom princess . He is one of the ancestors of the Emperors of Japan as the grandfather of Emperor Jimmu. He is also known as . Mythology Hoori's legen ...

appear in the ''Kojiki'' and the ''Nihon Shoki''. Toyotama-hime was the daughter of the sea deity

Watatsumi , also pronounced Wadatsumi, is a legendary ''kami'' (神, god; deity; spirit), Japanese dragon and tutelary water deity in Japanese mythology. is believed to be another name for the sea deity Ryūjin (龍神, Dragon God) and also for the , ...

. The palace where they reside is said to be as if made from fish scales and supposedly lies undersea. She makes a fateful meeting with the hunter prince, Yamasachi, also known as

Hoori , also known as , is a figure in Japanese mythology, the third and youngest son of and the blossom princess . He is one of the ancestors of the Emperors of Japan as the grandfather of Emperor Jimmu. He is also known as . Mythology Hoori's legen ...

("Fire-Subside"). The prince came in search of the fishing hook he lost at sea, borrowed from his elder brother Umisachi ("Luck of the Sea"). When the princess came to draw water from the well, the prince was already waiting, having climbed a '' katsura'' tree (or '' cassia'' tree) that towered above the well. The prince asked for a drink of water and made a gesture of spitting jewels into the vessel. The princess was captivated by his beauty. Her sea deity father recognized him as the descendant of the heavenly gods and arranged a banquet. Toyotama married the prince, and they lived in the place for three years. At the end of three years, Toyotama's husband let out a sigh and revealed his unfinished quest for the lost fish hook, which needed to be returned to his brother. After the hook was found caught in the sea bream's (''tai'' fish's) throat, Toyotama's husband was set upon a one-fathom long crocodile (or shark) to return home and, with the advice from the seagod, subjugated his elder brother. Toyotama, who had accompanied her husband to the land above sea, announced her pregnancy. The prince built for her a child-delivery hut (parturition house) thatched with

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

feathers, which was not completely thatched when she went into labour. Toyotama requested Hoori not watch while she gave birth to their child. Toyotama then gave birth to a son, who was named

Ugayafukiaezu is a Shinto ''kami'', and is in Japanese mythology, the father of Japan's first Emperor, Emperor Jimmu. Nomenclature and story In the ''Kojiki'', his name appears as , and in the ''Nihon Shoki'' as . Basil Hall Chamberlain glossed the ''Kojiki ...

("Cormarant-Thatch-Meeting-Incompletely") or "Heavenly Male Brave of the Shore". Unfortunately, Hoori's curiosity got the better of him and he attempted to spy on his wife. To his surprise, rather than seeing his wife as he knew her, he witnessed an enormous '' wani'' (crocodile, or in ancient usage also meant shark) cradling his child (one ''Nihongi'' version claim she was a dragon, ''Tatsu''). This creature was none other than his beloved Toyotama who had shape-shifted to give birth. After catching her husband spying on her, she was utterly ashamed that he broke his promise. Unable to forgive Hoori, she abandoned him and their child by returning to the sea. Following her departure, she sent her younger sister Tamayori ("Jewel-Good") to help raise the child in her absence. As Ugayafukiaezu grew of age, he married his aunt and eventually conceived a child,

Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Emperor of Japan The emperor of Japan is the hereditary monarch and head of state of Japan. The emperor is defined by the Constitution of Japan as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, his position deriving from "the will of ...

.

Parallels

Some commentators have noted a parallel between Toyotama-hime and the princess Oto-hime in the tale of ''

Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who, in a typical modern version, is a fishermen, fisherman rewarded for rescuing a sea turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There, ...

'', the boy who saves a turtle. Toyotama rode a sea turtle to return from the sea to give birth, according to the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

''. The transformation of Toyotama into a crocodile form draws parallels with the

Melusine Mélusine () or Melusine or Melusina is a figure of European folklore, a nixie (folklore), female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a Serpent symbolism, serpent or Fish in culture, fish fr ...

legend of continental Europe and

selkie Selkies are mythological creatures that can shapeshift between seal and human forms by removing or putting on their seal skin. They feature prominently in the oral traditions and mythology of various cultures, especially those of Celtic and ...

legends of Scotland and Scandinavia. Japanese scholar Hiroko Ikeda, in her index of Japanese folktales based on the international Aarne-Thompson Index, indexed the myth as type 470C, "The Lost Fish Hook (''Umisachi Yamasuchi'')": one of two brothers (one a fisherman, the other a hunter) loses the fisherman's hook and, on his quest, meets and marries the daughter of a marine Dragon King; later, he regains the fish hook and is given a jewel to control the tides; at the end of the tale, the hunter's wife asks him not to see her while she is giving birth, but he breaks the taboo and finds a crocodile (''wani'') in her place. According to Ikeda, the tale has circum-Pacific distribution, that is, similar tales are found among ethnic groups that inhabit the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

shores.

Legacy

Popular culture

*Throughout Japanese media, human-dragon hybrids (former on their mother's side as the case with Toyotama) are commonplace, notably in video games such as '' Popolocrois'', ''

Fire Emblem is a Video games in Japan, Japanese fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, the series currently con ...

'' and ''

Breath of Fire ''Breath of Fire'' is a role-playing video game series developed by Capcom. It originated on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. The series has recurring characters and ambiguous continuity; though each game is its own self-contai ...

''. *In the Japanese anime Sekirei, there is a Sekirei named Toyotama that fights using a traditional wooden staff. * Samantha Shannon’s novel, “The Priory of the Orange Tree”, is loosely based on this legend.

Science

The extinct crocodile genus ''

Toyotamaphimeia ''Toyotamaphimeia'' (named after Toyotama-hime) is a genus of extinct gavialid crocodylian which lived in Japan and Taiwan during the Middle Pleistocene. A specimen recovered in 1964 at Osaka University during the construction of a new science bu ...

'' was named after this deity, in direct reference to this myth.

Genealogy

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography ;(primary sources) * **Chamberlain, Basil H. (tr.) (1981)

919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the Byzantine navy, seizes the Boukoleon Pal ...

The Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters
', Rutland and Tokyo, Charles E. Tuttle. (reprint) * * * * ;(retellings) * Pasteur, V. M. (1906).
The Story of Fire-shine and Fire-Fade
in: ''Gods and heroes of old Japan'', London, England: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd., pp. 29–47 * ;(secondary sources) * * Davis, Frederick Hadland (1916),
The Age of the Gods" in: ''Japan, from the age of the gods to the fall of tsingtau''
London, England: T.C & E.C Jack, Limited., pp. 24–25

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toyotama-Hime Japanese goddesses Japanese dragons Shinto kami Kunitsukami

Name

Myth

Parallels

Legacy

Popular culture

Science

Genealogy

See also

Explanatory notes

References

External links