Read, reflect, pray
Kojiki: The lost fishhook and the sea palace
Kojiki · Story 13 of 22
海幸山幸と、海の宮
Searching for a lost fishhook.
English translation of this site’s published story summary and reading notes. This is a selected reading guide, not a complete translation of the ancient chronicle.
Story summary
The elder Hoderi hunts at sea and the younger Hoori in the mountains. After exchanging tools, the younger loses his brother’s fishhook; no number of replacements gains forgiveness. With Shiotsuchi’s help he goes to the sea deity’s palace and marries Toyotamabime there.
Three years later, learning what happened, the sea deity assembles the fish, and the hook is found in a sea bream’s throat. The younger returns with two jewels controlling the tides and uses them in the quarrel. Finally the elder vows to guard and serve him.
Toyotamabime comes ashore to give birth, asking her husband not to watch her return to her original form. He looks, so she leaves the child and returns to the sea. The narrative continues with the child’s nurture through Tamayoribime; at the Upper Book’s end, a genealogy connects that child, Ugayafukiaezu, to Emperor Jinmu.
Reading note
The deity of the sea palace and the three Watatsumi deities born in ablution are not automatically identified merely because similar designations are used.
Compare with the Nihon Shoki
Poetry in this story
Connected figures
Names and relationships in a chronicle may differ from later traditions. Each figure’s introduction identifies its sources.
Sources and edition (3)
English explanations on this page were prepared by Inori no Mori from the cited text and its Japanese explanations. They are not an official translation or a prescribed liturgy.