What would you do if you were offered two spouses?
An ugly one, and a beautiful one.
Today on Mythology for Dummies, we’ll talk about the gods that led up to Emperor Jimmu,
the mythical first emperor of Japan.
They say he started his rule in 660 BC,
and he descended from the Sun Goddess herself, Amaterasu.
And that’s why every emperor claims descent from Emperor Jimmu and Amaterasu,
giving them a divine origin.
They were the products of a goddess.
The Japanese myths come from two texts, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
The problem is that the stories sometimes differ between the two.
For example, in the Nihon Shoki, the palace of the great kami of the sea is underwater,
while in the Kojiki there’s no mention of it being underwater.
Alright, so this video is mostly based on the Kojiki version of events, which is only
a little different from the Nihon Shoki version.
One day, Amaterasu ordered her son to go down to tame all the kami on earth.
At the time, these countless earthly gods were running around all crazy,
fighting each other or just being obnoxious.
So Amaterasu told her son to go down and teach them some respect.
But the guy was scared of those mean earthly kami, so he threw his son under a bus and
was like, “Oh I’d love to, but you know who would be a better candidate?
My son, Ninigi.”
With a sigh, Amaterasu sent down Ninigi instead.
I feel kinda bad for Amaterasu.
Her brothers were huge jerks, and even her son can’t do anything right.
She gave Ninigi, her grandson, three treasures: a jewel,
a mirror (the same mirror that the heavenly gods used to lure her out of her cave),
and the sword Kusanagi (the sword that her brother Susanoo found in the
tail of a snake and gifted to her).
Amaterasu also sent a group of kami to help him.
Decked out in legendary gear and running with a high level party, Ninigi descended to earth.
On the way, he recruited this one kami that I wanna mention just because
he’s ridiculously awesome.
He was 7 feet tall and had a nose 30 inches long.
Inside his body was a fire that burned so bright it made his mouth and eyes glow red.
And it made the hole of his butt glow red too.
Hey that’s what the story says, don’t blame me.
The descendants of this group would later become the most important Japanese clans,
ancestors of the Japanese people.
On earth, Ninigi took his job of taming the land very seriously.
Just kidding, he immediately chased after a girl.
He flirted with the daughter of one of the mountain gods.
When the mountain god heard of this, he was... super happy.
He knew that Ninigi was the grandson of Amaterasu.
He was so happy that he gave two daughters to Ninigi.
One daughter, the beautiful one that Ninigi wanted, was named Flower Blossom Princess.
The other one was Long Rock Princess, who was quite ugly.
Ninigi wasn’t really into Long Rock Princess, so he sent her back to her dad
like she was a bad gift.
That was really rude, you don’t just return Long Rock Princess
because you don’t like her.
That’s what regifting is for.
The father was enraged.
He said, “I gave you my daughter Flower Blossom Princess so your life could flourish
and prosper like the blossoming of cherry blossom trees.
I gave you my other daughter Long Rock Princess so your life would last as long as the rocks.
Now that you’ve rejected her, your prosperity would be as temporary
as the blossoming of flowers.”
And because of this, emperors tended to have short reigns.
That’s right, Ninigi screwed Japanese emperors all because he judged a book by its cover.
After Ninigi and his new wife, Flower Blossom Princess, had spent a night together,
she became pregnant.
Ninigi immediately accused her of lying with some other man.
“How could you have become pregnant after only one night together?”
Indignant about her innocence, she said,
“If my children are not yours, then may the birth be a disaster.”
To prove her point, while Flower Blossom Princess was in labor, she set fire to the building
she was in and gave birth to 3 babies amidst the flames.
She and the babies got out without the flames even touching them.
And why did that prove that the babies were his?
Because folktales.
Now the babies that we care about are the first and the third.
The eldest brother was named Hoderi (火照), the youngest Hoori (火折).
When they grew up, Hoderi, the elder brother, became a great fisherman and he had a magical
fishhook that helped him catch fish.
Hoori became a great hunter and had a magical bow that helped him hunt.
Hoori was terrible at fishing, so he wanted to borrow his elder brother’s fishhook.
He said, “Bro I wanna borrow your magic fishhook.
I’ll let you borrow my bow.”
Hoderi said, “No.”
“Ooh good counter,” thought Hoori.
But he kept asking over and over like a typical annoying younger brother
until Hoderi had enough and agreed to exchange magical items.
So with his new fishhook, Hoori went out on a boat to catch some fish… and still failed.
Looked like the problem was him, not his tools.
Even worse, he lost the fishhook.
It must have dropped into the sea.
When the time came for the brothers to return their magic items, Hoderi returned the bow,
but Hoori confessed that okay he did lose the fishhook, but look, he made 1000 fishhooks
from his own sword and offered them instead.
His brother was not impressed.
“You better find my fishhook, or else.”
Hoori went to sulk and cry on the beach.
A god happened to walk by (gods are always popping up around this time).
He asked what happened, and after listening to Hoori’s story, the god suggested he go
visit the palace of Owatatsumi (大海神), the kami of the sea.
And so Hoori got on a boat and traveled there.
He couldn’t get into the palace, so he impressed some handmaidens by spitting out a jewel from
his mouth at their water pitcher, embedding it to the side of the pitcher.
No one could take it out.
They went in to show it to their mistress, who emerged from the palace to check out the
handsome man with the strong mouth.
She was the sea lord’s daughter, Toyotama-hime (豊玉姫).
When Hoori and Toyotama-hime saw each other, they instantly fell in love like the way it
normally happens and got married with the blessing of Owatatsumi the kami of the sea,
who turned out to be a dragon.
After living there for 3 years, Hoori got homesick, but told Owatatsumi that he couldn’t
return because his brother was being an ass.
Being the dragon kami of the sea, Owatatsumi called a meeting of all the fishes.
Some of the fish were like, “Is that safe?”
The dragon thought about it, and created a Zoom meeting instead.
He asked if anyone saw this magic fishhook.
One bream, which is a fish supposedly, mentioned that it had something stuck in its throat.
Turned out, it was the fishhook!
The bream returned it.
Hoori was like, “Alright, I can go home now” and got to packing.
As he was preparing to go, the dragon gave Hoori 2 gifts to punish his brother with.
Two jewels.
One that can raise the water level, and one that can lower the water level.
With his new waterbending powers, Hoori returned home and gave the fishhook back to Hoderi.
But, as revenge for being exiled, Hoori used the jewels on his brother’s rice fields.
He would either flood the fields, or deny them water, preventing anything from growing.
Hoderi grew poorer and poorer until he decided to attack Hoori.
But Hoori thoroughly ruined his day by using the water-raising jewel to drown him until
he begged for forgiveness and agreed to serve Hoori.
After the sibling rivalry was resolved, Toyotama-hime the sea princess left her palace and came
to live with Hoori.
She soon got pregnant, but when the time came, she forbade her husband to look at her while
she gave birth.
Hoori agreed...and looked anyways.
He saw his wife turn into a giant birth-giving dragon.
Now the translation here is not certain.
Some translate it as crocodile, or shark.
But the dragon translation is the coolest, so I’ll stick with that.
Afterwards, she was pissed and ashamed that her husband saw her animal form.
She took off in a huff and returned to her palace, leaving husband and child.
But she did send her sister to help raise the child, because she was a good mom.
Hoori lived for 500 years.
That son of his had 4 sons of his own.
The youngest one would grow up to become Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan.
But that’s a story for another day.
Alright here’s today’s quiz question: Which god held down an onamazu with a stone
to prevent strong earthquakes?
Let me know in the comments.
Tomorrow I will randomly choose a winner from the correct answers, and the winner will get
one of these.
Good luck!
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