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古事記 · Kojiki mythsKojiki18 sentences

海幸彦と山幸彦

Umisachi and Yamasachi

Ninigi’s sons Hoderi and Hoori were brothers.

The elder, Hoderi, was a master at catching fish in the sea and was called Umisachihiko.

The younger, Hoori, was a master at hunting animals in the mountains and was called Yamasachihiko.

One day the two swapped tools, but neither caught anything, and Hoori lost his brother’s fishhook in the sea.

The elder brother was angry and would not accept even the five hundred and then the thousand hooks that Hoori made from his sword.

While Hoori was weeping on the shore, a god named Shiotsuchi came and made him a basket boat.

Shiotsuchi told him, “Go in this boat to the palace of Watatsumi, the god of the sea.”

When Hoori reached the palace, he climbed the katsura tree beside the well.

A servant who came to draw water found Hoori; Toyotamahime, Watatsumi’s daughter, heard about it and came to meet him, and the two were married.

One day, after three years, Hoori remembered the hook.

The hook was found in the throat of a sea bream.

Watatsumi gave Hoori two jewels: the shiomitsutama, which makes the tide rise, and the shiohirutama, which makes the tide go out.

Hoori rode a wani back to the land and returned the hook to his brother.

When Hoori made the tide rise with the jewel, his brother nearly drowned and promised to serve him.

After that, Toyotamahime came to the land to give birth. She was roofing a hut with cormorant feathers, but before the roof was finished, the baby was about to be born.

She said, “Please do not look,” but when Hoori looked, there was a huge wani.

Ashamed, the princess left her child and went back to the sea.

That child, Ugayafukiaezu, became the father of Emperor Jinmu.

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