Umisachihiko and Yamasachihiko — The Beginning of the Dragon Palace
Of the august children Konohana-no-Sakuyabime bore in the burning hut, the elder, Hoderi no Mikoto, became Umisachihiko, who took the bounty of the sea, and the younger, Hoori no Mikoto, became Yamasachihiko, who took the bounty of the mountains. One day Yamasachihiko proposed, "Let us try exchanging our tools," and his brother grudgingly agreed. But Yamasachihiko caught not a single fish — and worse, he lost his brother's treasured fishhook in the sea.
Yamasachihiko broke up his own ten-span sword (totsuka no tsurugi) and made five hundred hooks in recompense, but his brother would not receive them: "Return my own hook." As he wept and grieved by the shore, Shiotsuchi no Kami, the god who governs the tideways, appeared, built a small boat of tightly woven bamboo, and said: "Ride the road of the tide in this boat, and you will come to the palace of Watatsumi no Kami, the god of the sea. Beside the spring at his gate stands a sacred fragrant tree. Wait in the branches of that tree."
Coming to the sea god's palace as he had been taught, he climbed the fragrant tree and waited, and a handmaiden of Toyotamabime came to draw water. Noticing the reflection upon the water, she offered up a jeweled vessel; Yamasachihiko took the jewel at his neck into his mouth and spat it into the vessel, where it clung and would not come free. Toyotamabime, wondering, came out; the moment their eyes met, their hearts went out to each other. The sea god too welcomed him greatly — "This is the august child of the heavenly gods, Soratsuhiko!" — and joined his daughter Toyotamabime to him in marriage. Forgetting even the fishhook, Yamasachihiko passed three years in the palace of the sea.
When at length the sea god learned the reason for his son-in-law's deep sighing, he gathered all the fishes of the sea and inquired of them; and the lost hook was found in the throat of a sea bream that could not eat for a bone lodged fast. The sea god taught him the charm to speak when returning the hook, and bestowed upon him two jewels: the tide-flowing jewel (shiomitsutama) and the tide-ebbing jewel (shiofurutama). Returned to land, Yamasachihiko did as he had been taught; his brother grew poorer and poorer, and at last came against him in attack. When he brought forth the tide-flowing jewel, the tide rose and the brother began to drown; when the brother begged forgiveness, he drew the waters back with the tide-ebbing jewel and saved him. At last the brother swore, "From this day forward I will serve you, day and night, as your guardian." Umisachihiko is handed down as the ancestor of the Hayato people.
In time Toyotamabime came from the sea, heavy with child. "The child of the heavenly gods must not be born in the sea." A birthing-hut thatched with cormorant feathers was raised upon the shore, but before the thatching was finished her labor came. She said: "Those of other realms return to their true form when they give birth. I beg you — do not, whatever you do, look within." But Yamasachihiko looked — and there a great wani of eight fathoms (yahiro wani) writhed upon its belly. Shamed that her form had been seen, the princess left her child behind, closed the paths of the sea, and returned whence she came.
The child left behind was named Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto. Toyotamabime, though she bore her grievance, yearned for her child and sent her younger sister Tamayoribime to rear him. Grown, Ugayafukiaezu took Tamayoribime to wife, and one of their children was Kamuyamato Iwarebiko no Mikoto — the future first sovereign, Emperor Jinmu. Three years in the palace of the sea; jewels that command the tides; a wife who departs when her true form is seen. This story is regarded as the prototype of the Ryūgū legend of the dragon palace, and, joined with the tradition that sees the wani as a dragon, it lives on at the shrines by the waterside as a wellspring of the faith in the gods of sea, of water, and of the dragon.
Kuzuryū Jinja of Hakone Jinja is famed as a shrine representing the faith in the sea gods and dragon gods that descends from this myth. Niukawakami Jinja Shimosha is an ancient shrine of prayers for rain and for its ceasing, enshrining Kuraokami no Kami, who governs the waters. In the joint hall of Kirishima Jingū are enshrined Hikohohodemi no Mikoto — Yamasachihiko himself — and Toyotamahime no Mikoto.
KanagawaKuzuryu Shrine (Hongu)
The nine-headed dragon deity at rest on the shore of Lake Ashi, with a monthly rite on the thirteenth.
NaraNiukawakami Shrine Shimosha (Lower Shrine)
A shrine of the water deity, where sacred white and black horses greet you.
KagoshimaKirishima Jingu
A National Treasure shrine beneath the peak of the heavenly descent.