Japanese Mythology - Luck of The Sea and Luck of The Mountains

Luck of The Sea and Luck of The Mountains

Ninigi's elder son Hoderi or "Fire-Shine" had the gift of the bounty of the sea, and gained his livelihood by fishing (and bore the nickname Umisachihiko or "Luck of the Sea"). The younger son Howori or "Fire-Fade" had the gift of the bounty of the mountains, and was a hunter (and nicknamed Yamasachihiko or "Luck of the Mountains").

One day, Luck of the Mountains asked his elder brother Luck of the Sea to exchange their tools and swap places for a day. He wanted to try his bid at fishing. But he did not catch a single fish, and worse, he lost his borrowed fishhook. To make amends, he shattered the very sword he was wearing to make a hundred, then a thousand hooks to replace what he lost, but the elder brother would accept nothing but the original fishhook.

Luck of the Mountains was sitting on a beach balefully weeping, there came to his aid Shiotsuchi-no-oji(ja) (one of the deities now enshrined at Shiogama Jinja). The tide god built him a small ship described as being manashikatsuma (无間勝間, 間なし勝間, "basket without interstices"?), and sent him on a journey to the fish-scaled palace of the Watatsumi (Sea God, often conceived of as a dragon-god). There he had a fateful meeting with the Sea God's daughter Princess Toyotama, and married her. After three years, he remembered his brother and his fishhook, and was longing to return home.

Watatsumi gathered his piscean minions, and soon the fishhook was found in the throat of a bream (tai) and restored to Luck of the Mountains. The Sea God also imparted two magical balls: Shihomitsutama (塩盈珠, "Tide-flowing ball"?) which could cause a flood, and Shihohirutama (塩乾珠, "Tide-ebbing ball"?) which could cause water to recede and dry up. And he gave additional strategic advice to gain advantage from his contentious elder brother. So riding on a fathom-long crocodile-fish or shark (hitohiro-wani (一尋鰐?)), they returned to dry land.

The pregnant Princess Toyotama built a cormorant feather-thatched maternity house and pleaded her husband for privacy, as she would be reverting to her true shape while delivering her child. But Howori (Luck of the Mountains) was overcome with curiosity, and peeped inside to discover her transformed into a crawling 8-fathom "croc-fish" (shark, dragon), and scuttered away in fright. Ashamed and disgusted by her husband's breach of trust, she abandoned the newborn and returned to sea. The infant prince was named Ugaya meaning "cormorant house".

Ugaya married his aunt, the sea princess Tamayori and had five children, including Yamatobiko, who was later to become Emperor Jimmu. In the Nihongi, the "Age of the Gods" (kamiyo (神代?)) section ends here, and is followed by sections under the titles of the reigns of each Emperor.