Encyclopedia of Shinto

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詳細表示 (Complete Article)

カテゴリー1： 2. Kami (Deities)
カテゴリー2： Kami in Classic Texts
Title
Yahirowani
Text [Yahiro wani](Kojiki)(Nihongi)
"Eight-fathom shark." Although the word wani today means "crocodile," the animal referred to here is believed to have been a "great shark."

According to Kojiki, Toyotamabime took the form of this animal when she gave birth to Hohodemi's child. Shamed by being seen in this form, Toyotamabime left her child Ugayafukiaezu and returned to her ocean home.

According to an "alternate writing" transmitted by Nihongi, however, Kotoshironushi transformed himself into an "eight-fathom shark" and had sexual relations with Mizokuihime (also called Tamagushihime) of Mishima, with the result that Mizokuihime gave birth to Himetataraisuzuhime no mikoto, the woman who would later become consort to Emperor Jinmu. According to two other alternate versions of the episode, the kami of the sea (umi no kami) Toyotamahiko had a daughter Toyotamabime, and she became the wife of Hohodemi (Yamasachihiko), and turned into an "eight-fathom great shark" (in Kojiki, this was her original form, but the main text of Nihongi states that she became a dragon), and gave birth to Hikonagisatake Ugayafukiaezu no mikoto (the father of Jinmu).

Another "alternate writing" describing this episode indicates that the "eight-fathom shark" was a swift horse that served as mount for the kami of the sea.

-Nishioka Kazuhiko

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

No movie/映像なし