Japanese Fairy Tales
fishing the other day. May I ask you to be so kind as to inquire of all
your subjects if any of them have seen a fishing hook lost in the sea?”
“Certainly,” said the obliging Sea King, “I will immediately summon
them all here and ask them.”
As soon as he had issued his command, the octopus, the cuttlefish, the
bonito, the oxtail fish, the eel, the jelly fish, the shrimp, and the
plaice, and many other fishes of all kinds came in and sat down before
Ryn Jin their King, and arranged themselves and their fins in order.
Then the Sea King said solemnly:
“Our visitor who is sitting before you all is the august grandson of
Amaterasu. His name is Hohodemi, the fourth Augustness, and he is also
called the Happy Hunter of the Mountains. While he was fishing the
other day upon the shore of Japan, some one robbed him of his brother’s
fishing hook. He has come all this way down to the bottom of the sea to
our Kingdom because he thought that one of you fishes may have taken
the hook from him in mischievous play. If any of you have done so you
must immediately return it, or if any of you know who the thief is you
must at once tell us his name and where he is now.”
All the fishes were taken by surprise when they heard these words, and
could say nothing for some time. They sat looking at each other and at
the Dragon King. At last the cuttlefish came forward and said:
“I think the TAI (the red bream) must be the thief who has stolen the
hook!”
“Where is your proof?” asked the King.
“Since yesterday evening the TAI has not been able to eat anything, and
he seems to be suffering from a bad throat! For this reason I think the
hook may be in his throat. You had better send for him at once!”
All the fish agreed to this, and said:
“It is certainly strange that the TAI is the only fish who has not
obeyed your summons. Will you send for him and inquire into the matter.
Then our innocence will be proved.”
“Yes,” said the Sea King, “it is strange that the TAI has not come, for
he ought to be the first to be here. Send for him at once!”
Without waiting for the King’s order the cuttlefish had already started
for the TAI’S dwelling, and he now returned, bringing the TAI with him.
He led him before the King.
The TAI sat there looking frightened and ill. He certainly was in pain,
for his usually red face was pale, and his eyes were nearly closed and
looked but half their usual size.
“Answer, O TAI!” cried the Sea King, “why did you not come in answer to
my summons today?”
“I have been ill since yesterday,” answered the TAI; “that is why I
could not come.”
“Don’t say another word!” cried out Ryn Jin angrily. “Your illness is
the punishment of the gods for stealing the Mikoto’s hook.”
“It is only too true!” said the TAI; “the hook is still in my throat,
and all my efforts to get it out have been useless. I can’t eat, and I
can scarcely breathe, and each moment I feel that it will choke me, and
sometimes it gives me great pain. I had no intention of stealing the
Mikoto’s hook. I heedlessly snapped at the bait which I saw in the
water, and the hook came off and stuck in my throat. So I hope you will
pardon me.”
The cuttlefish now came forward, and said to the King:
“What I said was right. You see the hook still sticks in the TAI’S
throat. I hope to be able to pull it out in the presence of the Mikoto,
and then we can return it to him safely!”
“O please make haste and pull it out!” cried the TAI, pitifully, for he
felt the pains in his throat coming on again; “I do so want to return
the hook to the Mikoto.”
“All right, TAI SAN,” said his friend the cuttlefish, and then opening
the TAI’S mouth as wide as he could and putting one of his feelers down
the TAI’S throat, he quickly and easily drew the hook out of the
sufferer’s large mouth. He then washed it and brought it to the King.
Ryn Jin took the hook from his subject, and then respectfully returned
it to the Happy Hunter (the Mikoto or Augustness, the fishes called
him), who was overjoyed at getting back his hook. He thanked Ryn Jin
many times, his face beaming with gratitude, and said that he owed the
happy ending of his quest to the Sea King’s wise authority and
kindness.
Ryn Jin now desired to punish the TAI, but the Happy Hunter begged him
not to do so; since his lost hook was thus happily recovered he did not
wish to make more trouble for the poor TAI. It was indeed the TAI who
had taken the hook, but he had already suffered enough for his fault,
if fault it could be called. What had been done was done in
heedlessness and not by intention. The Happy Hunter said he blamed
himself; if he had understood how to fish properly he would never have
lost his hook, and therefore all this trouble had been caused in the
first place by his trying to do something which he did not know how to
do. So he begged the Sea King to forgive his subject.
Who could resist the pleading of so wise and compassionate a judge? Ryn
Jin forgave his subject at once at the request of his august guest. The
TAI was so glad that he shook his fins for joy, and he and all the
other fish went out from the presence of their King, praising the
virtues of the Happy Hunter.
Now that the hook was found the Happy Hunter had nothing to keep him in
Ryn Gu, and he was anxious to get back to his own kingdom and to make
peace with his angry brother, the Skillful Fisher; but the Sea King,
who had learnt to love him and would fain have kept him as a son,
begged him not to go so soon, but to make the Sea Palace his home as
long as ever he liked. While the Happy Hunter was still hesitating, the
two lovely Princesses, Tayotama and Tamayori, came, and with the
sweetest of bows and voices joined with their father in pressing him to
stay, so that without seeming ungracious he could not say them “Nay,”
and was obliged to stay on for some time.
Between the Sea Realm and the Earth there was no difference in the
night of time, and the Happy Hunter found that three years went
fleeting quickly by in this delightful land. The years pass swiftly
when any one is truly happy. But though the wonders of that enchanted
land seemed to be new every day, and though the Sea King’s kindness
seemed rather to increase than to grow less with time, the Happy Hunter
grew more and more homesick as the days passed, and he could not
repress a great anxiety to know what had happened to his home and his
country and his brother while he had been away.
So at last he went to the Sea King and said:
“My stay with you here has been most happy and I am very grateful to
you for all your kindness to me, but I govern Japan, and, delightful as
this place is, I cannot absent myself forever from my country. I must
also return the fishing hook to my brother and ask his forgiveness for
having deprived him of it for so long. I am indeed very sorry to part
from you, but this time it cannot be helped. With your gracious
permission, I will take my leave to-day. I hope to make you another
visit some day. Please give up the idea of my staying longer now.”
King Ryn Jin was overcome with sorrow at the thought that he must lose
his friend who had made a great diversion in the Palace of the Sea, and
his tears fell fast as he answered:
“We are indeed very sorry to part with you, Mikoto, for we have enjoyed
your stay with us very much. You have been a noble and honored guest
and we have heartily made you welcome. I quite understand that as you
govern Japan you ought to be there and not here, and that it is vain
for us to try and keep you longer with us, much as we would like to
have you stay. I hope you will not forget us. Strange circumstances
have brought us together and I trust the friendship thus begun between
the Land and the Sea will last and grow stronger than it has ever been
before.”
When the Sea King had finished speaking he turned to his two daughters
and bade them bring him the two Tide-Jewels of the Sea. The two
Princesses bowed low, rose and glided out of the hall. In a few minutes
they returned, each one carrying in her hands a flashing gem which
filled the room with light. As the Happy Hunter looked at them he
wondered what they could be. The Sea King took them from his daughters
and said to his guest:
“These two valuable talismans we have inherited from our ancestors from
time immemorial. We now give them to you as a parting gift in token of
our great affection for you. These two gems are called the nanjiu and
the kanjiu.”
The Happy Hunter bowed low to the ground and said:
“I can never thank you enough for all your kindness to me. And now will
you add one more favor to the rest and tell me what these jewels are
and what I am to do with them?”
“The nanjiu,” answered the Sea King, “is also called the Jewel of the
Flood Tide, and whoever holds it in his possession can command the sea
to roll in and to flood the land at any time that he wills. The kanjiu
is also called the Jewel of the Ebbing Tide, and this gem controls the
sea and the waves thereof, and will cause even a tidal wave to recede.”
Then Ryn Jin showed his friend how to use the talismans one by one and
handed them to him. The Happy Hunter was very glad to have these two
wonderful gems, the Jewel of the Flood Tide and the Jewel of the Ebbing
Tide, to take back with him, for he felt that they would preserve him
in case of danger from enemies at any time. After thanking his kind
host again and again, he prepared to depart. The Sea King and the two
Princesses, Tayotama and Tamayori, and all the inmates of the Palace,
came out to say “Good-by,” and before the sound of the last farewell
had died away the Happy Hunter passed out from under the gateway, past
the well of happy memory standing in the shade of the great KATSURA
trees on his way to the beach.
Here he found, instead of the queer basket on which he had come to the
Realm of Ryn Gu, a large crocodile waiting for him. Never had he seen
such a huge creature. It measured eight fathoms in length from the tip
of its tail to the end of its long mouth. The Sea King had ordered the
monster to carry the Happy Hunter back to Japan. Like the wonderful
basket which Shiwozuchino Okina had made, it could travel faster than
any steamboat, and in this strange way, riding on the back of a
crocodile, the Happy Hunter returned to his own land.
As soon as the crocodile landed him, the Happy Hunter hastened to tell
the Skillful Fisher of his safe return. He then gave him back the
fishing hook which had been found in the mouth of the TAI and which had
been the cause of so much trouble between them. He earnestly begged his
brother’s forgiveness, telling him all that had happened to him in the
Sea King’s Palace and what wonderful adventures had led to the finding
of the hook.
Now the Skillful Fisher had used the lost hook as an excuse for driving
his brother out of the country. When his brother had left him that day
three years ago, and had not returned, he had been very glad in his
evil heart and had at once usurped his brother’s place as ruler of the
land, and had become powerful and rich. Now in the midst of enjoying
what did not belong to him, and hoping that his brother might never
return to claim his rights, quite unexpectedly there stood the Happy
Hunter before him.
The Skillful Fisher feigned forgiveness, for he could make no more
excuses for sending his brother away again, but in his heart he was
very angry and hated his brother more and more, till at last he could
no longer bear the sight of him day after day, and planned and watched
for an opportunity to kill him.
One day when the Happy Hunter was walking in the rice fields his
brother followed him with a dagger. The Happy Hunter knew that his
brother was following him to kill him, and he felt that now, in this