Born in a list of gods
The Kojiki first names him in a list. Chamberlain’s Section VI opens when Izanagi and Izanami have finished giving birth to countries and begin afresh giving birth to deities, and his English sets the new gods down one after another, each introduced by “next”. The Sea-Deity is the eighth. Before him come seven deities whose names Chamberlain renders as Great-Male-of-the-Great-Thing, Rock-Earth-Prince, Great-Door-Sun-Youth, Great-House-Prince and the like. After him come the two deities of the water-gates, 水戶神, which Chamberlain’s note explains as river-mouths, estuaries or ports, and with them the run closes, ten deities in all by the count the text gives.
次生，海神，名大綿津見神。次生，水戶神，名速秋津日子神；次，妹速秋津比賣神
“next they gave birth to the Sea-Deity, whose name is the Deity Great-Ocean-Possessor; next they gave birth to the Deity of the Water-Gates, whose name is the Deity Prince-of-Swift-Autumn; next they gave birth to his younger sister the Deity Princess-of-Swift-Autumn” — Kojiki, Sect. VI, tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882)
The line gives him a title and a name, and nothing else. 海神 is the title, the Sea-Deity; 大綿津見神 is the name, which Chamberlain renders the Deity Great-Ocean-Possessor. His note reads it Oho-wata-tsu-mi-no-kami and takes the final mi as equivalent to mochi, possessor, an interpretation that he calls not absolutely sure but supported by both authority and likelihood. The list gives the god no office, no speech and no act.
Nor does the Kojiki hand him the sea when the world is divided. After his purification Izanagi gives the Dominion of the Night to Tsukuyomi and tells Susanoo, in Chamberlain’s words, “Do Thine Augustness rule the Sea-Plain.” The Sea-Deity is not named in that scene. What he rules, the Kojiki lets him say himself, much later and in a single clause.
The sea-god who speaks in the Kojiki appears thirty-four sections after the birth list, in the story of Hoori and the lost fish-hook. There he is 海神 again, and 大神, the Great Deity, and once 綿津見大神, the same five characters as the birth-list name in another order; Chamberlain renders that form, too, as the Deity Great-Ocean-Possessor. The Kojiki never says that the god of the birth list and the god of the palace are one. This atlas takes them as one god because they share the title and the name, and on that inference gives him Izanagi and Izanami as parents.
The god at the gate
Hoori reaches him by boat, along what Chamberlain’s English calls a savoury august road, and the place is named before the god is seen. The deity Shiotsuchi, who sends Hoori off, tells him that he will come to a palace built like fishes’ scales, 如魚鱗所造之宫室, and that it is 綿津見神之宫, the palace of the Deity-Ocean-Possessor. Above the well beside its gate there is a cassia-tree, and if Hoori sits in it, the Sea-Deity’s daughter will see him. It happens as he is told. A maid who comes to draw water sees a light in the well, and what she brings back sends her mistress, Toyotama-hime, out to look.
尒豊玉毗賣命思奇，出見，乃見感，目合而白其父曰：「吾門有麗人。」尒海神自出見，云：「此人者，天津日高之御子，虛空津日高矣。」即於（内）率入而美知皮之疊敷八重，亦絁疊八重，敷其上，坐其上而具百取机代物，為御饗，即令婚其女豊玉毗賣。故至三年住其國。於是火遠理命思其初事而大一歎。故豊玉毗賣命聞其歎以白其父言：「三年雖住，恒無歎，今夜為大一歎，若有何由故？」其父大神問其聟夫曰：「今旦聞我女之語，云：『三年雖坐，恒無歎，今夜為大歎。』若有由哉？亦到此間之由奈何？」尒語其大神，備如其兄罸失鉤之状。
“Then Her Augustness Luxuriant-Jewel-Princess, thinking it strange, went out to look, and was forthwith delighted at the sight. They exchanged glances, after which she spoke to her father, saying: “There is a beautiful person at our gate.” Then the Sea-Deity himself went out to look, and saying, “This person is the Sky’s-Sun-Height, the august child of the Heaven’s-Sun-Height,” led him into the interior [of the palace], and spreading eight layers of rugs of sea-asses’ skins, and spreading on the top other eight layers of silk rugs, and setting him on the top of them, arranged merchandise on tables holding an hundred, made an august banquet, and forthwith gave him his daughter Luxuriant-Jewel-Princess in marriage. So he dwelt in that land for three years. Hereupon His Augustness Fire-Subside thought of what had gone before, and heaved one deep sigh. So Her Augustness Luxuriant-Jewel-Princess, hearing the sigh, informed her father, saying: “Though he has dwelt three years [with us], he had never sighed; but this night he heaved one deep sigh. What may be the cause of it?” The Great Deity her father asked his son-in-law, saying: “This morning I hear my daughter speak, saying: ‘Though he has dwelt three years [with us], he had never sighed; but this he heaved one deep sigh.’ What may the cause be? Moreover what was the cause of thy coming here?” Then [His Augustness Fire-Subside] told the Great Deity exactly how his elder brother had pressed him for the lost fish-hook.” — Kojiki, Sect. XL, tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882)
The god does not wait to be told who the stranger is. His daughter has said only that there is a beautiful person at the gate; he goes out himself, looks, and names the guest: 天津日高之御子，虛空津日高, in Chamberlain’s English the Sky’s-Sun-Height, the august child of the Heaven’s-Sun-Height. Chamberlain’s note explains the title. Hoori already bore the other form, Ama-tsu-hi-daka, at the front of his alternative name, and he is spoken of here by the variant that properly marks the Heir Apparent, because at this point his father, Ninigi-no-Mikoto, may be supposed to have been still living. The god knows the guest’s descent at sight, and the text gives no sign that anyone told him.
What follows is a welcome given in full before a single question is asked. He leads the guest inside and spreads rugs for him, eight layers of 美知皮 and on top of them eight more of silk, 絁疊八重, and seats him on them. The skins are michi, an old word that the original writes for its sound; Chamberlain’s sea-asses, his note says, translate literally the Chinese characters by which the word is represented elsewhere, and he suggests that the sea-lion or a species of seal may be meant. Then come the tables of a hundred, 百取机代物, the banquet, 御饗, and at once the marriage, 即令婚其女: he gives the guest his daughter. Nobody has yet asked Hoori why he came.
The question waits three years. 故至三年住其國: he dwelt in that land for three years. Then Hoori remembers what had gone before and heaves one deep sigh, 大一歎. Chamberlain’s note explains why his English says one deep sigh and not a deep sigh: the character for one is repeated three times in the passage, and he follows Motowori in giving it its proper signification. The transcription quoted here prints it only twice. The daughter’s report to her father keeps the 一. The god repeats her words to his son-in-law, 聟夫, three years without a sigh and tonight a deep sigh, and in his mouth the sigh is 大歎, without it. Then he adds the question he had not asked at the gate, 亦到此間之由奈何, what was the cause of thy coming here? The answer is Hoori’s story of his elder brother Hoderi and the hook that was lost and demanded back, and the god’s part in the rest of the story begins from there.
The fishes, the hook and the two jewels
The god’s reply is an order. 是以, therefore: he summons all the fishes of the sea, great and small, 海之大小魚, and asks whether any of them has taken the hook.
是以海神悉召集海之大小魚，問曰：「若有取此鉤魚乎？」故諸魚白之：「頃者，赤海鯽魚於喉鯁，物不得食愁言，故必是取。」於是探一作「採」赤海鯽魚之喉者，有鉤。即取出而清洗，奉火遠理命之時，其綿津見大神誨曰之：「以此鉤給其兄時，言状者：『此鉤者，淤煩鉤、須須鉤、貧鉤、宇流鉤。』云而於後手賜〈淤煩及須須，亦宇流（六）字以音〉。然而，其兄作高田者，汝命營下田；其兄作下田者，汝命營高田。為然者，吾掌水故，三年之間，必其兄貧窮。若恨一作「悵」怨其為然之事而攻戰者，出塩盈珠而溺；若其一作「甚」愁一作「然」請者，出塩乾珠而活。如此令惣一作「惚」苦。」云，授塩盈珠、塩乾珠并兩箇。
“Thereupon the Sea-Deity summoned together all the fishes of the sea, great and small, and asked them, saying: “Is there perchance any fish that has taken this fish-hook?” So all the fishes replied: “Lately the tahi has complained of something sticking in its throat preventing it from eating; so it doubtless has taken [the hook].” On the throat of the tahi being thereupon examined, there was the fish-hook [in it]. Being forthwith taken, it was washed and respectfully presented to His Augustness Fire-Subside, whom the Deity Great-Ocean-Possessor then instructed, saying: “What thou shalt say when thou grantest this fish-hook to thine elder brother [is as follows]: ‘This fish-hook is a big hook, an eager hook, a poor hook, a silly hook.’ Having [thus] spoken, bestow it with thy back hand. Having done thus,—if thine elder brother make high fields, do Thine Augustness make low fields; and if thine elder brother make low fields, do Thine Augustness make high fields. If thou do thus, thine elder brother will certainly be impoverished in the space of three years, owing to my ruling the water. If thine elder brother, incensed at thy doing thus, should attack thee, put forth the tide-flowing jewel to drown him. If he express grief, put forth the tide-ebbing jewel to let him live. Thus shalt thou harrass him.” With these words, [the Sea-Deity] gave [to His Augustness Fire-Subside] the tide-flowing jewel and the tide-ebbing jewel,—two in all” — Kojiki, Sect. XL, tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882)
The fishes do not name the thief; they report a symptom. The 赤海鯽魚 has been complaining of something stuck in its throat that keeps it from eating, so it must be the one. Chamberlain writes the fish’s name tahi and notes that it is pronounced tai in modern parlance. He suggests that the name should perhaps be read aha-dahi, red tahi, as in the parallel passage of the Chronicles, his name for the Nihon Shoki, and he places both fishes in the family Sparoidei, the sea-breams. The throat is searched, the hook is in it, and it is washed before it is handed back. The text does not say who searches the throat or who washes the hook. The god’s next act is to speak.
The instruction is the longest speech he makes, and it is a plan in three parts. The first is a curse, to be spoken over the hook as it goes back to its owner: 淤煩鉤、須須鉤、貧鉤、宇流鉤, in Chamberlain’s English a big hook, an eager hook, a poor hook, a silly hook. The chronicle’s own small-print note says that the six characters of 淤煩, 須須 and 宇流 are written for their sound, and 貧, poor, is the one word of the four that the note leaves out. Chamberlain records that Motowori took the obscure word obo in the sense of gloomy and Moribe in the sense of drowning. The hook is to be handed over 後手, with the back hand.
The second part is the fields. If the elder brother makes high fields, Hoori is to make low ones, and if low, high; Chamberlain’s note explains high fields as upland rice-fields planted in the dry and low fields as paddies where the rice stands in water. The reason the god gives is his own office, 吾掌水, owing to my ruling the water, and the result he promises is that within three years the elder brother will certainly be poor. In the passages that name him, this clause is the one statement of what the god governs. He makes it himself, and he makes it as a threat against a brother’s harvest.
The third part is the jewels. If the elder brother attacks, Hoori is to put forth the tide-flowing jewel, 塩盈珠, and drown him; if he expresses grief, the tide-ebbing jewel, 塩乾珠, and let him live. The god then hands over both, 并兩箇, two in all. The passage does not describe them. It gives them no colour and no size and does not say where the god kept them; it names them by what they do to the tide.
He sends the guest home by the same means that found the hook, a summons to the creatures of the sea. He calls together the crocodiles, Chamberlain’s word for the 和迩, and asks which of them will escort the Sky’s-Sun-Height to the Upper-Land and in how many days. Each answers by the length of its body, and the one a fathom long, 一尋和迩, promises to escort him and come back in one day. The god tells it not to alarm him while crossing the middle of the sea, seats Hoori on its head and sees him off. When it turns back, Hoori sets his stiletto on its neck, and the text adds that the crocodile is now called the Deity Blade-Possessor, 佐比持神.
The next section of the Kojiki runs the plan exactly as it was given. Hoori hands over the hook according to the Sea-Deity’s words of instruction, 海神之教言; the elder brother grows poorer and poorer and comes to attack; the tide-flowing jewel drowns him and the tide-ebbing jewel saves him, until he bows his head. Hoderi’s entry follows the submission. After the escort the Kojiki gives the god no further scene in its first book. When Toyotama-hime comes up to bear her child on the shore, Section XLII mentions him only in calling her the Sea-Deity’s daughter, and Chamberlain’s notes explain the sea-boundary that she closes behind her as the boundary dividing the dominions of the Sea-God from the world of men.
His line goes on through his two daughters. Toyotama-hime’s son, Ugayafukiaezu, is nursed by her younger sister Tamayori-bime and later marries her, and their youngest son is Jimmu. The Kojiki never names Tamayori-bime’s father; it calls her Toyotama-hime’s younger sister, 弟, so that she is the sea-god’s daughter by way of her sister. The Nihon Shoki says it outright when it opens her son’s reign: his mother’s name, in Aston’s English, was Tama-yori-hime, daughter of the Sea-God. Through the two sisters Jimmu descends from the sea-god twice, through his father’s mother and through his own.
Three gods of the washing
The Kojiki has more than one god of the name. In Section X, Izanagi comes back from what he calls a hideous and polluted land and purifies himself at a small river-mouth near Tachibana in Himuka, in Tsukushi, and deity after deity is born from the washing. Three of them carry the name 綿津見神, and the chronicle counts them as a set of their own.
次，於水底滌時，所成神名，底津綿〈上〉津見神； 次，底筒之男命。於中滌時，所成神名，中津綿〈上〉津見神； 次，中箇之男命。於水上滌時，所成神名，上津綿〈上〉津見神〈訓上云宇閇〉 ； 次，上箇之男命。此三柱綿津見神者，阿曇連等之祖神以伊都久神也〈伊以下三字以音。下效此〉。故阿曇連等者，其綿津見神之子，宇都志日金拆一作「析」命之子孫也
“The names of the Deities that were next born, as he bathed at the bottom of the water, were: the Deity Possessor-of-the-Ocean-Bottom, and next His Augustness Elder-Male-of-the-Bottom. The names of the Deities that were born as he bathed in the middle [of the water] were: the Deity Possessor-of-the-Ocean-Middle, and next His Augustness Elder-Male-of-the-Middle. The names of the Deities that were born as he bathed at the top of the water were the Deity Possessor-of-the-Ocean-Surface, and next His Augustness Elder-Male-of-the-Surface. These three Ocean-Possessing Deities are the Deities hold in reverence as their ancestral Deities by the Chiefs of Adzumi. So the Chiefs of Adzumi are the descendants of His Augustness Utsushi-hi-gana-saku, a child of these Ocean-Possessing Deities.” — Kojiki, Sect. X, tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882)
The original keeps the set apart in its own spelling. Each of the three names is broken by a small gloss, 〈上〉, so that none of them prints 綿津見神 unbroken; the sentence that counts them, 此三柱綿津見神, joins the characters again and gives the name to all three at once. Chamberlain renders them differently from the god of the birth list, as the Possessors of the Ocean-Bottom, -Middle and -Surface, and calls them together the Ocean-Possessing Deities. Their people are the chiefs of Azumi, 阿曇連, whom Chamberlain spells Adzumi, and their line runs through a child of their own, not through daughters married into Hoori’s line.
This atlas keeps them out of the god’s relations. His parents here are Izanagi and Izanami, from the birth list alone. The gods of the washing are born of Izanagi alone, they number three, and the Kojiki never says that any of them is the god who met Hoori at his gate, called up the fishes and gave away the tide jewels.