Religion:Ame-no-wakahiko

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Amewakahiko
god of grains[1]
Personal information
ParentsAmatsukunitama (father)
SpouseShitateruhime (wife)

Amewakahiko (天若日子, 天稚彦 Heavenly Young Boy) in some versions of Japanese mythology is a god of grains,[2][3] and the son of Amatsukunitama.[4]

Mythology

Sent to earth

In many versions, when Ame-no-hohi did not send word for three years, all the gods gathered up, and Ame-no-wakahiko was one who was chosen to rule the earth. In many versions Amenowakahiko was given a bow.[4][5]

In some versions, however, Amewakahiko is the son of Ame-no-hohi and Amewakahiko was sent to earth to look for him.[6]

Death

In some versions, Amewakahiko fell in love with Shitateruhime. Eight years later, after not receiving no report back, the gods sent a bird named Nakime down to earth to check in on him. Amewakahiko, with his bow, shot the bird. The arrow pierced through the bird, but the arrow flew all the way to heaven.

Takamimusubi saw the arrow and threw it back at the earth where it hit Amewakahiko while he was laying in bed, killing him.[4][5][7] Other versions state that Amaterasu was the one who shot the arrow back at him.[8]

Funeral

After Amewakahiko's death, his parents built a hut (喪屋 moya) for their son. Ajisukitakahikone went down to pay his respect. However, due to Ajisukitakahikone looking similar to Amewakahiko he was mistaken to be Amewakahiko brought back to life. Ajisukitakahikone was offended by this and destroyed the hut and kicked it. The hut landed in the land of Mino and became a mountain called Moyama.[9][5]

Other tales

Another story of Amewakahiko appears in Japanese medieval literature of the Muromachi period (Otogi-zōshi), in a narrative very similar to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband",[10] or to the Graeco-Roman story of Cupid and Psyche, by writer Apuleius.[11] The story is alternatively known as Amewakahiko-sōshi or Amewakahiko monogatari (The Tale of Amewakahiko), and serves as another etiological tale for the Tanabata festival.[12] According to professor Masako Sato, the calligraphy of the text indicates that its author is Emperor Gohanazono.[13]

In this tale, Prince Amewakahiko takes the form of a serpent. It delivers a letter to the servant of a wealthy man. The servant gives the letter to her master, who opens it: within, a command for the man to surrender his three daughters to the serpent in marriage, else it will kill his entire family. The man's two elder daughters refuse to marry the animal, but the youngest decides to be married to the snake.

The letter also instructed the man to build a palace near a pond, which is to serve as the couple's residence after their marriage. Soon, the human woman is delivered to the palace to await for her snake husband. An enormous serpent emerges from the pond and talks to its bride, assuaging her fears and asking for her to cut off his head. The human bride does as intended "with the blade of a fingernail clipper", and a handsome man comes out of the snakeskin. The man hides the snakeskin in a Chinese box and they enjoy their marital life. He later reveals he is a heavenly deity named Dragon Prince (or Dragon King - a kairyūō),[14] and that he must travel somewhere, and asks her to wait for his return. He also begs his wife not to open the chest, lest she will never see him again. His wife asks him what can she do to find his way to him, and he answers that she must seek a woman in Kyoto and buy a gourd.

After some time, the wife is visited by her sisters, who discover that their brother-in-law, the snake, is in fact a handsome man. Spurred by envy, they convince their youngest sister to open the Chinese box.[15] Only smokes comes out of the box, and later she learns he cannot return to her. She must, then, seek him out.

She goes to Kyoto, buys a gourd and uses its vines to reach the heavenly realm.[16] Her father-in-law, an oni, lives in this realm and discovers her. He sets four tasks on his son's human wife: to herd a thousand cattle, to transport one million grains of rice to one granary to another, to stay in a warehouse full of centipedes, and in a warehouse full of snakes. She accomplishes all four tasks with her husband's assistance. At the end of this tale, the oni father lets his son and the wife meet once a month, but she mistakes it for "once a year" and thus, the lovers can only reunite during the Tanabata.[17][18][19]

Shrine

Amewakahiko is believed to enshrined at Abiko Shrine.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "天若日子 京都通百科事典" (in ja). https://www.kyototuu.jp/Jinjya/MikotoAmenowakahiko.html. 
  2. ↑ "天若日子|アメノワカヒコ|日本神話の世界". https://www.shinwanosekai.info/amenowakahiko.php. 
  3. ↑ "天若日子 京都通百科事典" (in ja). https://www.kyototuu.jp/Jinjya/MikotoAmenowakahiko.html. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Encyclopedia of Shinto - Home: Kami in Classic Texts: Amewakahiko". http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=46. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Roberts, Jeremy (2009) (in en). Japanese Mythology A to Z. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-2802-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=xdfgjV2kw6oC&q=Ame-no-wakahiko&pg=PA6. 
  6. ↑ Japanese Mythology a to Z. Infobase. 2009. ISBN 9781438128023. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Japanese_Mythology_A_to_Z/xdfgjV2kw6oC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Ame-no-wakahiko&pg=PA6&printsec=frontcover. 
  7. ↑ (in en) The East. East Publications, Incorporated. 1992. https://books.google.com/books?id=uAj_PQ8o40sC&q=Takamimusubi. 
  8. ↑ Abe, C. (2003). Impurity and Death: A Japanese Perspective. Universal Publishers. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-58112-195-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=FlZxh5OaZxoC&pg=PA38. Retrieved 2020-09-29. 
  9. ↑ "Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 1". https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nihongi:_Chronicles_of_Japan_from_the_Earliest_Times_to_A.D._697/Book_II. 
  10. ↑ 김환희 [Hwan Hee Kim]. "<구렁덩덩신선비>와 「아메와카히코조시」의 친연성에 관한 비교문학적인 고찰" [A Comparative Study of the Affinities between the Korean Folktale of “the Serpent Husband” and the Japanese Story of “Amewakahiko-zōshi”: a Study of <ATU 425 The Search for the Lost Husband> tales in Korea and Japan]. In: 민족문화연구 no. 63 (2014): 123. doi: 10.17948/kcs.2014..63.123
  11. ↑ Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: Marvels & Tales 29, no. 2 (2015): 265-266. Accessed June 28, 2021. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265.
  12. ↑ Kimbrough, R Keller; Haruo Shirane. Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales. Columbia University Press, 2018. Tale nr. 8. ISBN:9780231184472.
  13. ↑ Satō, Masako. "Transforming an Ancient Myth into a Popular Medieval Tale". In: Japan on the Silk Road. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017. p. 339. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004274310_018
  14. ↑ Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: Marvels & Tales 29, no. 2 (2015): 265. Accessed June 28, 2021. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265.
  15. ↑ Nakawaki Hatsue. "Japanese Heroine Tales and the Significance of Storytelling in Contemporary Society". In: Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Adaptations across Cultures. Edited by Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2020. p. 152. ISBN:978-0-8143-4537-5.
  16. ↑ Rumpf, Fritz. “Über Japanische Märchen Hagoromo (Das Federkleid)”. In: T’oung Pao 33, no. 3/4 (1937): 236-237, 249. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4527134.
  • ↑ Satō, Masako. "Transforming an Ancient Myth into a Popular Medieval Tale". In: Japan on the Silk Road. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017. pp. 339-345. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004274310_018
  • ↑ Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: Marvels & Tales 29, no. 2 (2015): 265-82. Accessed June 28, 2021. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265.
  • ↑ Reider, Noriko T. "Tale of Amewakahiko (Amewakahiko Sōshi): A Demon in the Sky, a Maiden in Search of Her Husband". In: Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2016. Accessed June 28, 2021. pp. 135-155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g04zg4.9.
  • ↑ "安孫子神社（滋賀県豊郷駅）のアクセス・お参りの情報 ｜ホトカミ". https://hotokami.jp/area/shiga/Hmstr/Hmstrtr/Dpzyp/80970/. 

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