JAPANESE MYTH

THE PALACE UNDER THE SEA

Hoderi was a god fishing along the sea, and his brother Ho-ori was a god hunting in the mountains.
One day they exchanged their tools and Ho-ori went to the sea to fish, but he could not catch anything and lost his brother's hook. Hoderi never forgave Ho-ori.
Then an old man helped Ho-ori and he went to the palace under the sea to find the hook.
There he met the sea god's beautiful daughter and completely forgot about his brother. Instead, he lived in the palace peacefully for three years.
Finally, he remembered the hook and found it with a help of the sea god. When Ho-ori left, the sea god told him how to beat his brother and Ho-ori succeeded in making his brother obey him. It's said that Ho-ori is the ancestor of Japanese emperors, and Hoderi is the ancestor of immigrants coming from the south over the sea.



The sea god's daughter
This story later changed into other well-known Japanese fairy tales like, "Urashima Taro." For example, in "The Palace Under the Sea," when the sea god's daughter delivered her baby, she went into a hut alone and told Ho-ori not to look at her. When Ho-ori peeped, he saw she was a giant alligator. The famous fairy tale, "Tsuru-no-Ongaeshi," has a similar plot to this section of "The Palace Under the Sea." BACK

Immigrants from the south
It's said they came from Indonesia where there is a myth that is similar to the Hoderi and Ho-ori story. BACK


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JAPANESE MYTH HOMEPAGE