A short distance outside the little fishing village of Ine is Urashima Shrine, which is associated with the tale of Urashimako. This is one of Japan’s most famous folktales, and is a popular children’s story. Minor details vary in the telling—for instance, most versions refer to him as Urashima Tarō—but the general story goes something like this:
There was once a young fisherman by the name of Urashimako, who unexpectedly caught a turtle while out fishing at sea. He fell asleep, and when he came to, discovered that the turtle had transformed into Otohime, daughter of Ryūjin (‘Dragon God’), the Emperor of the Sea. Urashimako wound up spending three years with the beautiful princess.
However, three years was a long time. Urashimako wanted to see his ailing mother after such a long while, and asked if he could leave the ocean. The princess gave him a parting gift: a tamatebako, a mysterious Pandora’s box which would protect him from harm, but which he could never open.
On returning to dry land, he discovered that his home had vanished, and that the world had changed. Passing locals told him that several generations ago––300 years, in many versions of the tale––a man by the name of Urashimako had disappeared at sea, never to be seen again. Struck by grief and forgetting the princess’s warning, he opened the box. Some versions of the tale say he found himself transformed into an old man; others say he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Today, people still visit Urashima Shrine to pray for health, longevity, and good fishing at sea.
The Oni Legends of Mt. Oe, Fukuchiyama
At the foot of Mt. Oe in Fukuchiyama City is the Japan Oni Cultural Museum, which is dedicated to oni –– most easily understood as the ‘demons’ or ‘ogres’ of Japanese folklore. Mt. Oe was believed to be the home of many oni, and as such it’s only fitting that there’s an entire museum about them right there. A dead giveaway to the museum’s contents is the striking Heisei no Oni, a giant 5-metre onigawara (demon-shaped roof tile) weighing a whopping 10 tonnes, standing in front of the building.
The museum exhibits include many oni-related local legends and folktales, as well as fantastic displays of oni masks and onigawara.
Japan Oni Cultural Museum
The Japan Oni Cultural Museum is appropriately located at the foot of the Oeyama mountain range, home to the most notorious “oni” (demon or ogre) in Japan, Shuten Doji. The museum explains local folkl …
This legend dates back to the reign of Emperor Ichijo during the mid-Heian period (794–1185). It was a time of social unrest, and on top of this, many young women in Kyoto began vanishing under mysterious circumstances. Using the services of a famous diviner, the imperial court discovered that Shuten-dōji, the oni king of Mt. Oe, was responsible for the kidnappings.
In response, the Emperor dispatched the military commander Minamoto no Raikō (also known as Minamoto no Yorimitsu) and Fujiwara no Hōshō (Fuyjiwara no Yasumasa), along with Raikō’s four legendary lieutenants, to exterminate Shuten-dōji. En route to Mt. Oe, the party encountered four deities, from whom they received some special sake, and on whose recommendation they disguised themselves as yamabushi (mountain priests). They also met an old woman, who told them of the grisly fate befalling these young women––the oni slaughtered them, eating their flesh and drinking their blood.
In their priestly disguises, the warriors persuaded the oni to offer them lodging for the night. The demon king Shuten-dōji drank sake with them, and told them of his fondness for sake. Raikō then poured Shuten-dōji the sake gifted to them by the deities, incapacitating him. The warriors slew the demon king, slicing off his head, and brought it back to Kyoto as a trophy along with the rescued women.
Local Fukuchiyama sources note that the Shuten-dōji myth bears a few similarities to an earlier tale describing the demon conquests of Prince Maroko; he was the half-brother of Prince Shotoku, a politician who lived between 574 and 622 AD. It is possible that these tales had some influence in shaping the myth of Shuten-dōji.
・The Legend of Prince Hikoimasu
According to the Tango Fudoki Zanke (‘The Incomplete Tales of the Tango Region’), there once lived a certain Prince Hikoimasu, who was the younger stepbrother of Emperor Sujin, the 10th ruler of Japan. Dispatched to the Tamba region as one of four commanders sent to conquer more regions in Japan, Prince Hikoimasu is enshrined in legend for his defeat of the Tsuchigumo (‘earth spiders’) on Mt. Aoba.
While there are many different accounts of this feat in various towns and villages, the version told in Kawamori-go (located in Oe, Fukuchiyama) is the most detailed. Following orders from the emperor, Prince Hikoimasu led a force to drive out and vanquish the spiders Kugamimi-no-mikasa and Hikime, who had been terrorizing the villagers in the area.
The prince gave chase, pursuing the two all the way to Arimichi-go, and the bloody battle resulted in the area being named ‘Field of Blood’ (present-day Sembara). He slew Hikime, but Kugamimi-no-mikasa managed to escape by fleeing across the river. The prince’s army lined up their shields in order to defend the river; this is how Kawamori-go, whose characters mean ‘protecting the river,’ gained its name.
The spider fled downstream along the Yura River. Prince Hikoimasu spied a boat on the river, and jumped on to pursue the spider, but lost track of it at Yura Port. When he used a stone to divine the spider’s location, the prince found that it had fled to Mt. Oe in Yosa. The place where he picked up the stone was named Ishiura (‘Stone Inlet’) and the boat he used was enshrined at the district of Tatehara, which is now said to be the origins of the local Funado-no-kami, a deity offering protection against disasters and malicious spirits.
What did you think of these folktales? These stories only begin to scratch the surface of northern Kyoto’s rich culture and history. We hope they inspire a trip or two to this part of Kyoto, and help you discover more of what it has to offer!
