Ame no Wakahiko (天稚彦 or 天若日子) is a god of grains and ''

Amatsukami is a category of kami in Japanese mythology. Generally speaking, it refers to kami born in, or residing in, Takamagahara. ''Amatsukami'' is one of the three categories of kami, along with their earthly counterpart , and . In the time of Ninig ...

'' in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...

. He is the son of Amatsukunitama. The ', one of the ''

Otogi-zōshi are a group of about 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese m ...

'', is a ''

monogatari is a Literary genre, literary form in traditional Japanese literature – an extended prose narrative tale comparable to epic (genre), epic literature. ''Monogatari'' is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates ...

'' about him.

Name

The name Ame no Wakahiko means "a young boy in

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

," and he is thought to be an exceptionally handsome youth.

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 the one who was chosen to rule the earth. In many versions Ame no Wakahiko was given a bow. In some versions, however, Ame no Wakahiko is the son of Ame no Hohi and Ame no Wakahiko was sent to earth to look for him.

Death

In some versions, Ame no Wakahiko fell in love with . Eight years later, after receiving no report back, the gods sent a bird named Nakime down to earth to check in on him. Following the advice of a wise woman, Ame no Wakahiko used his bow to shoot the bird. The bird was killed but the arrow flew all the way to heaven.

Takamimusubi Takamimusubi (高御産巣日, lit. "High Generative Force") is a Creator deity, creation deity in Japanese mythology, who was the second of the Kotoamatsukami, first beings to come into existence. It is speculated that Takamimusubi was origin ...

saw the arrow and threw it back at the earth where it hit Ame no Wakahiko while he was lying in bed, killing him. Other versions state that

Amaterasu , often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (''kami'') of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () ...

was the one who shot the arrow back at him. This myth is the origin of a Japanese saying about the returning arrow. It is likely also a mythicisation of attempts made by the

Yamato state The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipelago. The age is from th ...

to impose its authority over neighbouring states.

Funeral

After Ame no Wakahiko's death, his parents built a hut (喪屋 moya) for their son.

Ajisukitakahikone Ajisukitakahikone (also Ajishikitakahikone or Ajisukitakahiko) is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology. He is one of the sons of Ōkuninushi and the tutelary deity of Kamo. Name The god is referred to both as 'Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami' (阿遅鉏 ...

went down to pay his respect. However, due to Ajisukitakahikone looking similar to Ame no Wakahiko he was mistaken to be Ame no Wakahiko 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.

Other tales

Another story of Ame no Wakahiko appears in Japanese medieval literature of the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

(

), in a narrative very similar to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 425, " The Search for the Lost Husband", or to the Graeco-Roman story of ''

Cupid and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psy ...

'', by writer

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

. The story is alternatively known as ''Ame no Wakahiko sōshi'' or ''Ame no Wakahiko monogatari'' (''The Tale of Ame no Wakahiko''), and serves as another etiological tale for the ''

Tanabata , also known as the , is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milk ...

'' festival. According to professor Masako Sato, the calligraphy of the text indicates that its author is Emperor Gohanazono, while French curator Jeannine Auboyer dated the manuscript to ca. 1450. In this tale, Prince Ame no Wakahiko takes the form of a serpent. One day, he delivers a letter to the maidservant of a wealthy man. The maidservant 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''), 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. Only smoke 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. Now on Heaven, the girl asks directions from a man in hunting robes (the Evening Star), then from a man with a broom (the

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

), and finally from a cluster of people (the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...

), who cannot seem to know him. The girl then finds a person on a palanquin, who directs her to a jeweled mansion built on azure stone. At last, the girl enters the mansion and finds her heavenly husband, but he changes her into objects (an armrest, then a fan or a pillow) to hide her from his father, an ''

oni An ( ) is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like th ...

''. Eventually, the oni father-in-law discovers her and sets four tasks on his son's human wife: to herd a thousand cattle in one day and one night, to transport one million grains of rice from 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, since he gave her a magical sleeve. 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 ''

''.

Shrines of worship

Ame no Wakahiko is enshrined at Abiko Shrine in

Aishō, Shiga 280px, Kongōrin-ji Hondō, a National Treasure is a town located in Echi District in eastern Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 21,411 in 8310 households and a population density of 940 persons per km2. The total ...

and Iwakura Shrine in

Shinshiro, Aichi is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 44,581 in 17,691 households, and a population density of 89.3 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Shinshiro is located in east-centr ...