A Story of Oki Islands is a supposed Japanese folk story found in Richard Gordon Smith's 1918 book ''Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan''. Set in the

Oki Islands The is an archipelago in the Sea of Japan, the islands of which are administratively part of Oki District, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The islands have a total area of . Only four of the around 180 islands are permanently inhabited. Much of the ...

located in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

, the story portrays Tokoyo as the daughter of an exiled samurai who slew a malevolent sea monster that demanded the sacrifice of virgin maidens. The story of the Yofune-nushi and O-tokoyo was recorded by Richard Gordon Smith in the book ''Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan'', published in 1918. In the story, Yofune-nushi is a

monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

, living in the sea near the coast of one of the

. It demanded a tribute of a virgin once a year. A brave girl, called Tokoyo, dives into the sea instead of the girl intended as an offering and defeats the unsuspecting monster. She also finds a

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

d wooden

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...

that was causing a nobleman grief, thereby lifting the curse.A Story of Oki Islands
– the full text of the story

Tokoyo and Yofune-nushi

Smith's story begins by identifying Tokoyo as the eighteen-year-old daughter of a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

from Shima Peninsula (part of

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

) named Oribe Shima, who was exiled to the

Hōjō Takatoki was the last '' Tokusō'' and ruling Shikken (regent) of Japan's Kamakura shogunate; the rulers that followed were his puppets. A member of the Hōjō clan, he was the son of Hōjō Sadatoki, and was preceded as ''shikken'' by Hōjō Mototo ...

, the ruling regent or ''

shikken The was a senior government post held by members of the Hōjō clan, officially a regent of the shogunate. From 1199 to 1333, during the Kamakura period, the ''shikken'' served as the head of the ''bakufu'' (shogun's government). This era was ref ...

'' of Japan's

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...

in the early 14th century. Determined to find her father, Tokoyo set out for a place called Akasaki, which was just off the coast from the Oki Islands. Although she asked the

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

to ferry her there, they all refused, since it was forbidden to visit anyone banished there. Undaunted, Tokoyo took a boat and sailed to the islands herself, spending the night on the beach. The next morning, she encountered a fisherman, whom she asked about her father. The fisherman replied he knew nothing, and warned her not to ask anyone else about his whereabouts. Coming upon a small

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

, Tokoyo implored the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

for his aid to find her father and then laid down to rest. She was awoken by the sound of a girl crying, and looked up to see a fifteen-year-old girl and a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, who was leading the girl to the edge of a cliff. Tokoyo quickly came to the girl's rescue. The priest then explained he was going to sacrifice the girl in order to appease an evil ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'' living under the sea named Yofuné-Nushi, who demanded the annual sacrifice of a young girl. Tokoyo offered to take the girl's place and handed the priest a letter addressed to her father. She then drew an ancestral

dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually one or two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a cutting or stabbing, thrusting weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or ...

, clenched it between her teeth, and dived down into the sea. At the bottom of the sea, Tokoyo found a mighty cave, in which was housed a wooden statue of Hōjō Takatoki, the man who exiled her father. Thinking of bringing it back with her to the surface, she tied it to herself and began to swim back. Before she could leave the cave, a large, luminous serpentine monster (Yofuné-Nushi) confronted her. Devoid of fear, Tokoyo first stabbed it in the eye, blinding it, then relentlessly attacked until she succeeded in killing it. She then went back to the surface, Takatoki's statue and Yofuné-Nushi's carcass in tow. Word of Tokoyo's heroic deed spread, eventually reaching the ears of Takatoki, who had then been suffering from an unknown

ailment A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

– apparently caused by the maker of the statue's curse, which also brought into existence the monstrous Yofuné-Nushi. With the curse lifted, Takatoki ordered the release of Oribe Shima. The father and daughter happily returned to their home town. The story concludes by noting that Yofuné-Nushi's remains were buried in the shrine Tokoyo spent the night (with another shrine being built to commemorate Tokoyo's defeat of the monster, named the "Tomb of the Sea Serpent"), while Takatoki's statue was transferred to a temple in

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

Authenticity of the story

The Yofune-nushi and his requests for virgins, the slaying of the monster in its lair, and the recovery of a treasure are reminiscent of

European dragon The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping culture of Europe, cultures of Europe. The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Appendix Vergiliana#Culex ("The Gnat"), ''Culex'' lines 163–201, describing a ...

s or ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'' more than any Japanese counterpart. There seem to be no Japanese sources confirming the story, and Richard Gordon Smith himself points out in the preface of the story that he did not verify it and does not vouch for its authenticity.

References

{{Reflist

Tokoyo and Yofune-nushi

Authenticity of the story

See also

References

Further reading