Story: Yamato and the Mermaid

Yamato and the Mermaid

There once was a man named Yamato. In all of the land, nobody was his equal as a warrior. Since he was so brave and noble, Yamato could have had any woman in the land as his wife. One day, after saving the king's daughter, Princess Tachibana, from an evil band of thieves, he was rewarded with her hand in marriage. He gladly accepted, proud of his achievements and ability to serve the kingdom.

Yamato and Tachibana lived for many years happily. Yamato slayed villains left and right with Tachibana at his side. Every time he was praised in the city for his bravery, he felt renewed and re-energized by the cheers of his people. However, the criminals soon left the city to get away from Yamato. As crime left, the praise became sparing. Though his beloved wife supported him and admired him all the time, Yamato began to feel unsatisfied. He began to pull away from his wife, little by little, until one day he could not rest any longer.

Yamato left to go on an adventure. To start, he packed up his hunting supplies and took to the forest.

For several days Yamato chased the wooden creatures. At first, he hunted a squirrel. Then, he took down a white-tailed deer. The following day, he even trapped a bear as big as a mountain. Running out of challenges, Yamato pushed further into the darkness of the woods.

As he was bending down to place another trap, he started to hear something. At first, it was just a faint, almost dream-like melody that was barely louder than a whisper. But as the song grew louder, Yamato could not prevent himself from listening to it. As he listened, he didn't even notice that his feet were beginning to move out of the forest and onto a white, rocky beach. He reached the shore and kept going, diving into the ocean, swimming until he found himself in a dark, damp cave.

"Hello Yamato. Welcome to my home.", welcomed a warm, pointed voice.

Yamato snapped out of his daze for a moment. Staring across the cave from him was a mermaid more beautiful than any human woman he had ever laid eyes on.

"How did I end up here? And who are you exactly, fair maiden?", he answered.

"I am Benten, queen of the seas. And you, my dear Yamato, are going to be my newest servant."

Before he could protest, Yamato began to melt at the sound of the mermaid's melodious voice singing. He walked over to her and fell into her arms.

"Shh shhh... that's it. Soon you will be fighting all of my battles and we'll have the greatest kingdom this world has ever seen, land or sea."

Yamato, fading in and out of consciousness, felt his eyes grow heavier by the second. Just before his mind gave into the darkness completely, he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"YAMATOOOO!" screamed the woman who had just entered the cave, panting.

Rubbing his eyes, Yamato recognized his beloved wife, Princess Tachibana.

Flushed with anger, Benten rose up and lashed out, "HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY CAVE! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

Benten began channeling some sort of ominous, green orb of light between her long, slender fingers. Before she could finish, however, Yamato realized that that magic was awfully similar to a curse that he had heard about in the Book of Ancient Wickedness. Shaking off the last feint haziness from his previous enchanted state, he rose up and knocked Benten over, causing her to launch her cursed orb at the ceiling, which ricocheted and forced a blood-curdling scream from the siren before she blacked out cold.

Benten, from the UnTextbook

From that day forward, Yamato never ventured off alone in search of adventure. Whenever he was feeling a little unsure of his place in the world, his beloved wife, the great Princess Tachibana, accompanied him in every one of his outings, hunting creatures or bringing evildoers to justice for their city.

Author's Note: This story is based off of Yamato - The Grotto of Love from the Japanese Mythology unit. I decided I like the main premise of the brave, adventuring getting bored of life at home after things settle down a bit because I think it's relateable. The events are kind of similar, as in Yamato getting lured into Benten's home, but the details are mostly of my creation. In this story, Princess Tachibana becomes the hero by following Yamato into the cave before it's too late.

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

The Labors of Yamato - The Grotto of Love

Something about the poem at the beginning of this story is really creepy to me. 

Wow, Yamato is a hard guy to please. Apparently, a princess is only worth it if she's in need of saving. I understand the need to chase some sort of passion, but I don't think it's healthy for danger to be your passion! (Story idea: Yamato tries a bunch of ridiculously dangerous things for no reason, getting increasingly injured while doing them)

"Deathless love" sounds a lot better than "loveless death."

Welp, now Yamato has found a woman who challenges him. I wonder if he's bitten off more than he can chew with this "Golden Apple" business.

The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple

I actually really, really enjoyed the verses in this poem-story. The rhymes were very fluid and the story they told was also enjoyable. 

The Labors of Yamato - The Demon Boar

I didn't actually think about it before now, but Yamato is pretty comparable to Heracles. Was there influence between these two stories? 

Ah, well that was kind of anti-climactic, albeit realistic.

The boar story made up for it though. I really liked the random, gory details which contrasted well against Yamato's non-adventure.

The Labors of Yamato - The Grass-Cleaving Sword

All I can think about when I hear the title of the story is The Legend of Zelda, because in the video games Link would constantly cut grass to try and find rupees.

"ghostly sounds"

Good attribution at the end there to Tacibana. She was truly the hero that day!

The Labors of Yamato - The Sacred Sword

Wow, what a terrible guy! Yamato is so mean to Tacibana, despite the fact that she just saved his life. She should be the one running off to chase sirens.

Why would Benten leave the Sacred Sword with a mortal deer? Why wouldn't she just deliver the sword to Susanoo himself? 

The Labors of Yamato - The Dragon

Such a sad story, but mostly because Tacibana sacrificed herself for Yamato. It was a predictable outcome, but it was still sad to see that happen. She was the only character I liked.

The Quest of the Jewel

Here's another story about a quest to return a stolen object taken specifically by Benten. People will do crazy things for love. 

Image from the Golden Apple via the UnTextbook

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

Izanagi and Izanami

Like many other myths of creation, the gods represent human beings pretty well in a variety of different ways. The part that struck me this time was Izanami's death by childbirth. Who would think that gods would be capable of dying, let alone in a way that is utterly human?

The marriage scene was very silly to me. Not only was it rooted in traditional gender roles (man speaks first because he is more important yada yada), but also the fact that they redid the whole thing due to superstitions arising from those roles was pretty humorous to me. Could you imagine if that were to really happen at someone's wedding? ("Let's call this off - the groom was led in by his father instead of the bride" tsk tsk)

The Miraculous Mirror

That first paragraph was hilarious! 

It's interesting how Amaterasu and her hand maidens are involved in creating both good and bad things. 

It's interesting to see Amaterasu's reaction to the mirror. It was completely opposite to Narcissus' reaction when he saw his own reflection. Of course, Amaterasu was ignorant to what the mirror was doing, but still.

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi

Wow, Suanoo can be a real great guy when he's irately chasing his sister out of the kingdom of heaven into a terrible cave!

The Heaven-Descended

"Don't shoot the messenger" wasn't really applied here, I guess. It might not have been his fault though, because nobody told him not to shoot the messenger!

The Fortunate Fish Hook

If the fish hook is past the "bounds of the ocean", where is it? What makes it not ocean? 

Woah, a marriage that was actually based in love! I'm glad to hear that the woman was actually consenting to the marriage, not just "wed" or "taken as a bride" as many of these kinds of stories seem to describe marriage. It was cool to see.

The Labors of Yamato - The Rescue of the Princess

Where did the idea for the mermaid come from? The part about Yamato chasing after the mermaid would make for a nice side story.

Yamato must have had very interesting facial features to be able to pass as a beautiful woman by just wearing a tiara and putting on a woman's clothing!

Fortunate fish hook 

via the UnTextbook

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.