Hoori’s Lost Hook: Returning Changed from the Sea Palace

A thousand replacement hooks may not settle the loss of one particular hook. In the Kojiki, the dispute between two brothers concerns the return of the original object, not the quantity of substitutes. Hoori wants to make compensation, but his elder brother Hoderi refuses every replacement. The impasse leads the younger brother away from the shore and into another world. When he comes back, he carries more than the recovered hook: a new alliance and two jewels for controlling the waters will change the brothers’ relationship.

This account follows sections thirty-eight through forty-one of Basil Hall Chamberlain’s 1882 translation of the Kojiki. Chamberlain translates the brothers’ names by their meanings and supplies older Japanese spellings in his notes. Short forms are used here for readability. The focus is on the exchange of implements, the encounter at the sea palace and the consequences of returning, while keeping the translator’s explanations distinguishable from events in the narrative. [1][2][3][4]

What was being exchanged?

Hoderi succeeds at sea, catching fish; Hoori succeeds in the mountains, hunting animals. The younger brother asks to exchange their pursuits. His elder brother does not agree immediately, despite three requests, but an exchange eventually takes place. Hoori catches no fish and loses the borrowed hook. Skill in his own domain has not automatically followed him into his brother’s activity simply because he has acquired its implement.

Chamberlain’s note on sachi, the word he renders as luck, gives this opening additional texture. He discusses a range extending from good fortune to what a person is skilled at, the things obtained through that skill and the implements used to obtain them. The scene may therefore lose something if treated merely as the swapping of modern recreational equipment. Tool, occupation and successful outcome are connected. That is a linguistic explanation offered by the translator, however, not a separate narrative event in which the brothers transfer an invisible physical substance called luck. [2]

Hoderi demands his own hook back. Hoori explains what happened, breaks up his sword and makes five hundred hooks as compensation. When these are refused, he offers a thousand more, also unsuccessfully. The available replacements multiply, but the demand remains unchanged. The first hook must be recovered. This is the obligation that moves the story forward: Hoori is not setting out to prove himself a better fisherman, but to discharge a debt that no substitute object has managed to close.

Instructions at the shore, recognition at the gate

As Hoori weeps beside the sea, the salt-related deity Shiho-tsuchi arrives, hears the problem and offers a route forward. He prepares a tightly made small boat and directs Hoori towards the sea deity’s palace. Beside its gate is a well, with a branching tree above it. Hoori is told to climb the tree, where the deity’s daughter will see him. At this stage, progress depends not on overpowering the sea but on following a specified route and occupying the place where a meeting can occur. [3]

The attendants of Princess Toyotama find Hoori when they come to draw water. He asks for a drink, but does not drink the water they bring. Instead, he takes the jewel from his neck, puts it in his mouth and deposits it in their vessel. The jewel adheres to the vessel and cannot be removed. The attendants carry it to their mistress. An object thus brings news of the stranger outside into the palace. The missing object in the earlier scene separated the brothers; an object that will not separate from a vessel now enables a new encounter.

Toyotama comes out and is delighted by Hoori. Her father also sees him, recognizes his heavenly lineage and invites him inside. A layered seat is prepared, a feast is arranged and Toyotama is given to him in marriage. The guest is no longer the helpless figure waiting on the shore. He becomes a relative of the sea palace’s ruler. That altered status supplies the narrative foundation for the assistance he will eventually receive. A journey begun to locate an object has established a new family connection.

The old obligation returns after three years

Hoori lives in the sea country for three years. Then he thinks back to earlier events and gives a deep sigh. Toyotama notices and tells her father. Asked about its cause, Hoori explains his brother’s demand for the lost hook. His new life has not erased the old obligation. Hospitality is not presented as an ending that permanently dismisses the original problem, but as an interval from which the narrative can return to it.

The sea deity summons the fish and asks whether any of them has swallowed the hook. They point to the tai, which has complained of something lodged in its throat and preventing it from eating. An examination reveals the hook. It is removed, washed and presented to Hoori. The original object has genuinely been recovered. Yet the deity does not stop there. He gives instructions for returning it, for choosing fields in opposition to Hoderi’s choices and for using particular jewels should the elder brother attack. [3]

Control of water becomes decisive. The deity tells Hoori to choose the opposite kind of field from his brother and says that Hoderi will become poor within three years. A tide-flowing jewel will put the attacking brother in danger of drowning; a tide-ebbing jewel will save him when he expresses distress. These are not instructions for a modern irrigation technology. Within the narrative they are instruments of the sea deity’s command over water. Assistance has now expanded from settling a debt to establishing an advantage over another person.

Returning with control over rescue

The sea deity calls the marine creatures to find one that can carry Hoori home. A creature promising to escort him and return within a day is selected. Hoori reaches home seated on its head and gives it a blade in return. Chamberlain calls these creatures crocodiles. Rather than treating the translator’s English animal name as a conclusive identification of a modern zoological species, this account keeps the creature’s role as an escort in view.

Hoori returns the hook according to the instructions. His brother grows poorer and attacks again. Hoori uses the jewel that brings the waters up, then withdraws them when Hoderi asks to be saved. Finally the elder brother accepts a position of service by day and night. Returning the borrowed object has not restored the brothers to their initial relationship. A new arrangement has emerged in which both danger and deliverance are under the younger brother’s control. [4]

Section forty-one connects the event to the continued performance of postures associated with drowning. The translator’s note relates these movements to the Hayabito performing before the court. This connection suggests that the narrative addresses an arrangement of service and status as well as a personal dispute. It does not independently prove that the historical arrangement began with the episode described by the myth. The conclusion supported by the text is more specific: an obligation attached to an irreplaceable object is transformed through marriage in the sea country and command over water. Hoori brings back the hook, but also changes the relationship that made him its debtor.

Sources

[1] Kojiki, translated by B. H. Chamberlain (1882), section XXXVIII; older spellings behind the short names and the brothers’ lineage context. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kojiki_(Chamberlain,_1882)/Section_38

[2] The same work, section XXXIX; exchange, loss, compensation and the note on sachi. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kojiki_(Chamberlain,_1882)/Section_39

[3] The same work, section XL; sea palace, Toyotama, three-year stay, recovery of the hook and instructions for the return. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kojiki_(Chamberlain,_1882)/Section_40

[4] The same work, section XLI; submission of the brother, the concluding performance reference and translator’s note. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kojiki_(Chamberlain,_1882)/Section_41

The 1882 translation is in the public domain. Independently written narrative and interpretation; no direct quotations. Source access and factual review: October 14, 2026.