Agatamori battling mizuchi in the pool. FromZenken kojitsu (1878)
TheMizuchi (大虬, 蛟龍, 蛟, 美都知) is a type ofJapanese dragon or legendary serpent-like creature, either found in an aquatic habitat or otherwise connected to water. Some commentators perceived it to have been awater deity. It is described in theNihon Shoki and oneMan'yōshū poem.
In olden times pronouncedmi-tsu-chi, the word can be broken down tomi "water" +tsu aparticle meaning "of" +chi "spirit".[1] The-chi is glossed as a word root used only as a part of a compound word[2] (as asuffix, etc.)
F. J. Daniels[a] cautions that forokami (龗) andmizuchi, "it is unsafe to deduce their forms from the Chinese characters allotted to them".[5]Kunio Yanagita also emphasized that while the use of character like 虬 may suggest a snake-like being, it should be stressed that themizuchi signifies a "water spirit".[6]
The ancient chronicleNihongi contains references tomizuchi. Under the 67th year of the reign ofEmperor Nintoku (conventionally dated 379 AD), it is mentioned that in centralKibi Province, at a fork on Kawashima River (川嶋河, old name ofTakahashi River inOkayama Prefecture), a great water serpent or dragon (大虬) dwelt and would breathe or spew out its venom, poisoning and killing many passersby.[b][8]
Thismizuchi was exterminated by a man named Agatamori (県守), ancestor of the Kasa-no-omi (笠臣) clan. He approached the pool of the river, cast threecalabashes which floated to the surface of the water and challenged the beast to make these gourds sink, threatening to slay it should it fail. The beast transformed into a deer and tried unsuccessfully to sink them, whereby the man slew the monster. The record goes on to say: "...He further sought out the water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one and the water of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called the pool of Agatamori".[9][10]
A river-god reported seen in Nintoku 11 (putatively 323 AD) is also regarded by commentators to be a mizuchi, due to paralleling circumstances. On that year, theMamuta dikes [ja] built alongYodo River kept getting breached and the Emperor guided by an oracular dream ordered two men, Kowa-kubi fromMusashi Province and Koromo-no-ko fromKawachi Province, be sought out and sacrificed to the "River God" orKawa-no-kami (河伯).[c] One of the men, who resisted being sacrificed, employed the floating calabash and dared the River God to sink it as proof to show it was truly divine will that demanded him as sacrifice. A whirlwind came and tried, but the calabash just floated away, and thus he extricated himself from death using his wits. Although River God is not calledmizuchi in the source,Aston has regarded the River God (Kawa-no-kami) and themizuchi as equivalent.[11]
Visser [de] concludes, "From this passage, we learn that in ancient times human sacrifices were made to the dragon-shaped river-gods".[12]Michael Dylan Fostersuggests this is "perhaps the first documented appearance of the water spirit that would become known popularly in Japan as thekappa".[13][d]
A mizuchi is also mentioned in theMan'yōshū, the ancient collection of Japanese poems. Thetanka poem #3833 composed byPrince Sakaibe [ja][16] can be loosely paraphrased to mean "I could ride a tiger to leap over the Old Shack, to the green pool, to take down themizuchi dragon there, if only I had a sword capable of doing just that".[e][18][19]
PolymathMinakata Kumagusu, in his essayJūnishi kō: mi(hebi) (『十二支考』,"A Study of Twelve Animals of Chinese Zodiac") states "Even in our country (Japan), the various snakes that dwelled by water and were feared by people seemed to have been calledmizuchi, or 'master of the water'".[20][21] Here Minakata draws onEdo Period scholarMotoori Norinaga' suggestion that the-chi signified anhonorific.[22][23][f] As stated above folkloristYanagita emphasized the meaning ofchi as "spirit".[6]
Minakata also conjectured that in some parts of the country,mizuchi eventually came to be regarded as creatures of thekappa kind. This is because thekappa creatures are known locally by many names that sound much likemizuchi, such asmizushi (formerNoto Province,Ishikawa Prefecture),medochi (Nanbu region, parts ofIwate,Aomori,Akita),mintsuchi (Ezo, nowHokkaido).[25][g]
Furthermore, in the lore ofEchigo Province (Niigata Prefecture), the kappa was said to abhor the calabash gourd,[27] which is reminiscent of the episodes inNihon Shoki where the River God ormizuchi are challenged to submerge the calabashes.[28] Similar observations are made by folklorists Yanagita[29] and Jun'ichirō Ishikawa.[30]
Minakata was also encouraged by the fact that the snake and the kappa (alongside thesuppon soft-shelled turtle) were grouped as three creatures known to kill humans in water byAsakawa Zen'an [ja]'s essayZen'an zuihitsu and conjectured that there used to be lore where sacred snakes which were "masters of the body of water" would transform into human form and wreak havoc, but terms such asmizushi became reserved for the kappa-kind, whereas the terms to refer to the "masters of the body of water" asmizuchi became forgotten.[21]
"Mizuchi" (『水霊 ミズチ』), a 1998 horror novel byHirohumi Tanaka [ja] and its 2006 horror movie adaptation directed byKiyoshi Yamamoto [ja], entitled "Death Water" in English, though theme is "water spirit" and not dragon.
In Andrew Rowe'sArcane Ascension series, Mizuchi, also known as Hero's End or Guardian of Secrets, is a giant water serpent, spire guardian of the Serpent Spire, and one of the God Serpent's daughters.
(manga, anime)
Eight Clouds Rising – Mizuchi (水蛇,"Watersnake") is one of seven divine swords.
GeGeGe no Kitaro (manga, anime) – akōryū (syn.mizuchi) appears as adversary.
Omamori Himari (manga, novella, anime) – the character Shizuku is a mizuchi.
Ōkamiden (game) – a water dragon boss that used to be the guardian of a seaside village.
Nioh 2 (game) – there is a water dragon guardian spirit called Mizuchi that the player can be imbued to characters to gain protection and special effects.[31]
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (game) - The antagonist and final boss is a three headed water dragon named Omizuchi. The prefix o- is a Japanese honorific (keigo).
^InJapanese folklore thekappa is awater sprite often considered benignly mischievous,[14] (and thus may appear unlike a sacrifice-demanding serpent). But thekappa can also be seen as sinister, reaching in and extracting the liver or theshirikodama from humans.[15]
^The shark (鮫) character in the poem's original text is emended to the mizuchi (蛟) character.Kariya Ekisai [ja] in his annotation to theWamyō Ruijushō remarks: "Considering theManyōshū (quote follows).. thekōryō/jiaolong ` shark-dragon´ is actuallykōryō/jiaolong ` flood dragon´, and correctly read as `midzuchi´ 万葉集を按ずに.. 鮫龍即蛟龍也、宜しく美都知と訓ず".[17]
^Minakata misquoted Norinaga, but Norinaga saidchi was the honorific. Minakata wrote: "When Motoori Norinaga saidtsuchi was an honorific, he must have interpreted it as a master of water or somesuch 本居宣長はツチは尊称だと言ったは、水の主ぬしくらいに解いたのだろ".[22][23] What Norinaga actually stated was "there are many examples of [deities' names that are called] so-and-so-zuchi, wherezu is a word akin to "of" whilechi is an honorific 某豆知（なにづち）と云例あまたありて..豆（づ）は之（の）に通ふ辞、知（ち）は称名（たたへな）なり".[24]
^abYanagita 2004,32;573; "Since we now write the word as 虬, it would strike people with Chinese knowledge that this might be a type of snake, but the meaning of the word merely consists of the word for‘water’attached with the characterchi which means something like ‘spiritual being’, so it signifies none other than a water spirit. 今では虬と書くので、支那の知識を持っている人たちは蛇の類だろうと思っているが、字義からいっても水という言葉に、霊物とか何とかいう意味のチという字がついているだけなのだから、水の霊ということに外ならない".
^Visser, Marinus Willem de (2008) [1913]. "§4 Mizuchi, the river-gods".The Dragon in China and Japan.Amsterdam - New York City: J. Müller - Cosimo Classics (reprint).p. 139 (137–139).
^Man'yōshū #3833 by Prince Saikabe, original text:"虎尓乗 古屋乎越而 青淵尓 鮫龍取将来 劒刀毛我"
^Kariya, Ekisai 狩谷棭斎 (1883). "Dragon and fish division no. 18 竜魚部第十八".Senchū wamyō ruijushō箋注倭名類聚抄 巻第8. Government printing office., fol. 2r–2v
^Takeda (1972),3: 1: "[I would] ride a tiger and leap over Furuya (Old Shack), and I want a sword enough to destroy the dragon in the green pool. Furuya (Old Shack) may be a place name but location is unknown. 虎に乗って古屋を越えて、青渕で竜を退治してくるような刀剣がほしいなあ; .. 古屋、地名だろうが、所在不明".
^Ito (2005),8: 475: "Astride a tiger, leaping over an old shack's rooftop, then at the creepy green pool, its lord.. the mizuchi dragon to capture, if I only had such a two-handed or great-sword capable of that. 虎にまたがり、古屋の屋根を飛び越えて行って、薄気味悪い青淵で、その主..蛟龍を捕らえて来られるような、そんな剣大刀があればよいのに".
^Minakata, Kumagusu 南方熊楠 (1917). "Jūnishikō (4): hebi ni kansuru minzoku to densetsu"十二支考(4):蛇に関する民俗と伝説 [On the Zodiac (4): folklore and legends of the serpent].Taiyō.Aozora Bunko No.2536
^abMinakata, Kumagusu 南方熊楠 (1916). "Jūnishikō (3): Tawara Tōda Ryūgu iri no hanashi"十二支考(3):田原藤太竜宮入りの話 [On the Zodiac (3): Story of Tawara Tōta's entry into Ryūgū Dragon Palace].Taiyō.Aozora Bunko No.1916
^Asakawa, Zen'an 朝川善庵 (1927). "Zen'an zuihitsu 善庵随筆". In Kusunose, Jun 楠瀬恂 (ed.).Zuihitsu bungaku senshū随筆文学選集. Vol. 7. Shosaisha. pp. 339–340.; Selection in html markup atTsubota, Atsuo 坪田敦緒 (ed.)."Zen'an zuihitsu kan 1 善庵随筆 巻一".Sumōhyōronkanopēji 相撲評論家之頁. Archived fromthe original on 2008-03-18. Retrieved2019-07-19.
^Yanagita, Kunio (1914),Santō mintan shū, p. 84, cited by Minakata
