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When Goldfish Faced the Sea Serpent

What’s happening here? A goldfish stands upright, gripping a plant stem like a spear. Before him, a black eel coils and looms. Beside the would-be hero, another goldfish trembles, one fin raised to its head in fear, tail tucked tight. Between them, four sake cups rest on a rock amid drifting waterweeds. The title gives the clue: ‘Susanoo no Mikoto’. This is not a simple quarrel between fish, but Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s playful retelling of one of Japan’s most famous myths — the battle between the storm god Susanoo and the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi. According to the Nihon Shoki, Susanoo descended to Izumo and met an old couple by the Hii River, weeping beside their last remaining daughter, Kushinada-hime. Each year, the fearsome Orochi had devoured one of their daughters, and now the final sacrifice was due. Susanoo vowed to slay the monster in exchange for Kushinada’s hand. He transformed her into a tiny comb and hid her safely in his hair, then prepared eight barrels of powerful sake and placed them behind fences. When Orochi arrived, each head drank deeply, fell into a stupor, and Susanoo struck. From the serpent’s tail emerged the divine sword later known as Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of Japan’s Three Sacred Treasures. Kuniyoshi compresses this epic tale into a miniature, comic world. The brave goldfish becomes Susanoo, the frightened one Kushinada, the black eel stands in for Orochi, and the four sake cups hint at the eight barrels that brought the monster down. Fear, courage, sacrifice, and strategy are all there — only scaled to the size of a fishbowl. Why this subject? Kuniyoshi used the art name Ichiyūsai between 1818 and 1860, and in 1858, a Kabuki play based on this legend, Nihon Furisode Hajime, returned to the stage at Edo’s Nakamura Theatre after a long absence. Kuniyoshi, famous for translating Kabuki drama into prints, likely drew inspiration from this revival, turning a grand theatrical myth into witty visual satire. Yet the story may carry an even older meaning. Susanoo is said to have arrived in Torikami, Oku-Izumo, the source of the Hii River and once the heart of Japan’s iron production. To smelt iron, forests were cut for charcoal, leading to erosion and flooding. Iron sand washed into the river, turning it red and muddy, devastating rice fields downstream. In this reading, Kushinada represents the fields, Orochi the flood-swollen river, and Susanoo humanity’s attempt to tame nature’s destructive power. The myth becomes less about slaying monsters and more about learning to live with forces larger than oneself. The Kabuki play is still performed today in Tokyo and Kyoto, and this small goldfish drama still asks a big question. When you look at this scene now, what do you see — a god and a monster, a theatre parody, or an ancient reflection on how we face the forces that threaten our world? If this story gave you a new way to read Kuniyoshi’s humour and depth, please like the video, subscribe for more hidden histories in Japanese art, share it with someone who enjoys myth told sideways, and leave a comment — which meaning speaks most strongly to you? __________ Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 Goldfish Miscellany: Susanoo no Mikoto 金魚づくし すさのおのみこと (きんぎょづくし　すさのおのみこと) 19th Century __________ #japanesehistory #japanhistory #japaneseculture #japaneseart #historicjapan #history #japanesetradition #japanesetraditional #japanesetraditionalculture #historylovers #historylover #japan #japanese #ukiyoe #japanesepainting #japanesepaintings #japaneseart　#edo #edoperiod #edojapan #meiji #meijiera #meijirestoration #goldfish #susanoo #orochi #nihonshoki