Fujiwara no Hidesato- Japanese HeroHero
Also known as: 藤原秀郷, Tawara Tōda, and 俵藤太
Description
Three arrows at the fire-crowned centipede on Mount Mikami: two bounced from its armor, but the third, wet with the archer's own saliva, pierced the monster's skull and won the Dragon King's inexhaustible rice.
Mythology & Lore
The Giant Centipede of Mount Mikami
The tale preserved in the Tawara Tōda Monogatari and retold in the Konjaku Monogatarishū recounts that Fujiwara no Hidesato came to the great bridge spanning the outflow of Lake Biwa, where an enormous serpent lay coiled across the span. While others fled, Hidesato stepped over the creature without flinching. The serpent transformed into the Dragon King of the lake and explained that a monstrous centipede (ōmukade) had been descending from Mount Mikami to devour the dragon's children, and only a mortal of extraordinary courage could slay it.
That night, the centipede appeared on the mountain, its countless legs carrying torches that lit the ridgeline like a river of fire. Hidesato fired two arrows, but they glanced off the creature's armored body. Remembering that human saliva was poison to supernatural vermin, he licked the tip of his third arrow, drew his bow, and let it fly. The arrow struck true, piercing the centipede's head, and the great beast tumbled dead down the mountainside, its fire extinguished.
In gratitude, the Dragon King presented Hidesato with gifts of supernatural abundance: a roll of silk that never diminished no matter how much was cut, a cooking pot that produced food without fire, and a bale of rice that could never be emptied. It was this last gift that earned him the name Tawara Tōda, "Rice-Bale Tōda," the name by which legend remembers him above his noble Fujiwara lineage.
The Subjugation of Taira no Masakado
History and legend converge in Hidesato's role in the suppression of Taira no Masakado's rebellion in 940 CE. Masakado had declared himself the "New Emperor" in the Kantō region, an act of defiance against the Kyoto court that shook the political order. Hidesato, allied with Masakado's cousin Taira no Sadamori, marched against the rebel. In the account embellished by later storytellers, the arrow that felled Masakado was guided by divine will, striking the self-proclaimed emperor and ending his short-lived insurrection. This historical feat, wrapped in supernatural embellishment, cemented Hidesato's reputation as a warrior whose arrows never missed their mark, whether the target was a monstrous centipede or a mortal usurper.