Izanagi's misogi purification at Tachibana in Hyūga birthed kami from every layer of water and light — the Watatsumi sea gods from the ocean depths, and from Izanagi's own face the Three Noble Children: Amaterasu from his left eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye, and Susanoo from his nose.
⚠ The Nihon Shoki main text attributes the three noble children to both Izanagi and Izanami, while the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki alternate accounts describe them emerging from Izanagi's purification alone.
Ryujin, the dragon king of the sea, is the father of Toyotama-hime and her younger sister Tamayori-hime, the two sea princesses who bridged the ocean realm to the imperial lineage.
Otohime is Ryujin's daughter and the mistress of the Dragon Palace. In the tale of Urashima Tarō, she hosts the fisherman in her underwater realm and gives him the tamatebako box upon his departure.
In certain regional traditions, kappa serve as retainers of Ryūjin, the Dragon King, and carry messages between his underwater palace and the rivers they inhabit.
⚠ The subordination of kappa to Ryūjin is one of several origin traditions. Other accounts treat kappa as independent water spirits or transformed hitogata (straw dolls) set adrift in rivers.
Ryūgū-jō, the Dragon Palace beneath the sea, is Ryujin's domain — a magnificent underwater castle of red and white coral where time flows differently from the surface world.
Ryujin, Ao Guang, and Yongwang are East Asian dragon kings of the sea — the Japanese and Korean traditions each adapted the Chinese Lóng Wáng through Buddhist and Sinitic cultural transmission, producing a single sovereign of the undersea palace ruling tides and weather.
Ryujin was syncretized with the Buddhist Nāga King Sāgara during Japan's shinbutsu-shūgō period, merging the indigenous sea dragon deity with the Buddhist serpent sovereign of the ocean into a single figure worshipped at coastal shrines and temples.
Ryūjin lent Hoori the Tide Jewels — Shiomitsutama to raise the sea and Shiohirutama to draw it back — and Hoori used them to drown and then rescue his brother Hoderi, forcing his eternal submission.
Empress Jingū wielded the tide jewels granted by Ryūjin during her conquest of the Korean kingdoms, lowering the sea to strand the enemy fleet on the exposed seabed, then raising the waves to drown the sailors where they stood.
Hoori visited Ryujin's undersea palace Ryūgū-jō to recover his brother Hoderi's lost fishhook. Ryujin received him as a guest, found the hook, gave him the tide jewels, and offered his daughter Toyotama-hime in marriage.
Shiotsuchi-no-Oji, the old salt-sea deity, guided Hoori to Ryujin's undersea palace by building him a basket boat and advising him on how to win the dragon king's favor (Kojiki).
Ryujin hosted Urashima Tarō in Ryūgū-jō after the fisherman saved a sea turtle. Days in the Dragon Palace equaled centuries on the surface, and Urashima returned to find his world gone (Otogizōshi).
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