The Tale of the Fish King's Begging Journey

Japanese: 魚王行乞譚 - ぎょおうぎょうこつたん

...Fish are an essential component of old tales and legends, such as "Fish Wife," in which a fish rescued by a fish takes the form of a woman and becomes a wife, bestowing good fortune, and "Tail Fishing," in which an animal tries to catch a fish by its tail but is frozen in ice and loses its tail. Legends such as "Otobo Pool" and "Yonatama," in which strange things happen on the way back from catching a fish and people are revenged, show that there was a belief that fish are temporary forms of water spirits. Another story from this old belief is that when a traveling monk was given food to admonish a poison-draining fisherman preparing to catch all the fish in a pool, the food appeared from the belly of a large fish caught, and the people who participated in the fishing were cursed ("Tale of the Fish King Begging for Food"). Because Buddhism forbids the eating of fish, the custom of eating fish as an expression of non-compliance with Buddhist doctrine arose, and sardines were placed in the coffin of a deceased infant to pray for the rebirth of the deceased, and the custom of deliberately tasting fish at the end of the mourning period at a funeral was also established, known as sesshin otoshi.

From [Poison]

...There is an old story related to this method in which the leader of the river fish appears in human form and asks the people preparing the poison to stop, but the residents do not listen and give them food and send them away. When they catch many fish using the poison, the food they had given them earlier comes out of the stomach of a particularly large fish, and the people regret their actions (Tale of the Fish King Begging for Food). This story was probably created to avoid using poison, even though they knew it was poisonous.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "The Tale of the Fish King's Begging Journey" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…魚が昔話や伝説の不可欠の構成要素とされているものに，助けた魚が女の姿となって女房になり幸運を与える〈魚女房〉，動物が尾で魚を釣ろうとして氷に閉じられしっぽを失う〈尻尾（しつぽ）の釣り〉などがあり，魚を捕らえて帰る途中で怪しいことが起こり復讐を受ける〈おとぼう淵〉〈よなたま〉などの伝説(〈物言う魚〉)は，魚が水の霊の仮の姿であるという信仰があったことを物語っている。淵の魚をとりつくす毒流し漁を準備しているとき，それを戒める旅僧に食物を与えたところ，獲物の大魚の腹からその食物が現れ，漁に参加した者がたたりを受けたという話(魚王行乞譚，〈物食う魚〉)もこの古い信仰の流れの末である。　仏教が魚類を食することを禁じたために，仏教の教義に服しない表現として魚類を口にする風が生じ，幼児の死者の再生を祈って棺内にイワシなどを納め，また葬儀の忌を終わるにあたって精進落しと称してことさらに魚味を口にする風習が行われる。…

【毒】より

…この方法にかかわって語られる昔話として，川魚どもの首領が人に姿を変えて現れ，ドクモミを準備する人々に中止を求めるが，住民はそれをきかず，食物を与えて帰す。いざ毒流しで多くの魚を捕ると，そのうちとくに巨大な魚の腹から先に与えた食物が出てきたので，人々はこの行為を悔いたという話になっている(魚王行乞譚)。これも毒のあることは知りながら，それを用いることを忌むために生まれた説話であろう。…

※「魚王行乞譚」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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