Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

by Graham Hancock

  She goes back into the palace to negotiate her freedom and remains there a long time without giving any sign. Izanagi, waiting outside, becomes impatient. He improvises a torch and follows her within. There, unfortunately, the first thing he sees is Izanami covered in putrefaction and seething with maggots:

  Izanagi-no-Mikoto was greatly shocked and said, ‘Nay! I have come unawares to a hideous and polluted land.’ So he speedily ran away back again. Then Izanami-no-Mikoto was angry, and said: ‘Why didst thou not observe that which I charged thee [i.e not to look at her]? Now am I put to shame.’60

  Like a vengeful harpy, and accompanied by ‘the eight Ugly Females of Yomi’, she sets off in pursuit, determined to punish Izanagi for dishonouring her. Just ahead of them he reaches ‘the Even Pass of Yomi’, the exit to the upper world, and blocks it behind him with ‘a thousand-men-pull rock’.61 This rock, we read, ‘is called the great Kami, Land-of-Night-Gate-Block’.62 On one side stands Izanami, permanently relegated to the Realm of Yomi. On the other stands Izanagi, He-Who-Invites, who still has tasks to complete and powerful Kami to create in the upper world.

  Amongst the great Kami brought into being as he performs the necessary ablutions and purifications after his journey are his children Amaterasu and Sosano – whom we have met already and need say no more about here …

  The enchanted island

  I’ve suggested there is a theme running through Japanese myth of a love affair, a journey to a mysterious parallel realm, and a return to the world.

  The first example, the story of Izanami and Izanagi, is set in the distant epoch that the Kojiki and the Nihongi call the Age of the Gods. But the second example that I will cite, superficially very different, is set in the Age of the Earthly Sovereigns. Here we read of a fisherman later revered as a deity named Urashima:

  He was handsome of feature … He went out alone in a boat to fish with hook and line. During three days and nights he caught nothing, but at length he caught a turtle of five colours. Wondering, he put it in the boat … While he slept the turtle suddenly became transformed into a woman, in form beautiful beyond description … He said to her, ‘This place is far from the homes of people, of whom there are few on the sea. How did you so suddenly come here?’ Smiling, she replied, ‘I deemed you a man of parts alone on the sea, lacking anyone with whom to converse, so I came here by wind and cloud.’63

  She is, of course, a Kami, as he quickly understands, from a magical land that ‘lasts as long as sky and earth and ends with sun and moon’.64 And she tempts him:

  ‘You can come to that region by a turn of your oar. Obey me and shut your eyes.’ So presently they came to a broad island in the wide sea, which was covered with jewels. [On it was a great mansion.] Its high gate and towers shone with a brilliance which his eyes had never beheld and his ears had never heard tell.65

  They enter the mansion and are received and greeted in a loving fashion by her parents: ‘Seated they conversed of the difference between mankind and the Land-of-Spirits, and the joy of man and Kami meeting.’66 Eventually the fisherman Urashima and the beautiful sea Kami are married. Thereafter: ‘For three years, far from his aged parents, he lived his life in the Spirit capital, when he began to yearn for his home and for them.’ Observing the change in him, his wife asks: ‘Do you desire to return home?’

  He replies: ‘To come to this far Spirit Land, I parted from my near of kin. My yearning I cannot help … I wish to return to my native place to see my parents for a while.’ Then we read:

  Hand in hand, they walked conversing … till they came to where their ways diverged and where her parents and relatives, sorrowing to part with him, made their farewells. The princess informed him that she was indeed the turtle which he had taken in his boat, and she took a jewel-casket and gave it to him saying, ‘If you do not forget me and desire to seek me, keep this casket carefully, but do not open it.’ Thus he parted from her and entered his boat, shutting his eyes as she bade him.67

  In a trice Urashima finds himself back in his home village again but a terrible surprise awaits him. During the three years that he has spent enchanted on the Spirit island 300 mortal years have passed and everything has changed beyond recognition. Stumbling around dazed and disconsolate, discovering from a passer-by that his own disappearance three centuries previously is itself now the subject of a village legend, he forgets the warning about the jewel box and opens it to remind himself of his Kami wife: ‘But before he could look into it, something in the form of a blue orchid soared up to the blue sky with the wind and clouds. Then he knew that, having broken his oath, he could not go back and see her again.’68

  It is already apparent from the narrative that lines are blurred between the enchanted island and the Spirit Land of Yomi. But the blurring goes even further in another variant of the myth where the Kami princess is revealed as no lesser figure than ‘the daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea’ and in which Urashima is taken not to an island but to an underwater kingdom.69

  How do we explain such ambiguity? Perhaps it means nothing. But taken at face value what it seems to suggest is that the Mansions of the Sea King did not always lie beneath the waves.

  The Kingdom of the Sea King

  The same implication is there to be grasped in an earlier cycle of the myth also found in the Kojiki and the Nihongi and set in an era very near the end of the Age of the Gods – indeed just two generations before the birth of Jimmu-Tenno, part man, part Kami, the legendary first emperor of Japan.

  As the story unfolds we are introduced to two brothers. The elder is Ho-no-susori no Mikoto (whose name is usually translated into English as ‘Fire-Glow’ or Tire-Shine’) and the younger is Ho-ho-demi no Mikoto (‘Fire-Fade’ or ‘Fire-Subside’). The Nihongi tells us, somewhat opaquely, that the former had ‘a sea-gift’, while the latter had by nature ‘a mountain gift’.70 But the Kojiki makes matters clearer:

  His Augustness Fire-Glow was a prince who got his luck on the sea, and caught things broad of fin and things narrow of fin. His Augustness Fire-Fade was a prince who got his luck on the mountains, and caught things rough of hair and things soft of hair.71

  In other words Fire-Glow, like Urashima, was a fisherman and Fire-Fade was a hunter – occupations that are very far indeed from the ‘fighting farmer’ stereotype of Japan’s later Yayoi and Kofun cultures but that do reflect and idealize the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, always strongly dependent upon fishing, of the earlier Jomon period.72

  As the Kojiki tells it, Fire-Fade the hunter persuaded Fire-Glow the fisherman that they should ‘mutually exchange and use each other’s luck’.73 In practice this meant that Fire-Fade was to take Fire-Glow’s fish-hook and try his luck in the sea; Fire-Glow was to take Fire-Fade’s bow and arrows and try his luck as a hunter in the mountains. Although Fire-Glow was not in favour of the scheme, ‘at last with difficulty the mutual exchange was obtained’:74

  Then His Augustness Fire-Fade, undertaking the sea-luck, angled for fish, but never got a single fish; and moreover he lost his fish-hook in the sea. Thereupon His Augustness Fire-Glow asked him for the fish-hook, saying, ‘A mountain luck is a luck of its own, and a sea-luck is a luck of its own. Let each of us now restore to the other his luck. To which the younger brother His Augustness Fire-Fade replied, saying, ‘As for thy fish-hook, I did not get a single fish by angling with it; and at last I lost it in the sea.’75

  Fire-Glow had looked after and returned Fire-Fade’s bow and arrows76 and was insistent that his fish-hook should likewise be returned – although ‘there was no means of finding it’.77 Hoping to settle the matter, Fire-Fade made a new hook, which he offered to his elder brother. But Fire-Glow refused to accept it and again demanded the old hook.78

  So the younger brother, breaking his ten-grasp sabre that was augustly girded on him, made of the fragments five hundred fish-hooks as compensation; but he would not take them. Again he made a thousand fish-hooks as compensation; but he would not receive them, saying: ‘I still want the
real original fish-hook.’79

  The Nihongi takes up the story:

  Fire-Fade’s grief was exceedingly profound and he went and made moan by the shore of the sea. There he met Shihi-tsutsu no Oji [’Salt-sea elder’]. The old man inquired of him, saying, ‘Why dost thou grieve here?’ He answered and told him the matter from first to last. The old man said, ‘Grieve no more. I will arrange this matter for thee. So he made a basket without interstices, and placing Fire-Fade in it, sank it into the sea …80

  I introduced the mystery of Fire-Fade’s prehistoric diving adventure in chapter I because he soon comes to an underwater palace and because its description in the Nihongi reminds me so much of the towering underwater ruins I have seen off the island of Okinawa at Chatan and, 50 kilometres further to the west, at Kerama. Here is the passage that first caught my attention:

  Forthwith he found himself at a pleasant strand, where he abandoned the basket, and, proceeding on his way, suddenly arrived at the Palace of the Sea God. This palace was provided with battlements and turrets, and had stately towers.81

  Fire-Fade then loitered outside the gate until he was spotted by a beautiful princess, the daughter of the Sea God, who arranged with her father that this ‘rare stranger’ should be brought within. In the ensuing encounter the Sea God questioned Fire-Fade as to his purpose and the story of the lost fish-hook came out:

  The Sea God accordingly assembled the fishes, both great and small, and required of them an answer. They all said, ‘We know not. Only the Red-woman has had a sore mouth for some time past and has not come.’ She was therefore peremptorily summoned to appear, and on her mouth being examined the lost hook was actually found.82

  Mission accomplished? Perhaps. But now that he had experienced the delights of the Sea God’s palace Fire-Fade did not want to leave. Instead he married the Sea God’s daughter, Toyo-tama-hime, ‘and dwelt in the sea-palace’:83

  For three years he enjoyed peace and pleasure, but still had a longing for his own country, and therefore sighed deeply from time to time. Toyo-tama-hime heard this and told her father, saying Fire-Fade often sighs as if in grief. It may be that it is the sorrow of longing for his country.84

  Fire-Fade admitted that this was so and the Sea God granted him permission to return to the world above the waves, handing over to him Fire-Glow’s fish-hook to take back and also gifting him with two magical jewels – ‘the jewel of the flowing tide and the jewel of the ebbing tide’ – with which he would be able to control the waters.85 The plan was that he should use these jewels to punish and subdue his elder brother (presumably for being so unreasonable about the fish-hook in the first place):

  If thou dost dip the tide-flowing jewel, the tide will suddenly flow, and therewithal thou shalt drown thy elder brother. But in case thy elder brother should repent and beg forgiveness, if, on the contrary, thou dip the tide-ebbing jewel, the tide will spontaneously ebb, and therewithal thou shalt save him. If thou harass him in this way, thy elder brother will of his own accord render submission.86

  Before Fire-Fade set off on his journey he was approached by his young sea wife Toyo-tama-hime, who informed him that she was pregnant and that she would follow him soon – for she wished to bear his child above water, in his homeland:

  Thy handmaiden is already pregnant, and the time of her delivery is not far off. On a day when the winds and waves are raging, I will surely come forth to the sea shore, and I pray thee that thou will make for me a parturition house, and await me there.87

  After his return Fire-Fade, armed with the remarkable jewels that could raise and lower sea-level at will, quickly subdued his elder brother, just as the Sea God had promised. Then the time came for Toyo-tama-hime to fulfil her promise and ascend from the underwater kingdom to give birth to their child on land. So she ‘bravely confronted the wind and waves, and came to the sea shore’ – where Fire-Fade awaited her.88

  From the Kojiki:

  Unable to restrain the urgency of her womb she entered the parturition-hall. Then, when she was about to be delivered, she spoke to her husband, saying, ‘Whenever a foreigner is about to be delivered, she takes the shape of her native land to be delivered. So I now will take my native shape to be delivered. Pray look not upon me!’89

  The Nihongi, too, repeats the same warning: ‘When thy handmaiden is in travail, I pray thee do not look upon her.’90 But of course, just as Orpheus had to look back at the gates of hell and just as Izanagi had to look at Izanami in the Land of Yomi:

  Fire-Fade could not restrain himself, but went secretly and peeped in. Now Toyo-tama-hime was just in childbirth and had changed into a dragon. She was greatly ashamed, and said, ‘Hadst thou not disgraced me I would have made the sea and land communicate with each other, and forever prevented them from being sundered. But now that thou hast disgraced me, wherewithal shall friendly feelings be knit together?’ So she wrapped the infant in rushes, and abandoned it on the sea shore. Then she barred the sea-path and passed away.91

  The sequel to this story is that the infant abandoned on the sea-shore grows up to wed his maternal aunt, sent from the underwater kingdom to care for him, and among their offspring is Jimmu-Tenno, the first Emperor of Japan,92 founder of the imperial line that survives to this day. In a sense, therefore, are we not to understand that the historical civilization of Japan, bound up with the line of the Emperor, is to be traced back through Jimmu-Tenno – by way both of his grandmother and his mother – not only to the lineage of Amaterasu and the great gods of the High-Plain of the Sky, but also to the lineage of the Sea God and to a kingdom of palaces and mansions that now lies beneath the sea?

  R’yugu

  The ambiguity in the story of Urashima’s enchanted island – which has it sometimes above and sometimes below the waves – also occurs in the story of Fire-Glow and Fire-Fade. For whereas the Nihongi has Fire-Fade descend to the sea-bed in a waterproof basket, the Kojiki has him make the journey above water in ‘a stout little boat without interstices’. He is told: ‘Go on for some time. There will be a pleasant road; and if thou goest in the boat along that road, there will appear a palace built like fishes’ scales.’93 Likewise, later in the story when Fire-Fade is taking his leave he refers to the Sea God’s kingdom quite explicitly as an ‘island’, and the translator Basil Hall Chamberlain feels obliged to explain: ‘The Sea-God’s dwelling is called an island because it is beyond the sea.’94

  Otherwise, the versions are virtually identical but in these curious differences I wonder if we are seeing, once again, a before-and-after effect summarized in two different layers of myth – in the earlier of which the Kingdom of the Sea God is remembered as an island, in the later as an underwater sanctuary of walls and palaces and mansions? In crude and simplistic terms, could it be a memory that great structures with ‘turrets and tall towers of exceeding beauty’ once stood above water but are now beneath the waves?

  That seemed like wild and unjustified speculation to me until I discovered exactly where Japanese legends say that the Kingdom of the Sea God is to be found …

  It seems that its name is R’yugu, and that it lies hidden from the sight of man somewhere amongst the Lu-Chu islands.95

  ‘X’ marks the spot

  Today the Lu-Chu islands (the old Chinese name) are part of Japan and are better known as the Ryukyu archipelago (from the Japanese pronunciation). The archipelago consists of three separate island groups – the northernmost around Okinawa, including the Keramas and Aguni; then Miyako in the centre; finally the Yaeyama group with Yonaguni in the extreme south-west.

  I suggest it is not a matter to be ignored that (a) Japan has a tradition of spectacular underwater structures that may only be reached by diving; (b) there are some indications of a memory that these structures were once above water; © the tradition is clearly associated with a hunter-gathering and fishing culture that idealizes much of what we know about the Jomon lifestyle in Japan after the end of the Ice Age and down to about 2000 years ago; (d) the tradition places
the underwater structures amongst the Ryukyu islands; (e) divers in recent years have indeed observed a series of spectacular underwater structures in the Ryukyu islands – extending all the way from Yonaguni to Okinawa.

  It was time to go diving again.

  27 / Confronting Yonaguni

  The question was, or is still, is it and, if yes, to what extent is it made by man or overworked by man? This is the question.

  Dr Wolf Wichmann, geologist, Yonaguni, March 2001

  I was in Tokyo in 1996 when the photojournalist Ken Shindo showed me the first images I had ever seen of an awe-inspiring terraced structure, apparently a man-made monument of some kind, lying at depths of up to 30 metres off the Japanese island of Yonaguni at the remote south-west end of the Ryukyu archipelago. This was the moment, if there ever was just one moment, when the ‘Underworld’ quest began for me and when much that I had learned in previous years in many different countries began to swing sharply into focus and make sense. I felt an immediate compulsion to explore the beautiful and mysterious structure that beckoned so alluringly from the photographs. And I realized that it would rewrite prehistory if it could indeed be proved to be man-made.