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Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda), a MythSource painting
Japanese

Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda)

01Identity

Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda) in Japanese tradition

Fujiwara Hidesato enters Ozaki’s tale as a warrior who goes looking for adventure around Lake Biwa. He meets the Dragon King in serpent form on a bridge and accepts a dangerous request: a gigantic centipede is threatening the king’s family. Hidesato’s courage is practical rather than effortless; his first two arrows fail, and he remembers a detail about centipedes before trying once more. The narrative makes that choice the turning point in the fight.

The story also gives Hidesato’s victory a domestic afterlife. The Dragon King’s gifts of rice, silk and a cooking pot prove inexhaustible, bringing prosperity to the warrior’s household. Ozaki’s text identifies Hidesato as the man later called Tawara Toda, or ‘My Lord Bag of Rice.’ This description follows that named protagonist and this one tale; it is not a claim about every version or a verified account of a historical person.

SourceJapanese fairy tales: Yei Theodora Ozaki, “My Lord Bag of Rice,” in Japanese Fairy Tales

Top questions

The quick answers

02The names

The names Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda) answers to

Tawara Toda

Tale-name for Hidesato, glossed as ‘My Lord Bag of Rice’.

SourceJapanese fairy tales

03The myths

The myths of Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda)

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Hidesato and the Centipede of Mount Mikami

The warrior Fujiwara Hidesato, also called Tawara Toda, is travelling in search of adventure when he reaches the bridge over Lake Biwa. A huge serpent-dragon blocks the way. Hidesato walks over its coils rather than turn back; the dragon then becomes a man and identifies himself as the Dragon King of the lake. He asks Hidesato to kill the centipede on Mount Mikami, which has been carrying off members of his family. Hidesato agrees and is welcomed to the Dragon King's underwater palace.

That night the centipede approaches, its fiery eyes and glowing legs visible around the mountain. Hidesato shoots twice without piercing it. Remembering that saliva may harm centipedes, he moistens his last arrow and fires again; this time it strikes home. After a violent storm, the centipede is found dead in the lake. The Dragon King gives Hidesato a bronze bell, rice, silk and a cooking pot. The rice, silk and pot prove inexhaustible, and Hidesato becomes wealthy. Ozaki's tale explains that he is thereafter known as Tawara Toda, ‘My Lord Bag of Rice.’

Hidesato and the Centipede of Mount Mikami, a MythSource painting of the scene