Hiruko (Deity): Difference between revisions

Hiruko is the first child of [[Izanagi]] and [[Izanami]] who was born with a deformity (often interpreted as either without limbs or without bones), and thus Hiruko was put on a small boat and cast out into the sea by his parents. Since the Muromachi period, he became identified as [[Ebisu]], a deity of fishing and one of the Seven Lucky Gods, due to Ebisu being a term for things that drift in the water as Hiruko did.<ref>{{Cite Journal|quote=In the mid-to-late Muromachi period, Hiruko came back to life in folklore, becoming the ‘Ebisu God’ known today. According to Y. Wang (2006), in ancient Japan, coastal residents referred to anything mysterious that drifted ashore as Ebisu, such as stranded whales, sharks passing by, and dolphins that could leap out of the water—these were an inexhaustible and abundant source of wealth to residents in times of low productivity and extreme scarcity of life’s necessities (Zhang 2015, p. 332). The reason is that large fish such as whales and sharks are always followed by schools of fish, getting close to them allows for catching a lot of fish. Since Hiruko was placed on a boat by the twin gods to drift along the water, people believed everything that drifted to shore was delivered by Hiruko. Hence, people gradually came to believe that Ebisu was Hiruko incarnate.|article=The Sanctification of the Disabled: A Study on the Images of Fortune Gods in Japanese Folk Beliefs |author= Jianhua Liu|journal=Religions|volume=15|issue=6|page=p. 671|published=May 29, 2024|doi=10.3390/rel15060671}}</ref>