Ryujin
Also called Rin-Jin, Dragon King, Sea King, Sea God, King of the Sea, God of the Sea.
Ryujin is Japan's Dragon King of the sea, ruler of an undersea jeweled palace who commands the tides, raises storms against those who offend him, and is honored as an ancestor of the imperial line.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Japanese folklore
- Region
- Japan (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Tempest-Bringers
- Symbols
- Dragon
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Dragon is image-domain The dragon denotes chaotic instinctual power, guardian of hoarded treasure and fertility, destructive in the West and, in China, the beneficent waterlike way of things.
why
Ryujin is Japan's Dragon King of the sea, ruler of an undersea jeweled palace who commands the tides, raises storms against those who offend him, and is honored as an ancestor of the imperial line.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Unnaturally wide jaw swallows large prey
why
whose mouth is large enough to swallow ships and whales whole
- Shapeshifts human animal
why
he is also credited with the ability to take human form
- Deadly gaze
why
no human could look upon him in his full dragon majesty and survive the encounter
Behaviour
- Whirlpool swallows ships whole
why
He is consistently described as an enormous being whose mouth is large enough to swallow ships and whales whole, an image that in some tellings accounts for the whirlpools said to appear on the ocean's surface.
Sight and sound
- Blue or azure coloration signals celestial origin
why
Accounts describe his claws, horns, scales, and tongue as a striking deep blue, and hold that no human could look upon him in his full dragon majesty and survive the encounter, though he is also credited with the ability to take human form, in which guise he is said to have fathered children with human women.
Omens
- Progenitor of a royal dynasty
why
this line, through Toyotama's son, is presented in tradition as the ancestry of Japan's early emperors.
Offensive powers
- Storm summoning
why
Ryujin's power over the sea is described as being expressed most sharply through weather and tide: in one well-known episode, he is said to raise a violent storm against Prince Yamato Take's fleet after the prince boasts arrogantly about the strait he is crossing, a storm only calmed when the prince's wife sacrifices herself to the sea on his behalf.
Utility powers
- Shapeshifting
why
he is also credited with the ability to take human form, in which guise he is said to have fathered children with human women.
- Hydrokinesis
why
Ryujin's power over the sea is described as being expressed most sharply through weather and tide: in one well-known episode, he is said to raise a violent storm against Prince Yamato Take's fleet after the prince boasts arrogantly about the strait he is crossing, a storm only calmed when the prince's wife sacrifices herself to the sea on his behalf.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Father carries both readings
2 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Ryujin."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ryujin."
- Water carries both readings
2 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Ryujin."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ryujin."
- Hero meets
2 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Ryujin."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ryujin."