Of Dragon Kings and Demon Centipedes
The myths of Lake Biwa
This is part of my new series “Japan’s Dark Gods” where I explore the myths, monsters, demons and eldritch festivals that permeate Japanese culture. Check out my first in the series, The Child-Eating Demons of the North.
It’s 6 AM and my dog and I are watching the sun rise over Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, located in Shiga prefecture.
The light looks like a dying fire in the morning with its deep shades of red mixed with dark grey. Though beautiful, the legends surrounding this lake range from the heroic to the monstrous.
Did you know that it wasn’t the gods that made the lake? It was the daidarabotchi (大太郎法師). A giant Buddhist monk the size of a mountain with pitch-black skin and a tongue that hangs loosely out of its mouth. It dug out the basin with its hands.
Or that there is a giant catfish living under Japan, specifically under the lake. Every time it moves it causes earthquakes and has to be crushed by the god Kashima lest it destroys the nation. The Tokyo version of the story’s god looks more regal and uses a stone. Shiga is more laid back, the god looks like a monkey and uses a gourd.
The story that stands out to me most involves the mountain-sized centipede and the dragon king known as the legend of Towara Toda.
The Legend of Towara Toda
There was a samurai in the 10th century named Fujiwara no Hidesato. He gains the nickname Towara Toda (so let’s call him Toda) because of the following story.
He was a real human who existed and fought in many wars and ended up becoming a ruler ( the Kachiya festival on May 5th in Tokyo is in his honor).
One day this guy was traveling around Japan because, well, he had ADHD. He couldn’t sit still and constantly needed adventure in his life. While sojourning in Shiga prefecture (then known as Omi) he tried to cross the Seta bridge, which still exists today by the way.
But he couldn’t cross it. A huge ass dragon was laying across the bridge. At first, he thought about going back so as not to be eaten.
Instead, he chose to suck it up and walk over the dragon. He did so, stepping on its face, without looking down at it.
This impressed the dragon. The creature called out to Toda and when he turned around he saw that the dragon was gone, in its place was a beautiful woman (some stories say, a red-haired man, I like the princess version better, like a Zelda game).
She was the dragon princess whose father ruled over the lake. She was looking for a warrior of courage so every day she laid out on the bridge waiting for someone brave enough to confront her.
Why?
The most horrifying monster imaginable, mythic or not, is why.
Fucking centipedes.
The actual creature is my worst nightmare. They sneak into my house every summer and are impervious to most means of destruction. Only fire and decapitation seem to work.
There was a giant centipede so large that it wrapped around the nearby Mt. Mikami several times. I see this mountain every day from where I live, it’s big, so this mofo would have been Godzilla-level here.
The giant centipede (O-mukade) would slither down into the lake each night and eat the animals and the fish, sometimes even relatives of the dragon family.
Why couldn’t the dragon fight it? No clue. But they tried to convince Toda to do it for them. They took him to the dragon palace under the lake, a place made of solid marble. Toda was protected from drowning and got drunk with the dragon king as they ate dinner together.
Sounds like my kind of night.
Toda was having such a good time he even forgot why he was there.
Then a shaking of the earth snapped them out of the moment. A rumbling of hundreds of feet was racing toward them.
Toda and the dragon king went outside and saw it.
Two flaming eyes in the darkness were descending from the mountains. They were followed by one hundred flaming feet. The centipede had come to kill them all.
The dragon king and his servants cowered behind Toda.
Toda, an absolute Chad, remained calm and strung his bow. He fired the first shot.
It hit the centipede right in the head but bounced off the hard shell.
He fired his second shot, it too was deflected.
He grabbed for another arrow and realized it was his last. Then, before firing it, he remembered hearing that human saliva was poisonous to centipedes (don’t try this at home kiddies).
He licked the tip of the arrow and fired it right into the monster’s head. It went straight through and struck its brain. It crashed into the lake, dead, and stained the waters red with its blood.
For slaying the demon, Toda received several magical gifts. The only cool ones were a bag of rice that never ran out and a cooking pan that made everything delicious just by cooking it in the pan.
He also got a useless bell and some silk that never ran out, cool?
You can visit the Seta bridge (Otsu city-Shiga prefecture-just Google it-no easy way to get there unless you drive but also no parking) where the monster was put down. There’s nothing to see save for an idyllic river town and a few signs that retell the myth. But if you are like me and enjoy absorbing the history and the myth of a place, you should go.
I just like that I live here, next to a lake dug out by a giant’s hands, next to the water that houses a dragon king, by the mountains that are home to gargantuan behemoths.
Ishiyama station in Otsu isn't too far away from that bridge. I think I had to change trains in Kyoto though, i'm not sure if it's a stop on the express from Osaka to Maibara.
Like that area for hiking! Little sea, but not .