Ryujin

The Dragon King of the Seas

Domain: Sea, Dragons & Tides
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Element: Water
Relics of Power: Tide Jewels

Speak with Ryujin

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Japanese

Region

Japanese archipelago

Period

c. 500 BC – present

The kami of Shinto have been worshipped in Japan since time immemorial, in thousands of shrines across the archipelago. The imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the cult coexists with Buddhism brought from the mainland. Festivals (matsuri) and purification rites keep these beliefs alive to this day.

Matsuri fill the streets with processions of portable shrines (mikoshi), drums, and dances. The great shrine of Ise, dedicated to Amaterasu, is rebuilt every twenty years, and at hatsumode millions visit the shrines at New Year to ask for blessings.

At a glance

Ryūjin (龍神, 'Dragon God'), revered in archaic Shinto under the canonical name Ōwatatsumi-no-Kami (大綿津見神, 'Great Divine Spirit of the Seas'), is the supreme dragon monarch of the oceans, marine tempests, and aquatic life in Japan. Enthroned within the magnificent underwater palace of Ryūgū-jō crafted from red corals and crystals in the ocean abyss, he commands oceanic currents and cosmic tides through two supernatural gems: the tide-raising jewel (Shiomitsu-tama / Manju) and the tide-ebbing jewel (Shiohiru-tama / Kanju). His mythological narrative is foundational in the 'Kojiki' (712 CE) and 'Nihon Shoki' (720 CE): he welcomed the celestial prince Hoori (Yamasachihiko) to his subterranean realm, recovered the lost sacred fishhook, and bestowed his daughter Toyotama-hime in marriage; from this union came Ugayafukiaezu, father of Emperor Jimmu, establishing Ryūjin as the direct maternal ancestor of the imperial dynasty of Japan. Worshipped as the paramount spiritual protector of maritime navigation and the ancestral deity of the seafaring Azumi clan (at Shikaumi Shrine), his figure was syncretized during the medieval period with Buddhist Dragon Kings (Nāgarāja) and celebrated in vernacular folk legends including Urashima Tarō and Tawara Tōda.

9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The serpentine dragon, the tide jewels, the undersea palace and the turtle

Family

Parents

Izanagi Izanami

Ryujin

Children

Toyotama-hime (Luminous Jewel Princess, mother of Ugayafukiaezu who transformed into a wani during birth)Tamayori-hime (younger sister of Toyotama-hime, guardian who raised her nephew and bore Emperor Jimmu)

Genealogy according to Kojiki 1.6, 1.11, 1.40-44; Nihon Shoki 1.17, 2.22-25, 9; Manyoshu 9.1740; Otogizoshi

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

O no Yasumaro (太安万侶), Kojiki (古事記 / Records of Ancient Matters), Book 1 (sections 6, 11 and 40 to 44). translation: Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki: Translated with an Introduction and Notes, Princeton University Press / University of Tokyo Press, 1968. read
Prince Toneri (舎人親王) et al., Nihon Shoki (日本書紀 / Chronicles of Japan), Books 1, 2 and 9. translation: W. G. Aston, Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Tuttle Publishing, 1972 (orig. 1896). read
Various imperial poets (Takahashi no Mushimaro et al.), Man'yōshū (万葉集 / Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), Book 9 (poem 1740). translation: Edwin A. Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup, Stanford University Press, 1993. read
Fujiwara no Tadahira (藤原忠平) et al., Engishiki (延喜式), Books 9 and 10 (Jinmyocho). translation: Felicia G. Bock, Engi-shiki: Procedures of the Engi Era (Books VI-X), Sophia University, Tokyo, 1972. read

Studies

Carmen Blacker, . George Allen & Unwin / Routledge, 1975. open
Michael Como, . University of Hawaii Press, 2009. open
Nelly Naumann, . Asian Folklore Studies, 1974. open
Delmer M. Brown, . Cambridge University Press, 1993. open
Allan G. Grapard, . University of California Press, 1992. open

Name and epithets

The teonym Ryūjin (龍神) is written with the characters 'Ryū' (龍/竜, mythical aquatic dragon) and 'Jin' or 'Kami' (神, divine spirit or Shinto deity).

In the ancient sources

Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), 712 CE. Imperial record detailing Hoori's descent to Watatsumi's palace, the bestowal of the tide jewels, and Toyotama-hime's transformation into a wani.

The myths

Hoori's Descent to the Undersea Realm and Alliance with Watatsumi. As recounted in chapters 40 and 41 of the 'Kojiki', after losing his elder brother Hoderi's magical fishhook, the celestial hunter Hoori sat weeping on…

Worship and archaeology

Veneration of Ryūjin under his indigenous Shinto forms of Ōwatatsumi and the Three Watatsumi Kami (Sokotsu, Nakatsu, and Uwatsu) is ancient and widespread throughout Japanese maritime communities.

How the god was depicted

In classical Japanese visual arts, shrine scroll paintings, and ukiyo-e prints, Ryūjin is depicted in two complementary visual modes.

What scholars debate

The Zoological and Mythic Identity of the Wani. Philologists of the 'Kojiki' including Donald L. Philippi and Basil Hall Chamberlain have debated the identity of the 'wani' (和邇), the native zoomorphic form of Watatsumi'…

After antiquity

Ryūjin holds a permanent place in Japanese folklore and contemporary popular culture. The fairy tale of Urashima Tarō, who visits the dragon palace Ryūgū-jō and returns to find centuries elapsed, is universally familiar…

Did you know?

The carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, successfully sampled by JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission in 2018 to recover primordial solar system material, was named in honor of the magical underwater palace Ryūgū-jō.

Codex relic

Tide Jewels. Two magic jewels that control the rising and falling of the tides at their bearer's will.

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