Tonight’s tale describes a sea monster called a fuka. This strange creature’s name is written 海豚魚, or sea-pig-fish. Today these kanji are used for the word iruka, or dolphin, and fuka is actually an old word for a shark. Today we know that dolphins and sharks are quite different animals, but in the Edo period the difference between them was ambiguous, and all sorts of real animals as well as sea monsters could easily be lumped under one term.

It’s a challenge to come up with the look of a monster that has no text description, as is the case with so many of the figures in Shokoku hyakumonogatari. Luckily, though, this time the original story came with an illustration that I could base my fuka off of. Here is how it looks in the original book:

For my illustration all I needed was the severed head of the fuka, and luckily this picture shows the very un-shark-like monster’s head pretty clearly.

The arrow Sukenojō fires at the fuka is described as a karimata arrow. This is a kind of arrow with a particularly deadly shaped head; it looks like a crescent moon and is designed to tear the flesh so its target bleeds to death very quickly. The bow he carries (I translated it as “greatbow”) is described as a “three man” bow in the original, meaning a bow so large that it would take three men to pull it all the way back. Sukenojō was clearly a tough samurai!

How Matsumura Sukenojō Was Taken By a Fuka

When the lord of Ōsaka Castle was rotated back to Edo, all of the cargo was loaded onto a ship and went straight to sea, with Matsumura Sukenojō serving as the baggage officer. At Kumanoura, the ship suddenly stopped moving.

The captain said, “There is one among us who has been possessed by the sea. One man alone can be responsible for the deaths of many. Everyone must go to the front of the ship and, one by one, dump everything in their pockets and purses, even their tissue paper, into the sea. The sea will take the items belonging to the possessed man, but it will not take the items belonging to the others. With that as proof, I will throw the possessed man overboard.”

The men, without fail, gathered all of their possessions and one by one threw them all into the sea. Everything floated; however, even though Sukenojō’s tissue paper was floating, a giant fish leapt out of the sea and devoured it.

The captain said, “Then it is decided. This samurai is our man. It can’t be helped, so please jump into the ocean.”

Sukenojō replied, “I have no choice. However, a samurai must not be allowed to die so easily.”

He grabbed his greatbow and a karimata arrow, went to the side of the boat, and called, “Hey, spirit! I’m coming for you! If you are real, show yourself!”

A great fuka leaped out of the sea at him, its mouth open wide.

“Let the top and bottom of my bow become one!” shouted Sukenojō, and, with a loud snap, he fired his arrow down the fuka’s throat. The fuka was knocked back and sank into the sea. Afterwards, the boat started moving again, and they made it safely to Edo. Sukenojō narrowly survived that disaster.

Three years later, Sukenojō’s master was put in charge of Nijō Castle. As usual, Sukenojō went by ship with all of the luggage. When the ship arrived at Kumanoura, the weather was poor, so the ship pulled into port and they stayed there for four or five days.

There was a shrine to Hachiman nearby, and Sukenojō paid a visit to this shrine during his free time. Among the votive offerings there was a karimata arrow. Upon close inspection, he saw it was the same arrow that Sukenojō had fired at the fuka three years earlier; the arrow had “Great Bodhisattva Hachiman” written in red on it, proving that it was his. Sukenojō was astonished and asked the chief priest about it.

The priest explained, “Once or twice every year a fish called a fuka came to this inlet to haunt boats and take peoples’ lives. This must have upset Lord Hachiman, for it seems he shot the fuka dead with this arrow. Three years ago the fuka washed ashore with the waves and this arrow was sticking out of its throat. All who saw it were certain that it was the divine judgment of Hachiman. And so, the arrow and the head of the fuka were made into votive offerings.”

After hearing this, Sukenojō told the chief priest everything that had happened, and had him retrieve the head of the fuka and show it to him.

“Well, well, you are the beast who tried to take my life!” he said. Sukenojō petted the creature’s head, and he felt something like a spine prick his hand. After that his hand began to swell. Within a day it had swollen to the size of a tatami mat, and finally Sukenojō died.