Onogoro Island

Onogoro Island, Onokoro Island, Onogoroshima, or Onokoroshima (淤能碁呂島, OJ: Ono₂go₂ro₂-sima or Onögörö-sima) is a mythical island in Japanese mythology.

Mythological account

According to the mythical account of the Kojiki, Onogoro Island was created (kuniumi) when the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami churned the sea with a jewelled spear from their vantage point on the floating bridge of heaven.^[1] When they raised the spear from the ocean, drops fell from the spear, forming the island. They built a palace on top with a great column in the middle. The couple walked around this pillar in opposite directions, and when they encountered each other, they were wed. This island is where Hiruko was conceived.

The island is mentioned only thrice in the Kojiki, at ch.3:3, ch:7:25, and ch.111:32.^[2]

Etymology

The name probably signified "self-curdling island".

Real-world placement

In his Kojiki-den, a ground-breaking commentary on the Kojiki, the great Kokugaku scholar Motoori Norinaga asserted that it referred to one of the small islands near Awajishima (e.g. Nushima or Tomogashima). However, attempts to identify places in mythical cosmology with known sites in a real country's topography remain unconvincing.

Notes

1. Kurano, Kojiki, page 53
2. Philippi's translation, p. 49, p. 57, and p. 306.

References

• Donald L.Philippi tr. Kojiki, Princeton University Press, Tokyo University Press,1969
• Kurano, Kenji; Yūkichi Takeda (1958). Kojiki, Norito. Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-060001-X.