Philip Castro
1 min readSep 28, 2019

Ebisu

In medieval times, Ebisu’s origin came to be tied together with that of Hiruko - the first child of Izanagi and Izanami, born without bones (or, in some stories, without arms and legs) due to his mother’s transgression during the marriage ritual. Hiruko struggled to survive but, as he could not stand, he was cast to the sea in a boat of reeds before his third birthday. The story tells that Hiruko eventually washed ashore—possibly in Ezo and was cared for by the Ainu Ebisu Saburo. It is however believed that Ebisu first arose as a god among fishermen, and that his origin as Hiruko was a much later conception, after the worship of him had spread to merchants and others. It is also theorized that he was originally a god known as "Kotoronushi no Mikoto", son of Ōkuninushi.