乙姫
おとひめ

Translation: a title meaning “second princess”
Habitat: the dragon palace Ryūgū

Appearance: Otohime is the younger daughter of the god of the sea. She is immortal, eternally youthful, beautiful and kind. Being a princess, she spends most of her life in the underwater palace of Ryūgū. Within the palace, she is usually portrayed as a beautiful human woman, but her true form is usually that of a turtle or a crocodile-dragon known as a wani.

Behavior: There are many different versions of this legend, and Otohime’s part in them changes from one to another. However, she is most famous for falling in love with a human named Urashima Tarō. In most stories she meets Urashima Tarō after a turtle carries him to Ryūgū on its back. In some versions of the legend that turtle is Otohime herself.

In many stories Urashima Tarō leaves Ryūgū after a few days and never returns. In other versions, he stays for years, and he and Otohime produce a child. And in some tales, due to the difference in their ranks, Urashima Tarō is more like a concubine or a kept man to Otohime.

Origin: The Urashima Tarō story is one Japan’s oldest and most well-known legends, so Otohime has appeared in countless tales—from ancient fairy tales to modern manga and anime. Storytellers have long used this famous relationship as a jumping off point for comical spin-offs and parodies about the couple and their offspring.

Otohime’s name is actually a title meaning “second princess.” It was improper to refer to royalty by their given names, so she is only known as Otohime, or “the second princess” of the dragon king. Legends don’t usually mention anything about her older sister, but she would have been called Ehime (“first princess”).

Otohime is commonly associated with certain mythological and religious figures. In Shintō, Otohime is often said to be either Toyotama hime or Tamayori hime, the daughters of the sea god Watatsumi. In Buddhism, she is described as the second daughter of Shagara, the dragon king who rules the sea. The similarities between Shintō and Buddhist myths, centuries of syncretism, and the popular retelling of her tales over the years makes separating Otohime’s various origins from each other difficult, if not impossible.