The Tsuchigumo Were Not Spiders

On an old mountain path in Kyoto, a man saw a human figure.

The night was deep, the moonlight shining through the breaks in the clouds was unreliable, and the scent of soil and grass after the rain hung heavy on the mountainside.

As he moved away from the capital, the path grew narrower until it was indistinguishable from a game trail, yet he could still tell that someone was standing there.

It was a small man, his unnaturally long arms hanging down, watching him as if waiting for something.

"Who is there?"

Even when the man asked, there was no reply.

Just as he reached for his sword, another figure appeared from behind the first man, and then another, and another, revealing themselves one by one.

Before he knew it, more than ten people were standing across the path; there were old men, women, and even children among them. None of them appeared to be carrying weapons, but their gazes as they stared at him were strangely quiet.

"Who are you?"

Finally, the man standing at the front answered.

"We are those who live here."

"What are your names?"

To that question, the man did not answer immediately; he remained silent for a while, then spoke as if he himself found it strange.

"We have no names."

"How can there be a people without names?"

When he said this, the man smiled just a little.

"Then you may give us some."

A few days later, their settlement was attacked.

Soldiers from the capital destroyed the dwellings scattered across the mountain slope, filled in the holes, drove away those who tried to flee, and took some of the survivors into custody.

Some resisted, but most scattered deep into the mountains, and from that point on, almost nothing remained in the records.

The official tasked with recording events paused his brush before the report and asked his superior.

How shall I record these people?

The superior thought for a moment and replied that he should simply write that they were people who did not submit to the Imperial Court. However, the official persisted, saying that would not be a proper name.

The superior then replied that since they lurked in holes in the ground, fled in a low posture, and their limbs appeared strangely long, he should choose a name that reflected those characteristics.

The official took up his brush once more.

Earth,Spider,Spider

That became their name.

By the time a hundred years had passed, almost no one who had actually seen them remained.

Even so, the records remained, and it came to be said that long ago, there were people in this land called Tsuchigumo.

Eventually, someone who read those words began to think that since they were called Tsuchigumo, they must have been spiders.

Another hundred years later, the story became a bit more specific.

If they lived in holes, perhaps they were spiders larger than humans?

Perhaps they attacked people in the mountains, spat silk, and possessed poison?

And surely, the person who defeated such a monster must have been a hero.

Thus, the story changed shape little by little, and those who might have been human ceased to be human.

Several hundred years later, a picture scroll depicted a giant spider.

Before the monster, which bared its fangs, spread its countless legs, and spat white silk to ensnare people, stood a warrior with his sword drawn.

People looking at the scroll were amazed that such terrifying yokai once existed, and praised the warrior who defeated it as a hero.

However, if one looked closely at the pattern on the spider's abdomen, several things resembling human faces were hidden within it.

An old man, a woman, a child.

And in the very back, there was the face of the man who had once been asked his name on a mountain path and had replied, "I have no name."

More time passed, and in a modern laboratory, I was opening the Kojiki.

The "Tsuchigumo" recorded there were completely different from the giant spiders we see in monster encyclopedias.

They are depicted as a group that gathered in the great chamber of Oshi-saka, were called the Eighty Braves, and were defeated through strategy; there is no mention of them spitting silk or being eight-legged monsters.

When I opened the Nihon Shoki, the Tsuchigumo were there as well.

Although there are grotesque descriptions of them being short with long limbs, they are still recorded as beings who occupied the land and did not submit to royal authority.

As I turned the pages, a single question would not leave my mind.

When, exactly, did they become spiders?

As I read further, an even more unsettling question emerged.

Did they really call themselves "Tsuchigumo"?

Or was that name given to them by the side that defeated them and was able to write the records about them?

If that is the case, the question of "who were the Tsuchigumo" is no longer just a story about uncovering the true identity of a monster.

Who was recorded as human, and who was recorded as a grotesque being?

Who was able to leave their own name behind, and who only left behind a name given to them by others?

And who stood on the side that wrote history, and who ended up on the side that was written about?

To confirm that boundary, simply continuing the story is no longer enough.

From here on, there is no choice but to read the historical documents.

The continuation of this short story

The Formation and Transformation of the "Tsuchigumo" Representation in Ancient Japan

--From Royalist Representations of the Other to Reconstruction into Medieval Tales of the Strange--

Comparing the 'Tsuchigumo' (earth spiders) in the Kojiki, the 'Tsuchigumo' in the Nihon Shoki, and the records remaining in various local gazetteers (Fudoki) reveals a figure different from the 'giant spider yokai' image that has become established in modern times.

In this paper, rather than concluding that the Tsuchigumo were a single ethnic group or a 'lost indigenous people,' I will re-examine them as one form of representation of the 'other' in the historical narratives of the ancient monarchy.

Furthermore, I will examine why those who did not submit to the monarchy were depicted as physically grotesque, and why they were later reconstructed in the medieval period as monsters defeated by Minamoto no Yorimitsu, drawing from the perspectives of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Fudoki, medieval tales, and the history of representation.

I will also consider how far recent advancements in ancient DNA research can approach this issue, under the premise of not confusing literary categories with genetic populations.

Were the Tsuchigumo really spiders?

Or have we simply accepted a name that someone else gave them as the literal form of a monster?

Starting from that question, I would like to re-read the 'unwritten side' of ancient Japanese history.

Please see this article for more details.

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