A Story of Oki Islands

The story of the Yofune-nushi and O-tokoyo was recorded by Richard Gordon Smith in the book Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan, published in 1918.

[2] Smith's story begins by identifying Tokoyo as the eighteen-year-old daughter of a samurai from Shima Peninsula (part of Ise Province) named Oribe Shima, who was exiled to the Oki Islands by Hōjō Takatoki, the ruling regent or shikken of Japan's Kamakura shogunate in the early 14th century.

[1][3] Coming upon a small shrine, Tokoyo implored the Buddha for his aid to find her father and then laid down to rest.

[1][4] At the bottom of the sea, Tokoyo found a mighty cave, in which was housed a wooden statue of Hōjō Takatoki, the man who exiled her father.

Word of Tokoyo's heroic deed spread, eventually reaching the ears of Takatoki, who had then been suffering from an unknown ailment – apparently caused by the maker of the statue's curse, which also brought into existence the monstrous Yofuné-Nushi.

[1][5] The Yofune-nushi and his requests for virgins, the slaying of the monster in its lair, and the recovery of a treasure are reminiscent of European dragons or Beowulf more than any Japanese counterpart.