Storytelling: Devoted

Empress Jinju Goes to War

My husband was a great warrior and adventurer in his time.  In fact, he is still revered throughout all of Japan.  He was not, however, a good husband.  I have had centuries upon centuries to think about my life.  The only real regret that I have is that I was so devoted to that jerk.  I was so devoted to him that I died to save him.  What a waste.  In the moment, I didn’t think about all the crap he had put me through.  All I thought was, “oh no, I can’t let my husband die!”  It was really stupid of me. 

The fool had been cheating on me with a siren.  Not only that, but the siren was only using him and he never suspected a thing!  The creature put him through many trials.  First off, there was this boar.  Then there was this evil deer thing.  I mean, really, having an evil deer as one of your great trials?  Come on, that’s pathetic.  There was even this great fire that almost killed him.  Not only that, but his own horses almost trampled him to death as well.  If it wasn’t for my dumb butt saving him and all his men, he would have been dead meat.  To make matters worse, I received extreme burns while saving him from the fire.  Did I get even a small thanks?  No!  Instead, he told me that I was hideous and he told me to stay hidden away until my burns healed and my scorched hair grew back.  Screw him. 

Somehow, he got the Goddess of Love and Mercy to help him on his journeys too.  I’ll never understand that one.  The man didn’t know the first thing about love.  Soon, he realized the siren had fooled him.  As soon as he figured it out, he just had to go and confront her.  The creature wrapped him up and almost drowned him.  She refused to give him up.  It was only through my devotion to him that he was saved.  I helped him and then got attacked by some dragon.  That definitely was not my day. 

After my husband woke up, he defeated the dragon.  Thankfully, things eventually settled down.  I thought, finally, that maybe things could get back on track and we could repair our relationship.  Nope.  He just had to go on one last adventure, then he swore that we would live in peace.  I should have known better.  I mean, history doesn’t lie.  So he went on his “final” adventure.  Turns out he was going to fight the siren’s dad.  Not only was it the dragon he thought he defeated, but he was the God of the Sea!  What a stupid idea it was to take on that type of creature!  The dragon almost killed him.  He would have died for sure if I hadn’t jumped in the water and sacrificed myself instead.  I was such an idiot.

Author’s note:  The story I focused on was the tale of Yamato.  While reading it, I was really irritated with how terrible Yamato was to his wife and how often she had to save him.  Despite that, he got all the glory and she was still crazy devoted to him.  I wanted to write my story about her realizing how terrible he actually was.  I made sure to include all the main points and adventures that Yamato goes through, because I think it was an important part of the story.  .

Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).