Description (English and Japanese) - Wordgathering

My Son’s Favorite God Is the One His Parents Threw Away

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A Japanese welfare journalist discovers that her disabled son has found his deepest sense of identity in Hiruko—the firstborn god of Japanese mythology, cast into the sea by his divine parents for being born “imperfect.” But Hiruko doesn’t die. In later folklore, he washes ashore, is taken in by a fisherman, and becomes Ebisu—one of Japan’s most beloved deities, the god of luck and prosperity. Through her son’s eyes, the author confronts the gap between her professional understanding of disability and the lived reality of raising a disabled child in Japan, navigating guilt, divorce, and the ancient myths that hold truths no policy paper ever could.

日本の福祉ジャーナリストである筆者は、障害のある息子が日本神話の蛭子命——「不完全」に生まれたことを理由に神である両親に海へ流された最初の子——に、自分自身を重ねていたことを知る。しかし蛭子は死なない。後の伝承で岸に流れ着き、漁師に拾われ、恵比寿——日本で最も親しまれる幸運と繁栄の神——になる。息子のまなざしを通じて、筆者は障害に対する職業的な理解と、日本で障害のある子を育てるという生きられた現実との隔たりに向き合う。罪悪感、離婚、そしてどんな政策文書にも書けない真実を宿す古代神話とともに。