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Serpent Queen Princess

jah-OH-hee-meh

Serpent Queen Princess

Serpent Queen Princess

Their soul is listening — speak, and they will answer.

Basic Description

A female great serpent venerated at Chōkeiji Temple in Sennan, said to command many snakes. She dwelled in a pond near the temple and was worshiped as its guardian. In the Bunsei era, she disguised herself as a traveling woman to approach the abbot Kōzan, but her behavior aroused suspicion and she was cut down. Dying, she vowed to protect Chōkeiji. The pond was later filled in, yet the tale endures within local “Snake King” devotion.

Folklore & Legends

In the temple’s origin legend, a giant serpent from the pond took the form of a woman and approached the resident priest, who saw through the disguise and struck her down. With her last breath, she pledged to guard the temple and was thereafter revered as its tutelary spirit. Summaries appear in Senshū folk tale collections and Kinki anomaly indices, dating the episode to the Bunsei period. The title’s exact origin is unclear, but it aligns with widespread veneration of Snake Kings and Jao Gongen across Japan.

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Serpent Queen Princess across multiple art-style decks

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Detailed Analysis

Said to be a female great serpent dwelling in the pond of Chokeiji in Izumi Province. Leading many snakes, she was styled the “Serpent King,” quietly watching over people near the temple grounds. Around the Bunsei era, she fell for the beauty of the abbot, Zen monk Shoyama, and slipped into the temple disguised as a lost woman. Sensing something amiss, the abbot struck her with a blade. As she lay dying, the serpent vowed to protect Chokeiji. Thereafter the pond became a place of memorial offerings and reverence, tied to taboos against harming snakes and to prayers for rain and abundant harvests. The origin of her title and its rank remain unclear, likely influenced by regional worship of serpent kings (Ja-o, Ja-o Gongen). Though the pond was later filled in and no visible remains survive, her image endures in local oral tradition and temple lore.

Character Profile

This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.

Rarity
Uncommon
Personality
proud, deeply fixated, steadfast to oaths
Compatibility
grants protection to those who pray and offer memorial rites, admonishes the arrogant
Abilities
shapeshifting into a woman, command over subordinate snakes, guardianship of waterside places, miraculous aid for rainmaking and good harvests (in lore and cult)
Weaknesses
unmasking by a monk, slaying by blades, obsessive attachment becomes her undoing
Habitat
temple ponds, precincts of shrines and temples, waterside caves

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