Shiranui (Mysterious Sea Fires)

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📖 Detailed Description

Among the shiranui, the Parent Fire Guide of Hassaku is a high-ranking variant that appears before dawn on the first day of the eighth lunar month. A single reddish light, sometimes two, first kindles several kilometers offshore, called the parent fire by villagers. It then splits to either side birthing child lights, until hundreds and thousands form a single horizontal line. People say the line may stretch four to eight ri, invisible from the surf but clearly seen from headlands or heights a few ken above the tide wind. When the ebb runs deepest, about the hour around midnight, the flames breathe in unison, and distant watchers see a shimmer like dragon scales flickering beneath the waves. If chased the lights retreat, if neared they draw away. Launch a boat to seize them and they slip aside with the shadow of the current, allowing no approach while indicating only the heading home. Old records tell that when Emperor Keikō’s boat was wrapped in darkness, this parent fire rose far ahead and turned his prow toward shore. For this reason villagers revered the nameless fire, ceasing their nets and resting their oars at midnight on Hassaku, waiting for the line to unspool. The Parent Fire Guide is linked to the presence of a stormy dragon god, yet it shuns harming people and instead warns against arrogance and haste. Boats that grasp for quick profit wander bewildered along the line and must furl their sails, while those who heed the tide climb a shore pine to read the fire’s breathing and slip out quietly with the break in the lights. Offshore shoals then prove gentler than expected, and on the return the embers sway by the coastal shadow to welcome the boat. So pure is the parent fire that villagers murmur Thousand Lanterns or Dragon Lantern and press their hands in prayer, but if people call it coarsely and jeer, the line breaks at once and scatters into beach fog. Wind does not fan it larger, it waxes and wanes only by the pulse of the tide. Thus from capes and mounds it appears a tidy band, while from the wave edge it cannot be seen. They say the Parent Fire Guide can even shift the angle of shrine shimenawa by the sea and the hue of lighthouse flames, and when the sacred rope bows slightly seaward at night, it is a sign that far offshore the lights are being born. Elders who know this tell young crews, Today the tide falls and the fire will rise, refrain from sailing. Unlike man-made flames it leaves no ash or smoke. Only at one hour after dawn do shells on the flats shine pale rose, and dew on reed tips holds the fire’s afterglow. On such mornings villagers cast salt upon the beach and give thanks for the lives guided by the fire. The Parent Fire Guide opens the way to those who know awe and courtesy, withdraws from the overproud, and quietly redraws the boundary between sea and humankind.