Japanese mythology
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Japanese mythology and folklore Template:Shinto Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The history of thousands of years of contact with Chinese and various Indian myths (such as Buddhist and Hindu mythology) are also key influences in Japanese religious belief.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":11">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Japanese myths are tied to the topography of the archipelago as well as agriculturally-based folk religion, and the Shinto pantheon holds uncountable kami ("god(s)" or "spirits").<ref name=":0" />
Two important sources for Japanese myths, as they are recognized today, are the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1" /> The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, or "Record of Ancient Matters," is the oldest surviving account of Japan's myths, legends, and history.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Additionally, the Shintōshū describes the origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
One notable feature of Japanese mythology is its explanation of the origin of the Imperial Family, which has been used historically to deify to the imperial line.<ref name=":3" />
Japanese is not transliterated consistently across all sources (see spelling of proper nouns).
SourcesEdit
Japanese myths are passed down through oral tradition, through literary sources (including traditional art), and through archaeological sources.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> For much of Japan's history, communities were mostly isolated, which allowed for local legends and myths to grow around unique features of the geographic location where the people who told the stories lived.<ref name=":0" />
Literary sourcesEdit
The Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, completed in A.D. 712 and A.D. 720 respectively, had the two most referenced and oldest sources of Japanese mythology and pre-history.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Written in the Eighth century, under the Yamato state, the two collections relate the cosmogony and mythic origins of the Japanese archipelago, its people, and the imperial family.<ref name=":22">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1" /> It is based on the records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki that the imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu and her grandson Ninigi.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
Emperor Temmu enlisted the help of Hiyeda no Are who committed to memory the history of Japan as it was recorded in two collections that are thought by historians to have existed before the Kojiki and Nihongi.<ref name=":0" /> Under Empress Gemmei's rule, Hideya no Are's memory of the history of the Japanese archipelago and its mythological origins were recorded in spite of Emperor Temmu's death before its completion.<ref name=":0" /> As a result of Hideya no Are's account, the Kojiki was finally completed, transcribed in kanji characters, during Empress Genshō's time as sovereign.<ref name=":0" /> The Yamato state also produced fudoki and Man'yōshū, two more of the oldest surviving texts that relate the historical and mythical origins of Japan's people, culture, and the imperial family.<ref name=":22" />
Motoori Norinaga, an Edo-period Japanese scholar, interpreted Kojiki and his commentary, annotations, and use of alternate sources to supplement his interpretations are studied by scholars today because of their influence on the current understanding of Japanese myths.<ref name=":1" />
Archaeological sourcesEdit
Archaeologists studying the history of the Japanese Archipelago separate the prehistoric history into three eras based on attributes of the discoveries associated with each era.<ref name=":11" /> The Jōmun period marks the first cases of pottery found on the archipelago, followed by the Yayoi period and the Kofun period.<ref name=":11" /> The Yayoi district of the Japanese capital Tokyo, is the namesake of the Yayoi period because archaeologists discovered pottery associated with the time period there.<ref name=":11" />
Contact with Korean civilization in the latter part of the Yayoi period influenced the culture of the Japanese Archipelago greatly, as evidenced by the discovery of artifacts that archaeologists associate with various cultural streams from Korea, and northeast Asia.<ref name=":11" /> Finally, Kofun period artifacts, ranging from A.D. 250 to A.D. 600, are the archaeological sources of what historians know about the Yamato kingdom — the same Yamato state that was responsible for the two most prominent literary sources of Japanese myth, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":22" />
CosmogonyEdit
Origins of Japan and the kamiEdit
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Kuniumi and KamiumiEdit
Japan's archipelago creation narrative can be divided into the birth of the deities (Kamiumi) and the birth of the land (Kuniumi). The birth of the deities begins with the appearance of the first generation of gods who appeared out of primordial oil, a trio of gods who produced the next seven generations of gods.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref> Izanagi and Izanami were eventually born, siblings, and using a naginata decorated with jewels, named Ame-no-nuhoko ("Heavenly Jeweled Spear") that was gifted to them. Izanagi created the first islands of the Japanese Archipelago by dipping the Naginata into the primordial waters.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":5" /> Historians have interpreted the myth of Izanagi's creation of the first Japanese Island Onogoro as an early example of phallocentrism in Japanese mythology.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />
The earliest creation myths of Japanese mythology generally involve topics such as death, decay, loss, infanticide, and contamination.<ref name=":4" /> The creation myths place great importance on purification, ceremonial order, and the masculine.<ref name=":4" /> For example, the first child born to Izanagi and Izanami after they attempt a union ceremony is born with no limbs or bones, and the parents discard the child by sending him to sea in a boat.<ref name=":4" /> When Izanagi and Izanami ask the older gods why their child was born without bones or limbs, they are told it was because they did not conduct the ceremony properly and that the male must always speak before the female.<ref name=":4" /> Once they follow the directions of the older gods correctly, they produce many children, many of whom are the islands of the Japanese Archipelago.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> Among their children are the Ōyashima, or the eight great islands of Japan — Awaji, Iyo, Oki, Tsukushi, Iki, Tsushima, Sado, and Yamato.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The last child that Izanami produces is a fire god, Kagutsuchi (incarnation of fire), whose flames kill her; and Izanagi murders the child in grief-driven anger.<ref name=":4" /> The child's corpse creates even more gods.<ref name=":4" /> Izanami was then buried on Mount Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hoki, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Scholars of Japanese mythology have noted the incestuous themes of the creation myth as represented in the Kojiki, and the first scholar to write about Izanagi and Izanami as siblings was Oka Masao.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite journal</ref> Izanami is referred to in the Kojiki as Izanagi's imo (meaning both wife or little sister in Japanese) and other scholars dispute that the pair were siblings.<ref name=":6" /> Hattori Asake, another scholar, argued that Oka was correct because he drew evidence from another myth about humans who had incestuous relations because of a great flood wiping out the rest of the human population.<ref name=":6" /> Essentially, Hattori said the myth Oka used as evidence was too different to be the origin of the Izanagi and Izanami myth.<ref name=":6" /> In the Man'yōshū, Izanami is also referred to as imo by the compiler, suggesting that the compiler believed that Izanami was Izanagi's sister.<ref name=":6" /> While scholars disagree about the nature of Izanami and Izanagi's relationships, the gods Amaterasu and Susanoo, children of Izanagi, were sibling gods who created children together in a contest preceding Susanoo's desecration of Amaterasu's home which leads to her hiding in a cave.<ref name=":6" /> A unique aspect of Japanese mythology is its inclusion of graphic details, with disgusting and horrific images that are considered to be taboo in modern Japanese society, which has many cultural practices associated with purification and cleanliness.<ref name=":4" />
YomiEdit
After Izanami's death, the myth of Izanagi's efforts to rescue her from Yomi, an underworld described in Japanese mythology, explains the origins of the cycle of birth and death.<ref name=":0" /> After killing their child Kagutsuchi, Izanagi was still grief-stricken, so he undertook the task of finding a way to bring Izanami back from the dead.<ref name=":4" /> After finally locating her, he disobeyed her order to not look at her while she went to ask permission to leave Yomi.<ref name=":4" /> He used his hair to create a flame, and when he gazed at Izanami's rotting, maggot-filled flesh he fled in fear and disgust.<ref name=":4" /> Izanami felt betrayed and tried to capture him, but he escaped by creating obstacles for Izanami's horde of shikome including using peaches to threaten them. The myth of Izanagi's journey into Yomi features many themes of food, he creates grapes to distract the shikome who stop to eat them, granting him time to escape. The peaches he uses to scare the shikome off are then blessed, and peaches appear in many other Japanese myths, especially the tale of Momotarō the peach boy.<ref name=":5" />Template:Page needed
The Sun, Moon, and StormEdit
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The origins of the Sun and the Moon are accounted for in Japanese mythology through the myth of Izanagi's return from Yomi.<ref name=":0" /> After spending so much time in Yomi, Izanagi cleansed himself with a purification ceremony.<ref name=":4" /> As Izanagi cleansed himself, the water and robes that fell from his body created many more gods.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0" /> Purification rituals still function as important traditions in Japan today, from shoe etiquette in households to sumo wrestling purification ceremonies.<ref name=":4" /> Amaterasu, the Sun goddess and divine ancestor of the first Emperor Jimmu, was born from Izanagi's eye.<ref name=":0" /> The Moon god and Susanoo the storm god were born at the same time as Amaterasu, when Izanagi washed his face.<ref name=":0" />
Myths related the Sun, the Moon, and the Storm kami are full of strife and conflict.<ref name=":4" /> The Sun goddess and her sibling the moon god's interpersonal conflicts explain, in Japanese myth, why the Sun and the Moon do not stay in the sky at the same time — their distaste for one another keeps them both turning away from the other.<ref name=":0" /> Meanwhile, the sun goddess and the storm god Susanoo's conflicts were intense and bloody.<ref name=":4" /> Various accounts of Susanoo's temper tantrum in Amaterasu's home depict a variety of disgusting and brutal behaviors (everything from smearing his feces across her home's walls to skinning her favorite horse alive and throwing it at her maid and killing the maid) but it is usually, in depictions of this particular myth, Susanoo's behavior that scares Amaterasu into hiding in a cave.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> It would take the combined efforts of many other kami, and the erotic dance of a particular goddess named Ame no Uzume, to lure Amaterasu from the cave again.<ref name=":7" /> Ame no Uzume exposed herself while dancing and created such commotion that Amaterasu peeked out from her cave.<ref name=":2" /> The myth of Amaterasu's entering and emerging from a cave is depicted in one of the most iconic images of Japanese mythology which is shown to the right.
The sun goddess Amaterasu's importance in Japanese mythology is two-fold. She is the sun, and one of Izanagi's most beloved of children, as well as the ancestor of the Japanese imperial line, according to legend.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7" /> Her status as a sun goddess had political ramifications for the imperial family, and the Yamato state most likely benefited from the myth when dealing with Korean influences because Korea also had myths of sun god ancestors for the Korean imperial family.<ref name=":2" />
First Emperor JimmuEdit
The tale of first Emperor Jimmu is considered the origin of the Imperial family.<ref name=":0" /> Emperor Jimmu is considered to be the human descendant of Amaterasu the Sun goddess.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":22" /> His ascension to the throne marked the "Transition from Age of the Gods to Human Age".<ref>Metevelis, Peter (1983). A Reference Guide to the Nihonshoki Myths, Asian Folklore Studies. Vol 52, No 2, p. 383–8.</ref> After taking control of Yamato province, he established the imperial throne and acceded in the year of kanototori (conventionally dated to 660 B.C.).<ref name=":11" /> At the end of the seventh century, the Imperial court finally moved from where Emperor Jimmu was said to have founded it in Yamato.<ref name=":0" />
The importance of this myth in particular is that it establishes the origins, and the power, of the Japanese imperial family as divine.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":11" /> Although some scholars believe that the myths found in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki are meant to give authority to the imperial family, others suggest that the myths in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki are unique accounts meant to give authority to the mythic histories in themselves.<ref name=":22" /> The Nihon Shoki and Kojiki have varying accounts of the mythic history of Japan, and there are differences in the details of the origins of the imperial family between the two texts.<ref name=":22" /> The imperial dynasty still has a role as a public symbol of the state and people, according to the current constitution of Japan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Japanese pantheonEdit
Japanese gods and goddesses, called kami, are uniquely numerous (there are at least eight million) and varied in power and stature.<ref name=":0" /> They are usually descendants from the original trio of gods that were born from nothing in the primordial oil that was the world before the kami began to shape it.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> There are easily as many kami in Japanese myth as there are distinct natural features, and most kami are associated with natural phenomena.<ref name=":0" /> Kami can take many shapes and forms, some look almost human in depictions found by archaeologists; meanwhile, other kami look like hybrids of humans and creatures, or may not look human at all. One example of a kami who looks almost human in depictions is the ruler of the Seas Ryujin.<ref name=":0" /> On the other hand, kami like Ninigi and Amaterasu are often depicted as human in their forms.<ref name=":0" />
Shinto originated in Japan, and the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki tell the tales of the Shinto pantheon's origins.<ref name=":0" /> Shinto is still practiced today in Japan. In Shinto belief, kami has multiple meanings and could also be translated as "spirit" and all objects in nature have a kami according to this system.<ref name=":0" /> Myths often tell stories of particular, local deities and kami; for example, the kami of a mountain or a nearby lake.<ref name=":0" /> Most kami take their origins from Shinto beliefs, but the influence of Buddhism also affected the pantheon.<ref name=":0" /> Contact with other cultures usually had some influence on Japanese myth. In the fourteenth century, Christianity found its way to Japan through St. Francis Xavier and there was also contact with westerners.<ref name=":0" /> However, during the Tokugawa shogunate Christians were executed in Japan.<ref name=":0" /> Twenty Christians were crucified before that while Toyotomi Hideyoshi was consolidating his power after the assassination of Oda Nobunaga.<ref name=":0" /> Christianity was banned in Japan until well into the nineteenth century.<ref name=":0" />
Folklore heroesEdit
As in other cultures, Japanese mythology accounts for not only the actions of supernatural beings but also the adventures and lives of folk heroes. There are many Japanese heroes that are associated with specific locations in Japan, and others that are more well known across the archipelago.<ref name=":0" /> Some heroes are thought to have been real people, such as the Forty-seven rōnin, but their legacy has been transformed into great folktales that depict the historical figures as more gifted, powerful, or knowledgeable than the average person.<ref name=":0" /> The heroic adventures of these heroes range from acts of kindness and devotion, such as the myth of Shita-kiri Suzume, to battling frightful enemies, as in the tale of Momotaro. <ref name=":5" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Themes that appear in the folklore concerning heroes are moral lessons, or stories that function as parables. The tale of Shita-kiri Suzume, for example, warns of the dangers of greed, avarice, and jealousy through the example of an old couple's experiences with a fairy who disguised herself as a sparrow to test the old man.<ref name=":5" /> The influence of Bushido is noticeable in the behavior of heroes, and heroes often were also warriors.<ref name=":0" /> Momotaro, born from a peach for a childless couple to raise, is a mythic hero who embodied courage and dutifulness as he went on a journey to defeat oni who were kidnapping, raping, and pillaging his home island.<ref name=":0" /> The tale of Momotaro also shares in the themes of violence, sexual violence, and deities or demons devouring humans.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref> Stories of sexual violence are common in the Buddhist text Nihon ryōiki, while stories of people being devoured by mountain deities are found as if they are historical accounts in the fudoki.<ref name=":10" /> In Japanese folklore, heroes like Momotaro rescue women from violent kami and oni. Although the exploits of heroes are well known, Japanese mythology also featured heroines.<ref name=":0" /> Ototachibana, the wife of Yamato Takeru, threw herself into the sea to save her husband's ship and quell the wrath of the storm that threatened them.<ref name=":0" /> Yamato Takeru, once safe, built a tomb for her and his mourning utterance for his wife caused Eastern Honshu to be called Adzuma.<ref name=":0" />
Mythological creaturesEdit
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Jorōgumo spider: The Jorōgumo spider is commonly known as a member of the Yōkai myths. The myth begins in a waterfall near the city of Izu. A man had been working long hours, and decided to take a nap. He rested near, the waterfall and there is when Jorōgumo, caught her first prey. Taking on the persona of a beautiful woman, the man simply thought she was merely a woman. After she saw he was asleep, she quickly turned to her true form, top half a beautiful woman and the bottom half is a spider. The man awoke in a web, and was lucky enough to escape said web, to tell the tale to local citizens. Unfortunately, a lumberjack who worked in that forest was not lucky enough to escape the mythological creature.
The Jorōgumo spider is commonly told in Japanese folklore. The word itself translate to the meaning,"whore spider". Every story commonly states, that the creature captures it's prey by first seeming like a beautiful women than after seduction is complete turning into the much more bitter better half. This creature is believed to be over 400 years old. There is said to be a male version of this horrific creature, commonly called the Tschuigumo.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Ainu mythology
- Japanese Buddhism
- Japanese folklore
- Japanese urban legends
- Kami
- Kamui
- Kuni-yuzuri
- List of Japanese deities
- Seven Lucky Gods
- Hōsōshin demon
- Shinto
- Yokai
- Yurei
- Kaiju
Spelling of proper nounsEdit
ReferencesEdit
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External linksEdit
- Romance stories from old Japan, pre-1919—Free to read and full-text search.
- A Multilingual Electronic Text Collection of Folk Tales for Casual Users Using Off-the-Shelf Browsers