Ok, so things got a little hectic this week and I didn't get around to posting a bit of culture information. To make up for it, I'm taking a break from my studies to bring you a DOUBLE HEADER! That's right! Two posts in one sitting! The first (this one!) is about a subject near and dear to my heart. Mythology and legends, this one with blurred lines entering into history a bit. Because that's what Japan is at the very heart of the culture. It's all the myths, legends, and history stretching back so far that the lines blur and one becomes the other. This particular myth is one I did a brief presentation on two weeks ago now.
So, our story begins in the deepest reaches of Japanese myth recorded in the Nihonshogi. This is one of the first recorded histories of Japan and was first completed in around 720 AD. The story takes place much much further back than that in the dawn of time.
To set the stage, you need to know the main character. Osusanoo, the Shinto god of storms was the youngest of three sibling gods born when the great god washed his face upon returning from the underworld. That's a different story though. The main point is, that he's the youngest of three, and just like many last-born children, he's got a chip on his shoulder and a temper. He and his older sister, the sun goddess Amatarasu have an ongoing feud and Sasunoo ends up getting himself kicked out of the heavens by the other gods when he destroys Amatarasu's fields, kills one of her servants, and throws a flayed pony at her. She goes into hiding, he's kicked out of heaven, no body is happy.
Our story really begins when he lands on the Earthly realm. He lands along the banks of the River Hii and as he's collecting himself, notices chopsticks floating down stream. Deciding to see who lives up river, he heads that way, following the banks. Eventually, he comes across an elderly couple of earthly Kami (read as earthly gods) crying with their daughter. Upon asking them why they're crying, he discovers that the daughter they're crying with is actually their 8th daughter, and youngest. The other 7 however were all sacrificed to the eight headed, eight tailed serpent Yamata no Orochi one at a time for the last 7 years.
Sasunoo offers his help in exchange for the young daughter's hand in marriage. Of course, being earthly kami, they demand to know why some stranger is worthy of their daughter, who is also a goddess. He basically lays down the law, tells them he's really a heavenly kami, brother to Amatarasu, and they'd better get with the program. They immediately agree to the arrangement and apologize for doubting him. So, Sasunoo turns his bride to be into a comb for safe keeping, and tucks her into his hair. That's right... He needed to keep her safe, so he decided to turn her into a fashion accessory and wear her around.
Sasunoo tells the earthly kami to brew the strongest sake (rice wine - 酒 or さけ) they can, as it's well known (at least in Japanese mythology) that serpents can't resist sake. They also build a fence around their home, leaving eight gates, each with a huge platform and vat to contain the sake. When they finish, they have brewed eight-fold sake, the strongest possible. They fill the vats at each gate and then wait. Sasunoo readies his sword when Yamata no Orochi arrives and drinks. The great serpent drinks itself to sleep, and passes out with one head in each vat. Sasunoo strikes, wielding his "ten-fist-sword" and cutting the great serpent to ribbons, causing the river Hii to run red with its blood.
As he's destroying the body of the beast, he breaks his sword cutting one of its eight tails up. Inside, he finds another sword, this one more mighty and finely crafted than his own. It turns out to be Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, the sword that would become the legendary "grass-cutting-sword" of the Japanese Imperial family. He offers the sword to his sister by way of apology and she accepts, having been tricked into leaving her cave by others before the events with Yamata no Orochi concluded. Then, he returns to Earth and marries the daughter of the earthly kami, Kushinada-hima and settles down in the Izumo region, constructing one of the first Shrines and palaces there. Their granddaughter is the wife of the first Emperor of Japan, helping secure the Imperial family's rule as divine, as they are descended of the Sun goddess and her kin.
Thus, Japanese Mythology tied into it's earliest history. The sword, the granddaughter, and some of the other things are historically accurate, though of course ties to the heavenly or divine are fictional, and the actual details are very unclear. One theory is that the story is actually about the taming of the Hii river region for use in irrigation of rice fields by the earliest farmers there.
The mythology still impacts modern Japan in many ways. First, the artifacts from these events and characters are enshrined at Shinto shrines around the country, and at specific holidays, there are rituals performed in the form of dances, traditional songs, and in some cases acts to appease and thank the spirits that reside there. Sasunoo and Yamato no Orochi appear in numerous places in pop culture even today.
Another interesting theory is that the myth originates from myths brought to Japan from South West Asia and India, dating back even further. The evidence for this is that the trope seems to spread from that region and give birth to similar myths throughout the eastern hemisphere. In Norse mythology, there is Thor (a storm god) riding the apocalyptic worm Jormungdr. In Greek and Roman myth, there's Hercules and the hydra that he defeated. There are others as well, though those are the ones I'm most familiar with. The idea of these myths originating back even further ties in really well with a theory and evidence I've been scrapping together that all mythology and religion has more or less the same origin. But that's conjecture for another time as well.
Stay tuned for more recent (and solidly real) events in the next part of the Double Header!
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