1.
Oni (video game)
–
Oni is a third-person action video game developed by Bungie West, a division of Bungie. Released in 2001, it was Bungie Wests only game and it broke new ground by blending third-person shooting with hand-to-hand combat. A PlayStation 2 port was developed by Rockstar Canada, there are ten different guns in Oni, including handguns, rifles, rocket launchers, and energy weapons. Power-ups such as hyposprays, which damage, and cloaking devices. Since the player can carry one weapon at a time and ammunition is scarce, hand-to-hand combat is the most effective. The player can punch, kick, and throw enemies, progressing into later levels unlocks stronger moves, there are multiple classes of enemy, each with its own style of unarmed combat. Each class is subdivided into tiers of increasing strength, as in Bungies earlier Marathon titles, tiers are color-coded, in this case by green, blue, and red. Also color-coded are the levels of each opponent has, indicated by a flash when the player strikes or shoots them. Green flashes show the opponent has high health, red flashes show the enemy is near death, Oni does not confine the player to fighting small groups of enemies in small arenas, each area is fully open to explore. The fourteen levels are of various sizes, some large enough to comprise an entire building, Bungie hired two architects to design the buildings. The Oni engine implements a method of interpolation that tweens key frames, however, frame slippage is a common problem when multiple non-player characters near the player are attacking. Oni takes place in a dystopian 2032, earth has become so polluted that little of it remains habitable. To solve international crises, various nations have combined into a single entity, the World Coalition Government. The WGC is based on a class system and mostly only cares about the upper class. Griffin frequently consults with the TCTF scientist Dr. Kerr, who repeatedly expresses doubts about sending Konoko into the field, Konokos first assignment is to infiltrate a warehouse the Syndicate uses to smuggle contraband. The TCTF had previously sent in a mole named Chung to investigate, Konoko finds Chungs body, his notes lead Konoko to a company named Musashi. While investigating the Musashi headquarters, Konoko suspects that the Syndicate intentionally planted notes on Chungs body to lead the TCTF to Musashi as a diversion, Griffin confirms that the Syndicate are attacking the headquarters of a firm named Vago Biotech. Konoko heads to Vago and confronts one of Muros lieutenants, a human named Barabas
Oni (video game)
–
Oni
Oni (video game)
–
Konoko using a move effective on multiple enemies, the Devil Spin Kick.
2.
Japanese mythology
–
Japanese mythology embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally-based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami and this article will discuss only the typical elements present in Asian mythology, such as cosmogony, important deities, and the best-known Japanese stories. Japanese myths, as recognized in the mainstream today, are based on the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki. The Kojiki, or Record of Ancient Matters, is the oldest surviving account of Japans myths, legends, the Shintōshū describes the origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective, while the Hotsuma Tsutae records a substantially different version of the mythology. One notable feature of Japanese mythology is its explanation of the origin of the Imperial Family, the title of the Emperor of Japan, tennō, means heavenly sovereign. Later, the seven generations of kami, known as Kamiyonanayo, emerged, following the formation of heaven and earth. The first two generations are individual deities called hitorigami, while the five that followed came into being as male/female pairs of kami, in this chronicle, the Kamiyonanayo comprise 12 deities in total. Japans creation narrative can be divided into the birth of the deities, to help them to achieve this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a naginata decorated with jewels, named Ame-no-nuboko. The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Amenoukihashi and churned the sea below with the halberd, drops of salty water formed the island, Onogoro. The deities descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island, eventually, they fell in love and wished to mate. So they built a pillar called Amenomihashira around which they built a palace called Yashirodono, Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions, and when they met on the other side, Izanami, the female deity, spoke first in greeting. Izanagi didnt think that this was proper, but they mated anyway and they had two children, Hiruko and Awashima, but the children were badly formed and are not considered gods in their original form. The parents, who were dismayed at their misfortune, put the children into a boat and sent them to sea, so Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, and this time, when they met, Izanagi spoke first. Izanami died giving birth to Kagutsuchi, also called Homusubi due to severe burns and she was then buried on Mount Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hoki, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture. His death also created dozens of deities, the gods who were born from Izanagi and Izanami are symbolic aspects of nature and culture. Izanagi lamented the death of Izanami and undertook a journey to Yomi, Izanagi found little difference between Yomi and the land above, except for the eternal darkness. However, this suffocating darkness was enough to make him ache for light, quickly, he searched for Izanami and found her. At first, Izanagi could not see her for she was hidden in the shadows
Japanese mythology
–
Torii at Ama-no-Iwato Shrine,
Takachiho,
Miyazaki Prefecture
Japanese mythology
–
Luck of the Mountains meets Toyotama,in Wadatsumi no Iroko no Miya, painting by
Shigeru Aoki (1907), Ishibashi Museum []
Japanese mythology
–
Tennō Jimmu detail 01
3.
Japanese folklore
–
Japanese folklore encompasses the folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people. In Japanese, the term minkan denshō is used to describe folklore, folklorists also employ the term minzoku shiryō or folklore material to refer to objects and arts they study. Men dressed as namahage, wearing masks and traditional straw capes make rounds of homes. These ogre-men masquerade as kami looking to instill fear in the children who are lazily idling around the fire and this is a particularly colorful example of folk practice still kept alive. A parallel custom is the secretive Akamata-Kuromata ritual of the Yaeyama Islands, many, though increasingly fewer households maintain a kamidana or a small Shinto altar shelf. The Shinto version of the god is the Kamado kami, and the syncretic Buddhist version is the Kōjin. Japanese popular cults or kō are sometimes devoted to particular deities and buddhas, but many cults centered around paying respects to sacred sites such as the Ise Shrine or Mount Fuji. Pilgrimage to these meccas declined after the Edo Period, but recently, the Shikoku Pilgrimage of the eighty-eight temple sites has become fashionable. Popular media and cottage industries now extoll a number of shrines, there is a long list of practices performed to ward evil or expel evil, e. g. sounding the drums. In some areas it is common to place a small mound of salt outside the house, a stock routine in period or even contemporary drama involves a master of the house telling his wife to scatter salt after an undesirable visitor has just left. Contrarily, lighting sparks with flint just as a someone is leaving the house was considered lucky. No one now engages in the silent vigil required by the Kōshin cult, there are certain vestiges of geomancy introduced into Japan from China through Onmyōdō. There is also a Japanese version of Feng Shui known as kasō or literally house physiognomy, closely connected is the Yin-yang path or Onmyōdō, and its concepts such as katatagae also known as kataimi, which was widely practiced by nobles in the Heian Era. A widely known taboo advises against sleeping with your head faced north, as in most developed nations, it is increasingly difficult to find living storytellers of oral tradition. But there is a wealth of folktales collected through the ages, the name mukashi-banashi has been applied to the common folktale, since they typically open with the formula Mukashi. They also close with some set phrase like dotto harai and these tales had been told in their local dialects, which may be difficult to understand to outsiders, both because of intonation and pronunciation differences, conjugations, and vocabulary. Many folktales collected from the field are actually translations into standard Japanese, the versions retold by childrens story author Sazanami Iwaya had a strong hand in establishing the forms usually known today. Two creatures are known for their abilities to transform into humans or other beings and objects
Japanese folklore
–
Namahage exhibit display
Japanese folklore
–
A raccoon dog half transformed into a cauldron hangs from a jizai kagi hook over an
irori hearth (scene from the tale
Bunbuku chagama). (c. 1840s, School of
Hokusai)
Japanese folklore
–
Kuniyoshi Utagawa, The Ghosts, c. 1850.
Japanese folklore
–
Folktales
4.
Mythology
–
Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of such myths. Myths are the people tell to explain nature, history. Myth is a feature of every culture, mythologizing continues, as shown in contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A cultures collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists, the nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science, a disease of language, or a misinterpretation of magical ritual. Recent approaches often view myths as manifestations of psychological, cultural, or societal truths, the term mythology predates the word myth by centuries. It first appeared in the fifteenth-century, borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie, the word mythology, comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythología from μῦθος mythos and -λογία -logia. The word mythología appears in Plato, but was used as a term for fiction or story-telling of any kind, combining mỹthos. From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, from its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs, mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. It came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other cultures around the world. The Greek loanword mythos and Latinate mythus both appeared in English before the first example of myth in 1830, in present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures, dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Lincoln defined myth as ideology in narrative form, scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opted for the term mythos. Its use was similarly pejorative and now commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a plot point or to a collective mythology. The term is distinguished from didactic literature such as fables. Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans, however, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are linked to religion or spirituality
Mythology
–
Prometheus (1868) by
Gustave Moreau. In the mythos of
Hesiodus and possibly
Aeschylus (the
Greek trilogy
Prometheus Bound,
Prometheus Unbound and
Prometheus Pyrphoros), Prometheus is bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity at its creation.
Mythology
–
1929
Belgian banknote, depicting
Ceres,
Neptune and
caduceus.
Mythology
–
Fu Xi and
Nüwa represented as half-snake, half-human creatures
5.
Folklore
–
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
Folklore
–
Horse and Sulky weathervane, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Folklore
–
Hansel and Gretel,
Arthur Rackham, 1909
Folklore
–
The story of
Jahangir and
Anarkali is popular folklore in the former territories of the
Mughal Empire.
6.
Kojiki
–
Kojiki, also known as Furukotofumi, is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four islands of Japan. Along with the Nihon Shoki, the contained in the Kojiki are part of the inspiration behind many practices. Later, the myths were re-appropriated for Shinto practices including the misogi purification ritual, while the historical records and myths are written in a form of Chinese with a heavy mixture of Japanese elements, the songs are written with Chinese characters that are only used to convey sounds. This special use of Chinese characters is called Manyōgana, a knowledge of which is critical to understanding these songs, the Kojiki is divided into three parts, the Kamitsumaki, the Nakatsumaki and the Shimotsumaki. The Kamitsumaki also outlines the myths concerning the foundation of Japan, the Nakatsumaki begins with the story of Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor, and his conquest of Japan, and ends with the 15th Emperor, Emperor Ōjin. Many of the stories in this volume are mythological, and the historical information in them is highly suspect. Recent studies support the view that these emperors were invented to push Jimmus reign further back to the year 660 BC, the Shimotsumaki covers the 16th to 33rd emperors and, unlike previous volumes, has very limited references to the interactions with deities. These interactions are very prominent in the first and second volumes, information about the 24th to the 33rd emperors are largely missing, as well. In the Edo period, Motoori Norinaga studied the Kojiki intensively and he produced a 44-volume study of the Kojiki called Kojiki-den. A translation of the Ko-ji-ki or Records of ancient matters, yokohama, Japan, R. Meiklejohn and Co. Princeton University Press and Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press, the Kojiki, An Account of Ancient Matters. There are two branches of Kojiki manuscripts, Ise and Urabe. The extant Urabe branch consists of 36 existing manuscripts all based on the 1522 copies by Urabe Kanenaga, the Ise branch may be subdivided into the Shinpukuji-bon manuscript of 1371–1372 and the Dōka-bon manuscripts. While divided into the Ise branch, it is actually a mixture of the two branches, the monk Kenyu based his copy on Ōnakatomi Sadayos copy. In 1266, Sadayo copied volumes one and three, but did not have access to the second volume, finally, in 1282, he obtained access to the second volume through a Urabe-branch manuscript that he used to transcribe. Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo International Research Center for Japanese Studies Japanese Historical Text Initiative Historiography of Japan Bentley, the Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi, A New Examination of Texts, With a Translation And Commentary. Japanese historians and the myths, 1600-1945, The Age of the Gods
Kojiki
–
Kojiki-den by Motoori Norinaga
Kojiki
–
Mythic texts
Kojiki
7.
Nihon Shoki
–
The Nihon Shoki, sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. The book is called the Nihongi. The Nihon Shoki was finished in 720 under the supervision of Prince Toneri. It is believed to record accurately the latter reigns of Emperor Tenji, Emperor Tenmu, the Nihon Shoki focuses on the merits of the virtuous rulers as well as the errors of the bad rulers. It describes episodes from mythological eras and diplomatic contacts with other countries, the Nihon Shoki was written in classical Chinese, as was common for official documents at that time. The Kojiki, on the hand, is written in a combination of Chinese. The Nihon Shoki also contains numerous transliteration notes telling the reader how words were pronounced in Japanese, collectively, the stories in this book and the Kojiki are referred to as the Kiki stories. The tale of Urashima Tarō is developed from the mention in Nihon Shoki that a certain child of Urashima visited Horaisan. The later tale has plainly incorporated elements from the famous anecdote of Luck of the Sea, the later developed Urashima tale contains the Rip Van Winkle motif, so some may consider it an early example of fictional time travel. Chapter 01, Kami no Yo no Kami no maki, Chapter 02, Kami no Yo no Shimo no maki. Chapter 03, Kanyamato Iwarebiko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 04, Kamu Nunakawamimi no Sumeramikoto. Yamato Tarashihiko Kuni Oshihito no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 05, Mimaki Iribiko Iniye no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 06, Ikume Iribiko Isachi no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 07, Ōtarashihiko Oshirowake no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 08, Tarashi Nakatsuhiko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 09, Okinaga Tarashihime no Mikoto. Chapter 13, Oasazuma Wakugo no Sukune no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 14, Ōhatsuse no Waka Takeru no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 15, Shiraka no Take Hirokuni Oshi Waka Yamato Neko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 16, Ohatsuse no Waka Sasagi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 18, Hirokuni Oshi Take Kanahi no Sumeramikoto, Take Ohirokuni Oshi Tate no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 19, Amekuni Oshiharaki Hironiwa no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 20, Nunakakura no Futo Tamashiki no Sumeramikoto
Nihon Shoki
–
Page from a copy of the Nihon Shoki, early
Heian period
Nihon Shoki
–
The Nihon Shoki entry of 15 April 683 CE (
Tenmu 12th year), when an edict was issued mandating the use of copper coins rather than silver coins, an early mention of
Japanese currency. Excerpt of the 11th century edition.
Nihon Shoki
–
Mythic texts
8.
Fudoki
–
Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology, in the narrower sense, Fudoki refer to the oldest records written in the Nara period, later called Kofudoki. Compilation of Kofudoki began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period, following the Taika Reform in 646 and the Code of Taihō enacted in 701, there was need to centralize and solidify the power of the imperial court. This included accounting for lands under its control, for example, Hayatsuhime became Hayami and Ishinashi no Oki became Ishii. At least 48 of the Gokishichidō provinces contributed to their records, partial records of Hizen, Bungo, Harima and Hitachi remain and a few passages from various volumes remain scattered throughout various books. Those of Harima and Hizen are designated National Treasures, below is a list of extant manuscripts and scattered passages. In 1966 the Agency for Cultural Affairs called on the governments to build open-air museums and parks called Fudoki no Oka near historic sites such as tombs. These archaeological museums preserve and exhibit cultural properties to public understanding of provincial history. Japanese Historical Text Initiative Akimoto, Kichirō, Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 2, Fudoki. Zusetsu Chizu to Arasuji de Wakaru, kojima, Noriyuki, Naoki, Kōjirō, Nishimiya, Kazutami, Kuranaka, Susumu, Mōri, Masamori, Uegaki, Setsuya. Nihon no Koten wo Yomu 3 Nihon Shoki Ge • Fudoki, 風土記 texts of the remaining Fudoki & scattered passages in other books. Manuscript scans at Waseda University Library, Hizen,1800, Bungo,1800, Bungo, unknown Tsukamoto, Tetsuzō
Fudoki
–
A scroll of the oldest extant Fudoki from
Harima Province preserved at
Tenri Central Library in
Tenri, Nara
Fudoki
–
Futagoyama kofun in Sakitama Fudoki no Oka
Fudoki
–
The
Azuchi Castle ruin in Ōmi Fudoki no Oka
9.
Kujiki
–
Kujiki, or Sendai Kuji Hongi, is a historical Japanese text. Ten volumes in length, it covers the history of ancient Japan through Empress Suiko, the preface is supposedly written by Soga no Umako. While it includes quotes from Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, volumes five. The overall composition is considered as having compiled between 807 and 936. In a review for Monumenta Nipponica, Mark Teeuwen criticized Bentleys methodology, the Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi, A New Examination of Texts, With a Translation and Commentary. 平成13年 私本 先代舊事本紀 Online text of Kujiki, 『先代旧事本紀』の現代語訳（ＨＩＳＡＳＨＩ） Online text of Kujiki in modern Japanese. 古代史最前線・白河本旧事紀研究会公式ホームページ Website support Shirakawahon Kujiki to be a true document
Kujiki
–
Mythic texts
Kujiki
10.
Yotsuya Kaidan
–
Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon, is a tale of betrayal, murder and ghostly revenge. Arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time, it has adapted for film over 30 times. Written in 1825 by Tsuruya Nanboku IV as a kabuki play and it is now generally shortened, and loosely translates as Ghost Story of Yotsuya. First staged in July 1825, Yotsuya Kaidan appeared at the Nakamuraza Theater in Edo as a double-feature with the immensely popular Kanadehon Chushingura, normally, with a Kabuki double-feature, the first play is staged in its entirety, followed by the second play. The following day started with the Onbo canal scene, followed by Kanadehon Chushingura from Act VII to Act XI, then came Act IV, the play was incredibly successful, and forced the producers to schedule extra out-of-season performances to meet demand. However, the story usually remains the same and recognizable. Tamiya Iemon, a rōnin, is having an exchange with his father-in-law, Yotsuya Samon. After it is suggested by Samon that Iemon and his daughter should separate, the next scene focuses on the character Naosuke who is sexually obsessed with Oiwas sister, the prostitute Osode, despite her being already married to another man, Satô Yomoshichi. As this scene begins, Naosuke is at the local brothel making romantic advances toward Osode when Yomoshichi, unable to pay a fee demanded by Takuetsu, he is mocked by both Yomoshichi and Osode and forcibly removed. Shortly thereafter an intoxicated Naosuke murders Okuda Shôzaburô, his former master and this is implied to occur at the precise time of the slaying of Samon. It is at point that Iemon and Naosuke unite and conspire to mislead Oiwa. In return Osode agrees to marry Naosuke, Oume, the granddaughter of Itô Kihei, has fallen in love with Iemon. However, believing herself to be attractive than Oiwa, she doesnt think Iemon will ever want to become her husband. Sympathizing with Oumes plight, the Itôs scheme to have Oiwa disfigured by sending her a poison disguised as a facial cream. Oiwa, unbeknownst to her at the time, is scarred by the cream when she applies it. Upon seeing his wifes ghastly new countenance, Iemon decides he can no longer remain with her and he asks Takuetsu to rape Oiwa so that he will have an honorable basis for divorce. Takuetsu cannot bring himself to do this so, instead, he simply shows Oiwa her reflection in a mirror, realizing that she has been deceived, Oiwa becomes hysterical and, picking up a sword, runs towards the door. Takuetsu moves to grab her but Oiwa, attempting to evade him, as she lies bleeding to death before a stunned Takuetsu, she curses Iemons name
Yotsuya Kaidan
–
Utagawa Kuniyoshi 's portrait of Oiwa.
Yotsuya Kaidan
–
Folktales
11.
Izanami
–
In Japanese mythology, Izanami-no-Mikoto is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi-no-Mikoto. She is also referred to as Izanami-no-kami, the first gods Kunitokotachi and Amenominakanushi summoned two divine beings into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and charged them with creating the first land. To help them do this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear decorated with jewels, the two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Ame-no-ukihashi, and churned the sea below with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the spear, Onogoroshima was created and they descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island. Eventually they wished to be mated, so built a pillar called Ame-no-mihashira. Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions and, when they met on the other side, Izanagi did not think that this was proper, but they mated anyhow. They had two children, Hiruko and Awashima, but they were born deformed and were not considered deities and they put the children into a boat and set them out to sea, then petitioned the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They were told that the male deity should have spoken first in greeting during the marriage ceremony, so Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, this time Izanagi speaking first when they met, and their marriage was finally successful. They bore six more islands and many deities, Izanami died giving birth to the child Kagu-Tsuchi or Ho-Masubi. She was then buried on Mt. Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hōki, Izanagi was so angry at the death of his wife that he killed the newborn child, thereby creating dozens of deities. The Kojiki talks of the death of Izanami and her tomb and it implies that Izanami transferred her soul to an animal and a human before her death, but does not state whether or not Izanami had incarnations. Izanagi-no-Mikoto lamented the death of Izanami-no-Mikoto and undertook a journey to Yomi and he searched for Izanami-no-Mikoto and found her. At first, Izanagi-no-Mikoto could not see her for the shadows hid her appearance and he asked her to return with him. Izanami-no-Mikoto informed Izanagi-no-Mikoto that he was too late and she had already eaten the food of the underworld and was now one with the land of the dead. She could no longer return to the living but would go and try, the news shocked Izanagi-no-Mikoto, but he refused to leave her in Yomi. While Izanami-no-Mikoto was sleeping, he took the comb that bound his long hair, under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami-no-Mikoto. She was now a form of flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her ravaged body. Crying out loud, Izanagi-no-Mikoto could no longer control his fear and started to run, intending to return to the living, Izanami-no-Mikoto woke up, shrieking and indignant, and chased after him
Izanami
–
Searching the Seas with the
Tenkei (天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図, Tenkei o motte sōkai o saguru no zu
?). Painting by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1880-90 (MFA, Boston). Izanagi to the right, Izanami to the left.
Izanami
–
Mythic texts
Izanami
12.
Izanagi
–
Izanagi is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shinto, and his name in the Kojiki is roughly translated to as he-who-invites or Izanagi-no-mikoto. He is also known as Izanagi-no-Okami and he with his spouse and younger sister Izanami gave birth to the many islands of Japan, and begat numerous deities of Shintoism. But she died giving birth to the fire-god Kagu-tsuchi. Izanagi executed the fire god with the ten-grasp sword, afterwards, he paid his wife a visit in Yomi-no-kuni in the hopes of retrieving her. But she had partaken of food cooked in the furnace of the Underworld, Izanagi betrayed his promise not to look at her, and lit up a fire, only to behold her in her monstrous and hellish state. To avenge her shame, she dispatched the lightning god Yakusa no ikazuchi no kami, Izanagi escaped, but the goddess declared to kill a thousand of his people every day. Izanagi retorted that a thousand and five hundred will be every day. In the cleansing rite after his return, he beget Amaterasu from his eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye. There is also an odd resemblance to the myth of Adam and Eve, while one of Chinas Four Great Folktales, Baishe Zhuan, Izanagi Boom, a period of high economic growth in Japan in the second half of the 1960s. The name of this deity appears incorrectly spelled as Izagi in Puccinis opera Madama Butterfly, Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo are various eye techniques of the Uchiha clan in the Japanese manga Naruto. Izanagi being a technique that can undo a path, in exchange of an eye, Izanami traps a target in an infinite loop, in exchange of an eye. Amaterasu is a flame technique. Tsukuyomi is a technique and Susanoo is an armored entity that acts as the eye holders armor. Izanagi is also the name of a character in the anime Mai-HiME, Izanagi is a Monster Card in the popular Trading Card Game, Yugioh. In the anime Darker than BLACK season 2, Izanagi is referenced multiple times, Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo appear as characters in the video game Ōkami. Izanagi is also manifested as a persona for the protagonist in the popular Japanese role playing game, Shin Megami Tensei, Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo appear as characters in the video game Puzzle and Dragons. In Nurarihyon no Mago, Sennen Makyou, Kanzen naru fusei, Izanagi is a used by Awashima. Izanagi is a name of a corporation appearing in the Unreal series, Izanagi is also a card from the Kojiki series
Izanagi
–
Searching the Seas with the
Tenkei (天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図, Tenkei o motte sōkai o saguru no zu
?). Painting by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1880-90 (MFA, Boston). Izanagi with spear
Amenonuhoko to the right, Izanami to the left.
Izanagi
–
Mythic texts
Izanagi
13.
Amaterasu
–
Amaterasu, Amaterasu-ōmikami or Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami is a part of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is seen as the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe, the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru means shining in heaven. The meaning of her name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is the great august kami who shines in the heaven. According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in Japanese mythology, the Emperors of Japan are considered to be descendants of Amaterasu. Amaterasu appears to be the Japanese expression of a historical pan-Asiatic solar goddess, another possible expression is the Chinese Xihe. The oldest tales of Amaterasu come from the ca.712 A. D. Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, the oldest records of Japanese history. In Japanese mythology, Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, is the sister of Susanoo, the god of storms and the sea, and of Tsukuyomi and it was written that Amaterasu had painted the landscape with her siblings to create ancient Japan. All three were born from Izanagi when he was purifying himself after entering Yomi, the underworld, Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed out his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born from the washing of the right eye, and Susanoo from the washing of the nose. She became the ruler of the sun and the heavens along with her brother, Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon and ruler of the night. Originally, Amaterasu shared the sky with Tsukuyomi, her husband and brother until, out of disgust, he killed the goddess of food, Uke Mochi, when she pulled food from her rectum, nose, and mouth. This killing upset Amaterasu causing her to label Tsukuyomi an evil god and split away from him, the texts also tell of a long-standing rivalry between Amaterasu and her other brother, Susanoo. When he was to leave Heaven by orders of Izanagi, he went to bid his sister goodbye, Amaterasu was suspicious, but when Susanoo proposed a challenge to prove his sincerity, she accepted. Each of them took an object of the others and from it birthed gods, Amaterasu birthed three women from Susanoos sword while he birthed five men from her necklace. Claiming the gods were hers because they were born of her necklace, Amaterasu, who was in fury and grief, hid inside the Ama-no-Iwato, thus effectively hiding the sun for a long period of time. Though she was persuaded to leave the cave, Susanoo was punished by being banished from Heaven, both later amended their conflict when Susanoo gave her the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword as a reconciliation gift. When they both reconciled the moon became visible, according to legend, Amaterasu bequeathed to her descendant Ninigi, the mirror, Yata no Kagami, the jewel, Yasakani no Magatama, and the sword, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. This sacred mirror, jewel, and sword collectively became the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the Ise Shrine located in Ise, Honshū, Japan houses the inner shrine, Naiku, dedicated to Amaterasu. Her sacred mirror, Yata no Kagami, is said to be kept at this shrine as one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, at this shrine, a ceremony known as Shikinen Sengu is held every 20 years to honor Amaterasu
Amaterasu
–
Amaterasu emerging out of a cave
Amaterasu
–
Mythic texts
Amaterasu
14.
Susanoo
–
Susanoo, also known as Takehaya Susanoo-no-Mikoto and Kumano Ketsumiko no kami at Kumano shrine, is the Shinto god of the sea and storms. He is also considered to be ruler of Neno-Katasu-Kuni, in Japanese mythology, Susanoo, the powerful storm god of Summer, is the brother of Amaterasu, the goddess of the Sun, and of Tsukuyomi, the god of the Moon. All three were born from Izanagi, when he washed his face clean of the pollutants of Yomi, Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed out his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born from the washing of the right eye, and Susanoo from the washing of the nose. Susanoo used Totsuka-no-Tsurugi as his weapon, the oldest sources for Susanoo myths are the ca.712 CE Kojiki and ca.720 CE Nihon Shoki. They tell of a rivalry between Susanoo and his sister. When he was to leave Heaven by orders of Izanagi, he went to bid his sister goodbye, Amaterasu was suspicious, but when Susanoo proposed a challenge to prove his sincerity, she accepted. Each of them took an object of the others and from it birthed gods, Amaterasu birthed three women from Susanoos Totsuka-no-Tsurugi while he birthed five men from her necklace. Claiming the gods were hers because they were born of her necklace, the two were content for a time, but Susanoo, the Storm God, became restless. In a fit of rage, he destroyed his sisters rice fields, hurled a flayed pony at her loom, Amaterasu, who was in fury and grief, hid inside the Ama-no-Iwato, thus effectively hiding the sun for a long period of time. Though she was persuaded to leave the cave, Susano-o was punished by being banished from Heaven, the Nihon Shoki, here translated by William George Aston in Nihongi, gives the most detailed account of Susanoo and Amaterasu slaying Yamata no Orochi. At this time he heard a sound of weeping at the head-waters of the river and he found there an old man and an old woman. Between them was set a young girl, whom they were caressing and lamenting over, Susanoo no Mikoto asked them, saying, -Who are ye, and why do ye lament thus. The answer was, -I am an Earthly Deity, and my name is Ashi-nadzuchi and this girl is our daughter, and her name is Kushi-nada-hime. The reason of our weeping is that formerly we had eight children, but they have been devoured year after year by an eight-forked serpent and now the time approaches for this girl to be devoured. There is no means of escape for her, and therefore do we grieve. ”Sosa no wo no Mikoto said, If that is so and he replied, and said, I will comply with thy behest and give her to thee. Therefore Sosa no wo no Mikoto on the spot changed Kushi-nada-hime into a many-toothed close-comb which he stuck in the august knot of his hair. Then he made Ashi-nadzuchi and Te-nadzuchi to brew sake, to make eight cupboards, in each of them to set a tub filled with sake. When the time came, the serpent actually appeared and it had an eight-forked head and an eight-forked tail, its eyes were red, like the winter-cherry, and on its back firs and cypresses were growing
Susanoo
–
Susano’o slaying the Yamata no Orochi, by
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Susanoo
–
Susanoo slaying the Yamata no Orochi, by
Kuniteru
Susanoo
–
Mythic texts
15.
Ame-no-Uzume
–
Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto is the goddess of dawn, mirth and revelry in the Shinto religion of Japan, and the wife of fellow-god Sarutahiko Ōkami. She famously relates to the tale of the sun deity. Her name can also be pronounced as Ama-no-Uzume and she is also known as Ōmiyanome-no-ōkami, an inari kami possibly due to her relationship with her husband. Amaterasus brother, the storm god Susanoo, had vandalized her rice fields, threw a flayed horse at her loom, in turn, Amaterasu became furious with him and retreated into the Heavenly Rock Cave, Amano-Iwato. The world, without the illumination of the sun, became dark, the clever Uzume overturned a tub near the cave entrance and began a dance on it, tearing off her clothing in front of the other deities. They considered this so comical that they laughed heartily at the sight and this dance is said to have founded the Japanese ritual dance, Kagura. Uzume had hung a mirror and a beautiful jewel of polished jade. Amaterasu heard them, and peered out to see all the fuss was about. When she opened the cave, she saw the jewel and her glorious reflection in a mirror which Uzume had placed on a tree, at that moment, the god Ame-no-Tajikarawo-no-mikoto dashed forth and closed the cave behind her, refusing to budge so that she could no longer retreat. Another god tied a magic shimenawa across the entrance, the deities Ame-no-Koyane-no-mikoto and Ame-no-Futodama-no-mikoto then asked Amaterasu to rejoin the divine. She agreed, and light was restored to the earth, Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto is still worshiped today as a Shinto kami, spirits indigenous to Japan. She is also known as Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, The Great Persuader, and she is depicted in kyōgen farce as Okame, a woman who revels in her sensuality. Music, Ame-no-Uzume Op.4 composed by Hiroaki Zakōji Littleton, mythology, The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth and Storytelling. A substantial article on this subject Amaterasu and Uzume, Goddesses of Japan, at Goddess Gift A one-paragraph glossary entry in Italian
Ame-no-Uzume
–
The statue of Ame-no-Uzume at
Amanoiwato-jinja
Ame-no-Uzume
–
Tablet at the Ama-no-Uzume shrine,
Takachiho
Ame-no-Uzume
–
Mythic texts
16.
Inari (mythology)
–
Inari Ōkami is the Japanese kami of foxes, of fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths, represented as male, female, or androgynous, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 AD, Worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period, and by the 16th century Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors. Inari is a figure in both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs in Japan. More than one-third of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari, modern corporations, such as cosmetic company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters. Inaris foxes, or kitsune, are white and act as their messengers. Inari has been depicted both as male and as female, the most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen Ann Smyers, are a young female food goddess, an old man carrying rice, and an androgynous bodhisattva. No one view is correct, the gender of depiction varies according to regional traditions. Because of their association with kitsune, Inari is often believed to be a fox, though this belief is widespread. Inari also appears in the form of a snake or dragon, Inari is sometimes identified with other mythological figures. Some scholars suggest that Inari is the known in classical Japanese mythology as Ukanomitama or the Kojikis Ōgetsu-Hime. Some take Inari to be identical to any grain kami, Inaris female aspect is often identified or conflated with Dakiniten, a Buddhist deity who is a Japanese transformation of the Indian dakini, or with Benzaiten of the Seven Lucky Gods. Dakiniten is portrayed as a female or androgynous bodhisattva riding a white fox. Thus, Inari is still associated with Shingon Buddhism to this day. Inari is often venerated as a collective of three deities, since the Kamakura period, this number has increased to five kami. However, the identification of these kami has varied over time, the five kami today identified with Inari at Fushimi Inari are Ukanomitama, Sarutahiko, Omiyanome, Tanaka, and Shi. However, at Takekoma Inari, the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan, according to the Nijūni shaki, the three kami are Ōmiyame no mikoto Ukanomitama no mikoto and Sarutahiko no mikami The fox and the wish-fulfilling jewel are prominent symbols of Inari. Other common elements in depictions of Inari, and sometimes of their kitsune, include a sickle, a sheaf or sack of rice, and a sword
Inari (mythology)
–
Inari and their fox spirits help the blacksmith Munechika forge the blade kogitsune-maru (Little Fox) in the late 10th century. This legend is the subject of the
noh drama Sanjo Kokaji.
Inari (mythology)
–
Inari appears to a warrior. This portrayal of Inari shows the influence of
Dakiniten concepts from
Buddhism.
Inari (mythology)
–
The Hokkaido red fox
17.
Kami
–
Kami are the spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the religion of Shinto. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, as well as beings and the qualities that these beings express, and include the spirits of venerated dead persons. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans, traditionally, great or sensational leaders like the Emperor could be kami. In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, good and they are manifestations of musubi, the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be “hidden” from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own, to be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi. Though the word kami is translated in multiple ways into English, in this way, the ambiguity of the meaning of kami is necessary, as it conveys the ambiguous nature of kami themselves. Kami is the Japanese word for a god, deity, divinity and it has been used to describe mind, God, supreme being, one of the Shinto deities, an effigy, a principle, and anything that is worshipped. Although deity is the interpretation of kami, some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term. The wide variety of usage of the word can be compared to the Sanskrit Deva and the Hebrew Elohim, some etymological suggestions are, Kami may, at its root, simply mean spirit, or an aspect of spirituality. It is written with the kanji 神, Sino-Japanese reading shin or jin, in Chinese, the character means deity. In the Ainu language, the word refers to an animistic concept very similar to Japanese kami. In his Kojiki-den, Motoori Norinaga gave a definition of kami. any being whatsoever which possesses some eminent quality out of the ordinary, because Japanese does not normally distinguish grammatical number in nouns, it is sometimes unclear whether kami refers to a single or multiple entities. When a singular concept is needed, -kami or -kamisama is used as a suffix. The logograms for kami-sama are those used for shén yàng in Pŭtōnghuà, kami-sama can be used for a divinity, or for a human, such as Tezuka Osamu. The term generally used to refer to multiple kami is kamigami, gender is also not implied in the word kami, and as such it can be used to reference either male or female. The word megami, the use of female kami is a new tradition. The Kojiki also includes descriptions of various kami, in the ancient Shinto traditions there were 5 defining characteristics of kami. They can nurture and love when respected, or they can cause destruction, Kami must be appeased in order to gain their favor and avoid their wrath
Kami
–
Amaterasu, one of the central kami in the Shinto faith
Kami
–
Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, Miyajima Island, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Where the kami dwell, and housing to many ceremonies and festivals.
Kami
18.
Seven Lucky Gods
–
The Seven Lucky Gods or Seven Gods of Fortune are believed to grant good luck and often have their place in netsuke engravings or in other representations. Amongst the seven, not all the gods are mythical characters and they all began as remote and impersonal gods, but gradually became much closer canonical figures for certain professions and Japanese arts. During the course of its history, the influence between gods has created confusion about which of them was the patron of certain professions. The worship of this group of gods is also due to the importance of the seven in Japan. These gods have been recognized as such for over a thousand years ago by a number of followers. In the beginning, these gods were worshiped by merchants as the first two of them were gods of business and trade. In ancient times, these gods were worshiped separately, but it happens today – only when it is required for the god to act on behalf of the applicant. The Seven Gods of Fortune started being mentioned as a collective by the year 1420 in Fushimi, in order to imitate the processions of the Daimyo, shortly after a famous artist of the time, Kano Yasunobu, was ordained to portray these gods for the first time ever. From the period of the gods Izanami and Izanagi, Ebisu is the one whose origins are purely Japanese. He is the god of prosperity and wealth in business, and of abundance in crops, cereals and it is now common to see his figure in restaurants where fish is served in great quantities or in household kitchens. Daikokuten is also one of the Shichifukujin and he is the god of commerce and prosperity. There are other characteristics which have also attributed to him, such as being the patron of cooks, farmers, bankers. This god is characterized by his smile, having short legs and he is usually depicted with a bag full of valuable objects. Daikokuten originated as a conflation of the Buddhist death deity Mahākāla with the Shinto deity Ōkuninushi. The Japanese name Daikoku and the Hindi name Mahakala both translate to Great Blackness, per the Butsuzōzui compendium of 1690, Daikoku can also manifest as a female known as Daikokunyo or Daikokutennyo. His origins can be traced back to Hinduism, but he has adapted by the Japanese culture. He comes from the Hindu god Kubera and is known by the name Vaisravana from Hindu culture. He is the god of fortune in war and battles, also associated with authority and dignity and he is literally the protector of those who follow the rules and behave appropriately
Seven Lucky Gods
–
From left to right: Hotei, Jurōjin, Fukurokuju, Bishamonten, Benzaiten, Daikokuten, Ebisu.
Seven Lucky Gods
–
The Seven Lucky Gods at
Watatsumi Shrine in
Tarumi-ku, Kobe
Seven Lucky Gods
–
The Seven Lucky Gods in a woodblock print by
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Seven Lucky Gods
–
The Seven Lucky Gods, in an 1882 woodblock print by Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi
19.
List of divinities in Japanese mythology
–
This is a list of divinities native to Japanese beliefs and religious traditions. Many of these are from Shinto, while others were imported via Buddhism or Taoism and integrated into Japanese mythology, amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami Commonly called Amaterasu, she is the goddess of the sun as well as the purported ancestress of the Imperial Household of Japan. Her full name means Great Goddess or Great Spirit Who Shines in the Heavens, for many reasons, one among them being her ties to the Imperial family, she is often considered to be the primary god of Shinto. Ame-no-Uzume Commonly called Uzume, she is the goddess of dawn and revelry and she is also known as The Great Persuader and The Heavenly Alarming Female. Fūjin Also known as Kami-no-Kaze, he is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods and he is often depicted as an oni with a bag slung over his back. Hachiman Also known as Hachiman-shin or Yawata no Kami, he is the god of war, originally an agricultural deity, he later became the guardian of the Minamoto clan. His symbolic animal and messenger is the dove, inari Ōkami The god or goddess of rice and fertility. Their messengers and symbolic animal are foxes and they are often identified with the Ukanomitama and Buddhist deity Dakiniten. Izanagi The forefather of the gods, he is the first male as well as the god of creation and he and his wife, Izanami, were responsible for the birth of the islands of Japan and many kami, though she died in childbirth. Later, after his attempt to retrieve her from the underworld, he sired Amaterasu, Susanoo. Izanami Izanagis wife and sister, she is the first female as well as the goddess of creation and she died shortly after the birth of Kagu-tsuchi, and Izanagi followed her to the underworld, but failed to bring her back to the living world. A marital spat between the pair caused the cycle of life and death for all living beings, Kuninotokotachi is one of the two gods born from something like a reed that arose from the soil when the earth was chaotic. He is known by mythology to reside on top of Mount Fuji, Kuninotokotachi is described as a hitorigamiand genderless in Kojiki, while as a male god in Nihon Shoki. Yoshida Kanetomo, the founder of the Yoshida Shintō sect, identified Kuninotokotachi with Amenominakanushi, ninigi-no-Mikoto Commonly called Ninigi, he was the grandson of Amaterasu. His great-grandson was Kanyamato Iwarebiko, later to be known as Emperor Jimmu, Ōkuninushi A god of nation-building, farming, business, and medicine. Omoikane The deity of wisdom and intelligence, who is called upon to ponder. Raijin Commonly called Raiden, he is the god of thunder and lightning, as with the latter, Raijin is usually depicted as an oni. Ryūjin Also known as Ōwatatsumi, he is a dragon, as well as god of the sea and he resides in Ryūgū-jō, his palace under the sea built out of red and white coral, from where he controls the tides with magical tide jewels
List of divinities in Japanese mythology
–
Mythic texts
List of divinities in Japanese mythology
20.
Legendary creature
–
A legendary creature is an animal or part human described in non-historical stories that sometimes involve the supernatural. In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops, other creatures, such as the unicorn, were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity. Some legendary creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and were believed to be creatures, for example dragons, griffins. Others were based on real encounters, originating in garbled accounts of travelers tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the Classical era. For example in the Odyssey, monstrous creatures include the Cyclops, Scylla, in other tales there appear the Medusa to be defeated by Perseus, the Minotaur to be destroyed by Theseus, and the Hydra to be killed by Heracles, while Aeneas battles with the harpies. These monsters thus have the function of emphasising the greatness of the heroes involved. Some classical era creatures, such as the centaur, chimaera, Triton, similarly, sphinxes appear as winged lions in Indian art. In Medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles and these included decorative forms as in Medieval jewellery, sometimes with their limbs intricately interlaced. Animal forms were used to add humour or majesty to objects, in Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, where for example the lamb symbolised Christ, a dove indicated the Holy Spirit, and the classical griffin represented a guardian of the dead. Medieval bestiaries included animals regardless of reality, the basilisk represented the devil. One function of animals in the Middle Ages was allegory. Unicorns, for example, were described as swift and unable to be caught by traditional methods. It was believed that the way for one to catch this beast was to lead a virgin to its dwelling. Then, the unicorn was supposed to leap into her lap and go to sleep, in terms of symbolism, the unicorn was a metaphor for Christ. Unicorns represented the idea of innocence and purity, in the King James Bible, Psalm 92,10 states, My horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn. This is because the translators of the King James erroneously translated the Hebrew word reem as unicorn, later versions translate this as wild ox. The unicorn’s small size signifies the humility of Christ, another common legendary creature which served allegorical functions within the Middle Ages was the dragon. Dragons were identified with serpents, though their attributes were greatly intensified, the dragon was supposed to have been larger than all other animals
Legendary creature
–
A carving of a dragon from
Imperial City, Huế in Vietnam
Legendary creature
–
Harry Kellar 's supernatural creatures
21.
Ghost
–
In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. Descriptions of ghosts vary widely from a presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a person is known as necromancy. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and they are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Ghosts exist as a concept only, despite centuries of investigation, the English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North Germanic, the pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting fury, anger reflected in Old Norse geisa to rage. The Germanic word is recorded as only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been a principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation. In Germanic paganism, Germanic Mercury, and the later Odin, was at the time the conductor of the dead. It could also denote any good or evil spirit, such as angels and demons, also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the Holy Ghost. The now-prevailing sense of the soul of a person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form only emerges in Middle English. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk, alternative words in modern usage include spectre, the Scottish wraith, phantom and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra, haint is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the haint tale is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a noisy ghost, wraith is a Scots word for ghost, spectre, or apparition. It appeared in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the general or figurative sense of portent or omen. In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology, the OED notes of obscure origin only, an association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien
Ghost
–
Yūrei (Japanese ghost) from the
Hyakkai Zukan, ca. 1737
Ghost
–
"
Hamlet and his father's ghost" by
Henry Fuseli (1780s drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized
plate armor in 17th-century style, including a
morion type helmet and
tassets. Depicting ghosts as wearing armor, to suggest a sense of antiquity, was common in
Elizabethan theater.
Ghost
–
By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.
Ghost
–
Spirit of the Dead Watching by
Paul Gauguin
22.
Kappa (folklore)
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A kappa, also known as kawatarō, komahiki, or kawatora, is a yōkai demon or imp found in traditional Japanese folklore. The name is a combination of the words kawa and wappa, in Shintō they are considered to be one of many suijin, their yorishiro, or one of their temporary appearances. A hairy kappa is called a hyōsube, in Japanese Buddhism they are considered to be a kind of hungry ogres. Therefore, Sha Wujing, who is a character from the Chinese story Journey to the West is described like a kappa in Japan, Kappa are distinguished for having a small pool of water suspended on top of their head, signifying their life force and habitat. There are more than eighty other names associated with the kappa in different regions, including kawappa, gawappa, kōgo, mizushi, mizuchi, enkō, kawaso, suitengu, along with the oni and the tengu, the kappa is among the best-known yōkai in Japan. These various names of the creature vary by region and local folklore, Kappa have been used to warn children of the dangers lurking in rivers and lakes, as kappa have been often said to try to lure people into water and pull them. Kappa legends are said to be based on the Japanese giant salamander or hanzaki, the best known place where it has been claimed Kappa supposedly reside is in the Kappabuchi waters of Tōno in the Iwate Prefecture. The nearby Jōkenji Buddhist temple has dedicated a komainu dog statue to honor the kappa, the Kappa is also venerated at the Sogenji Buddhist temple in the Asakusa district of Tokyo where according to tradition, a mummified arm of a Kappa is enshrined within the chapel hall. The kappa is typically depicted as humanoid in form and about the size of a child. Its scaly reptilian skin ranges in color from green to yellow or blue, Kappa supposedly inhabit the ponds and rivers of Japan, and have various features to aid them in this environment, such as webbed hands and feet. They are sometimes said to smell like fish and they can swim like them, the expression kappa no kawa nagare conveys the idea that even experts make mistakes. This cavity must be full whenever a kappa is away from the water, if it dries out. Another notable feature in some stories is that the arms are said to be connected to each other through the torso, while they are primarily water creatures, they do on occasion venture on to land. When they do, the plate can be covered with a cap for protection. In fact, in versions of the legends, kappa spend spring and summer in the water. Although they are reported to live throughout Japan, they are said to be particular to Saga Prefecture. Kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers or trickster figures, folk beliefs claim the cucumber as their traditional favorite meal. As water monsters, kappa have been blamed for drownings, and are said to try to lure people into water
Kappa (folklore)
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A drawing of a kappa.
Kappa (folklore)
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Toriyama Sekien
Kappa (folklore)
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Katsushika Hokusai
23.
Tengu
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Tengu are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion and are also considered a type of Shinto god or yōkai. Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war and their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the practice of Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the garb of its followers. The tengu in art appears in a variety of shapes and it usually falls somewhere between a large, monstrous bird and a wholly anthropomorphized being, often with a red face or an unusually large or long nose. Early depictions of tengu show them as kite-like beings who can take a form, often retaining avian wings. The tengus long nose seems to have been conceived in the 14th century, the tengus long noses ally them with the Shinto deity Sarutahiko, who is described in the Japanese historical text, the Nihon Shoki, with a similar proboscis measuring seven hand-spans in length. In village festivals the two figures are portrayed with identical red, phallic-nosed mask designs. Some of the earliest representations of tengu appear in Japanese picture scrolls, such as the Tenguzōshi Emaki,1296, which parodies high-ranking priests by endowing them the hawk-like beaks of tengu demons. Tengu are often pictured as taking the shape of some sort of priest, beginning in the 13th century, tengu came to be associated in particular with the yamabushi, the mountain ascetics who practice Shugendō. The association soon found its way into Japanese art, where tengu are most frequently depicted in the distinctive costume, which includes a tokin. Due to their aesthetic, they are often shown wielding the Shakujo. Tengu are commonly depicted holding a magical ha-uchiwa, fans made of feathers, in folk tales, these fans sometimes have the ability to grow or shrink a persons nose, but usually they are attributed the power to stir up great winds. Various other strange accessories may be associated with tengu, such as a type of tall, the term tengu and the characters used to write it are borrowed from the name of a fierce demon from Chinese folklore called tiāngoǔ. Chinese literature assigns this creature a variety of descriptions, but most often it is a fierce and it makes a noise like thunder and brings war wherever it falls. One account from the Shù Yì Jì, written in 1791, describes a dog-like tiāngoǔ with a beak and an upright posture. The 23rd chapter of the Nihon Shoki, written in 720, is held to contain the first recorded mention of tengu in Japan. In this account a large shooting star appears and is identified by a Buddhist priest as a dog, and much like the tiāngoǔ of China. Although the Chinese characters for tengu are used in the text, M. W. de Visser speculated that the early Japanese tengu may represent a conglomeration of two Chinese spirits, the tiāngoǔ and the fox spirits called huli jing
Tengu
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Tengu and a Buddhist monk, by
Kawanabe Kyōsai. The tengu wears the cap and pom-pommed sash of a follower of Shugendō.
Tengu
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Mask of Tengu
Tengu
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Kobayakawa Takakage debating with the tengu of
Mount Hiko, by
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. The tengu's nose protrudes just enough to differentiate him from an ordinary yamabushi.
24.
Kitsune
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Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a subject of Japanese folklore, in English. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age, according to Yōkai folklore, all foxes have the ability to shape shift into human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—other stories portray them as guardians, friends, lovers. Foxes and human beings lived close together in ancient Japan, this gave rise to legends about the creatures. Kitsune have become associated with Inari, a Shinto kami or spirit. This role has reinforced the foxs supernatural significance, the more tails a kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their power and influence, some people make offerings to them as to a deity. Conversely foxes were often seen as animals, especially during the superstitious Edo period. Japanese fox myths had its origins in Chinese mythology, Chinese folk tales tell of fox spirits called húli jīng that may have up to nine tails. Many of the earliest surviving stories are recorded in the Konjaku Monogatarishū, an 11th-century collection of Chinese, Indian, the nine-tailed foxes came to be adapted as a motif from Chinese mythology to Japanese mythology. The oldest known usage of the word is in the 794 text Shinyaku Kegonkyō Ongi Shiki, other old sources include Nihon Ryōiki and Wamyō Ruijushō. These oldest sources are written in Manyōgana which clearly identifies the historical spelling as ki1tune, following several diachronic phonological changes, this becomes kitsune. Many etymological suggestions have been made, though there is no general agreement, early Kamakura period Mizukagami indicates that it means came to bedroom due to a legend that a kitsune would change into ones wife and bear children. Arai Hakuseki in Tōga suggests that ki means stench, tsu is a particle, and ne is related to inu. Tanikawa Kotosuga in Wakun no Shiori suggests that ki means yellow, tsu is a particle, and ne is related to neko. Nozaki also suggests that the word kitsune was originally onomatopoetic, kitsu represented a foxs yelp and came to be the general word for fox. Kitsu is now archaic, in modern Japanese, a cry is transcribed as kon kon or gon gon
Kitsune
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Prince Hanzoku terrorized by a nine-tailed fox. Print by
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 19th century.
Kitsune
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A nine-tailed fox, from the Qing edition of the ancient text
Classic of Mountains and Seas
Kitsune
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Japan is home to two
red fox subspecies: the Hokkaido fox (Vulpes vulpes schrencki, pictured), and the Japanese red fox (Vulpes vulpes japonica).
25.
Japanese dragon
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Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea, the style of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon. The ca.680 AD Kojiki and the ca.720 AD Nihongi mytho-histories have the first Japanese textual references to dragons, in the oldest annals the dragons are mentioned in various ways, explains de Visser, but mostly as water-gods, serpent- or dragon-shaped. Watatsumi 海神 sea god or Ryūjin 龍神 dragon god was the ruler of seas and oceans and he lived in the undersea Ryūgū-jō 龍宮城 dragon palace castle, where he kept the magical tide jewels. Toyotama-hime 豊玉姫 Luminous Pearl Princess was Ryūjins daughter and she purportedly was an ancestress of Emperor Jimmu, Japans legendary first emperor. Wani 鰐 was a sea monster that is translated as shark and crocodile. Kuma-wani 熊鰐 bear shark/crocodile are mentioned in two ancient legends, one says the sea god Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami transformed into an 8-fathom kuma-wani and fathered Toyotama-hime, the other says a kuma-wani piloted the ships of Emperor Chūai and his Empress Jingū. Mizuchi 蛟 or 虯 was a dragon and water deity. The Nihongi records legendary Emperor Nintoku offering human sacrifices to mizuchi angered by his engineering projects. These myths about Emperor Jimmu descending from Toyatama-hime evidence the folklore that Japanese Emperors are descendants of dragons, compare the ancient Chinese tradition of dragons symbolizing the Emperor of China. Dragons in later Japanese folklore were influenced by Chinese and Indian myths, kiyohime 清姫 Purity Princess was a teahouse waitress who fell in love with a young Buddhist priest. After he spurned her, she studied magic, transformed into a dragon, nure-onna 濡女 Wet Woman was a dragon with a womans head and a snakes body. She was typically seen while washing her hair on a riverbank, zennyo Ryūō 善如龍王 goodness-like dragon king was a rain-god depicted either as a dragon with a snake on its head or as a human with a snakes tail. In the fairy tale My Lord Bag of Rice, the Ryūō dragon king of Lake Biwa asks the hero Tawara Tōda 田原藤太 to kill a giant centipede, urashima Tarō rescued a turtle which took him to Ryūgū-jō and turned into the attractive daughter of the ocean god Ryūjin. Inari, the god of fertility and agriculture, was depicted as a dragon or snake instead of a fox. Chinese dragon mythology is central to Japanese dragons, Japanese words for dragon are written with kanji Chinese characters, either simplified shinjitai 竜 or traditional kyūjitai 龍 from Chinese long 龍. These kanji can be read tatsu in native Japanese kunyomi and ryū or ryō in Sino-Japanese onyomi, many Japanese dragon names are loanwords from Chinese. In Japan, writes Gould, it is figured as possessing three claws, whereas in China it has four or five, according as it is an ordinary or an Imperial emblem
Japanese dragon
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Dragon, by
Hokusai.
Japanese dragon
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Emperor Antoku 's grandmother rescuing him from a dragon, by Yoshitsuya Ichieisai.
Japanese dragon
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A dragon ascends towards the heavens with
Mount Fuji in the background in this 1897
ukiyo-e print from
Ogata Gekkō 's Views of Mount Fuji.
Japanese dragon
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Susanoo slaying the
Yamata no Orochi, by
Kuniteru
26.
Legend
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Legend, for its active and passive participants, includes no happenings that are outside the realm of possibility, but may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time, in order to keep fresh and vital. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being believed by the participants. The Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale historically grounded, a modern folklorists professional definition of legend was proposed by Timothy R. Legend is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage circa 1340. The Old French noun legende derives from the Medieval Latin legenda, in its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event. The word legendary was originally a noun meaning a collection or corpus of legends and this word changed to legendry, and legendary became the adjectival form. By 1613, English-speaking Protestants began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event was fictitious, thus, legend gained its modern connotations of undocumented and spurious, which distinguish it from the meaning of chronicle. In 1866, Jacob Grimm described the tale as poetic. Questions of categorising legends, in hopes of compiling a series of categories on the line of the Aarne–Thompson folktale index. Compared to the highly structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, in Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft, Ernst Bernheim asserted that a legend is simply a longstanding rumour. Gordon Allport credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise, in the narrow Christian sense, legenda were hagiographical accounts, often collected in a legendary. Hippolyte Delehaye distinguished legend from myth, The legend, on the hand, has, of necessity. It refers imaginary events to some real personage, or it localizes romantic stories in some definite spot, stories that exceed the boundaries of realism are called fables. For example, the talking animal formula of Aesop identifies his brief stories as fables, the parable of the Prodigal Son would be a legend if it were told as having actually happened to a specific son of a historical father. If it included a donkey that gave sage advice to the Prodigal Son it would be a fable, Legend may be transmitted orally, passed on person-to-person, or, in the original sense, through written text. Jacob de Voragines Legenda Aurea or The Golden Legend comprises a series of vitae or instructive biographical narratives and they are presented as lives of the saints, but the profusion of miraculous happenings and above all their uncritical context are characteristics of hagiography. The Legenda was intended to inspire extemporized homilies and sermons appropriate to the saint of the day, the vanishing hitchhiker is the best-known urban legend in America, traceable as far back as 1870, but it is found around the world including in Korea and Russia. In the legend, a girl in a white dress picked up alongside of the road by a passerby
Legend
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A depiction of the legendary
Rütlischwur.
Legend
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Holger Danske, a legendary character.
Legend
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In the painting of
Lady Godiva by
Jules Joseph Lefebvre, the authentic historical person is fully submerged in the legend, presented in an anachronistic high mediaeval setting.
Legend
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The mediaeval legend of
Genevieve of Brabant connected her to
Treves.
27.
Abe no Seimei
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Abe no Seimei was an onmyōji, a leading specialist of onmyōdō during the middle of the Heian Period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a figure in Japanese folklore and has been portrayed in a number of stories. Seimei worked as onmyōji for emperors and the Heian government, making calendars and he prayed for the well-being of emperors and the government as well as advising on various issues. He was also an astrologer and predicted astrological events and he enjoyed an extremely long life, free from any major illness, which contributed to the popular belief that he had mystical powers. The Seimei Shrine, located in Kyoto, is a shrine dedicated to him. The Abeno train station and district, in Osaka, are said to be named after him. Seimeis life is recorded, and there is little question about it. Immediately after his death, however, legends arose much like those surrounding Merlin, many legends of Seimei were originally written in the Konjaku Monogatarishu, and by the Edo period there were many stories in circulation that focused on his heroic acts. His pedigree was not very clear and his ancestor might have been Abe no Masuki, a Daizen-no-daibu, or Abe no Shunzai, a Kokushi of Awaji. Another candidate was Abe no Miushi, who appeared as an Udaijin in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The name Sukune, through the Abe clan, was taken from Naniwa no Imiki of the Naniwa clan, also known as the Naniwa no Kishi, which Naniwa no Mitsuna established. According to Anderson, Abe no Seimei was a descendant of the poet Abe no Nakamaro and he became Kamo no Yasunoris successor in astrology and divination, while Yasunoris son took on the lesser responsibility of devising the calendar. Seimeis duties included analyzing strange events, conducting exorcisms, warding against evil spirits and he was said to be especially skilled in divining the sex of fetuses and finding lost objects. According to the Konjaku Monogatarishu, he predicted the abdication of Emperor Kazan based on his observation of celestial phenomena. Seimeis reputation grew sufficiently that, from the late 10th century, the Onmyōryō, the Kamo clan likewise became the hereditary keepers of the calendar. The mystical symbol of the equidistant five-pointed star, referred to in the West as a pentagram, is known in Japan as the Seiman or the Seal of Abe no Seimei, according to legend, Abe no Seimei was not entirely human. His father, Abe no Yasuna, was human, but his mother, at a very early age, no later than five, he was allegedly able to command weak oni to do his bidding. His mother entrusted Seimei to Kamo no Tadayuki so that he would live a human life
Abe no Seimei
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Abe no Seimei as drawn by
Kikuchi Yōsai (菊池容斎), a popular painter in Japan.
Abe no Seimei
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Torii of the Seimei
shrine in
Kyoto.
28.
Benkei
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Musashibō Benkei, popularly called Benkei, was a Japanese warrior monk who served Minamoto no Yoshitsune. He is commonly depicted as a man of strength and loyalty. Stories about Benkeis birth vary considerably, One tells how his father was the head of a temple shrine who had raped his mother, the daughter of a blacksmith. Another sees him as the offspring of a temple god, many give him the attributes of a demon, a monster child with wild hair and long teeth. In his youth, Benkei may have been called Oniwaka —demon/ogre child and he is said to have defeated 200 men in each battle he was personally involved in. He joined the cloister at an age and travelled widely among the Buddhist monasteries of Japan. During this period, monasteries were important centres of administration and culture, like many other monks, Benkei was probably trained in the use of the naginata. At the age of seventeen, he was said to have been over 2 metres tall, at this point, he left the Buddhist monastery and became a yamabushi, a member of a sect of mountain ascetics who were recognisable by their black caps. Japanese prints often show Benkei wearing this cap, Benkei is said to have posted himself at Gojō Bridge in Kyoto, where he disarmed every passing swordsman, eventually collecting 999 swords. On his 1000th duel, Benkei was defeated by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, henceforth, he became Yoshitsunes retainer and fought with him in the Genpei War against the Taira clan. Yoshitsune is credited with most of the Minamoto clans successes against the Taira, after their ultimate triumph, however, Yoshitsunes elder brother Minamoto no Yoritomo turned against him. From 1185 until 1189, Benkei accompanied Yoshitsune as an outlaw, in the end, they were encircled in the castle of Koromogawa no tate. As Yoshitsune retired to the keep of the castle to commit ritual suicide on his own. It is said that the soldiers were afraid to cross the bridge to confront him, and all that did met swift death at the hands of the gigantic man, who killed in excess of 300 fully trained soldiers. Realizing that close combat would mean suicide, the Minamoto no Yoritomo warriors decided to shoot, long after the battle should have been over, the soldiers noticed that the arrow-riddled, wound-covered Benkei was standing still. When the soldiers dared to cross the bridge and look more closely and this is known as the Standing Death of Benkei. It is Benkeis loyalty and honour which makes him most attractive in Japanese folklore, One kabuki play places Benkei in a moral dilemma, caught between lying and protecting his lord in order to cross a bridge. The critical moment of the drama is its climax, where the monk realises his situation, in another play, Benkei even slays his own child to save the daughter of a lord
Benkei
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Benkei by
Kikuchi Yosai
Benkei
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Benkei with
Yoshitsune
29.
Tamamo-no-Mae
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Tamamo-no-Mae is a legendary figure in Japanese mythology. In the Otogizōshi, a collection of Japanese prose written in the Muromachi period, stories of Tamamo-no-Mae being a legendary fox spirit were written and collected in the Otogizōshi of the Muromachi period, and were also mentioned by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. Edo period folklore then conflated the legend with similar stories about fox spirits corrupting rulers. In the story told by Hokusai, formed in the Edo period and she enchanted the king and brought upon a reign of terror that led to a rebellion that ended the Shang dynasty. The fox spirit fled to Magadha of Tianzhu and became Lady Kayō, concubine of the crown prince Banzoku and it was then defeated again, and fled the country. Around 780 BC, the fox returned to China was said to have possessed Bao Si. It was again chased away by military forces. The fox stayed quiet for some period, then she appeared in Japan as Tamamo-no-Mae, the most favoured courtesan of Emperor Toba. She was said to be a most beautiful and intelligent woman and she caused the Emperor to be extremely ill and was eventually exposed as a fox spirit by the astrologer Abe no Yasuchika, who had been called to diagnose the cause of the Emperors poor health. A few years later, the emperor sent Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke to kill the fox in the plains of Nasu, in the 1653 Tamamo no sōshi, an addendum was added to the story describing that the spirit of Tamamo-no-mae embedded itself into a stone called the Sessho-seki. The stone continually released poisonous gas, killing everything that touched it, the stone was said to have been destroyed in the Nanboku-chō period by the Buddhist monk Gennō Shinshō, who exorcised the now-repentant fox spirit. He held a Buddhist memorial service after the deed, allowing the spirit to finally rest in peace, enjoying Otogizōshi with the Help of Synopsis and Illustrations. Japanese Mythology - The Gods of Japan, the evolution of a legend---A comparison of the character of Tamamo no mae portrayed in Muromachi period otogizoshi and in the late-Edo vendetta tale, Ito guruma kyubi no kitsune. Mailahn, Klaus, Der Fuchs in Glaube und Mythos, Münster 2006, 190-194, ISBN 3-8258-9483-5 Media related to Tamamo-no-Mae at Wikimedia Commons
Tamamo-no-Mae
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Tamamo-no-Mae. Woodblock print by Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi.
Tamamo-no-Mae
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Fleeing fox spirit as Lady Kayō depicted in Hokusai's Sangoku Yōko-den (三国妖狐伝)
Tamamo-no-Mae
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Mythic texts
Tamamo-no-Mae
30.
Mount Hiei
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Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by Saichō in 788, hōnen, Nichiren, and Shinran all studied at the temple before leaving to start their own practices. The temple complex was razed by Oda Nobunaga in 1571 to quell the rising power of the Tendais warrior monks, Mount Hiei has featured in many folk tales over the ages. Originally it was thought to be the home of gods and demons of Shinto lore, although it is predominantly known for the Buddhist monks that come from the temple of Enryaku-ji. John Stevens wrote the book The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, chronicling the practice of walking long distances – up to 52 miles a day for 100 straight days, the practice of walking is known as the kaihōgyō. A2010 US National Public Radio report described the sennichi kaihōgyō as.1,000 days of walking meditation, walked 26 miles a day for periods of either 100 or 200 consecutive days — a total distance about the same as walking around the Earth. Beyond the mountain itself, its forests, and the views it affords – of Kyoto, of Ohara, of lake Biwa, the temple complex spreads out over the mountain, but is concentrated in three areas, connected by foot trails. There are also more minor temples and shrines, the mountain is busiest during the daytime, but has some visitors in the evenings, for light-up displays and to see the night view of the surrounding towns. The mountain is an area for hikers and a toll road provides access by automobile to the top of the mountain. The attractions on the mountain are quite out, so there are regular buses during the daytime connecting the attractions. The center for these is the bus center, in front of the entrance to the temple complex at Tō-tō. Hiei Area JAPAN, the Official Guide Holly Schmid, Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei Photos of Mount Hiei and the three precincts of Enryakuji Temple Hieizan Enryakuji
Mount Hiei
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The view from Kyoto with
Cherry blossoms. (April 2005)
Mount Hiei
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The view from Takaragaike Park in Kyoto
Mount Hiei
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Autumn
Mount Hiei
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Winter
31.
Mount Fuji
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Mount Fuji, located on Honshu Island, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m. An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, Mount Fuji is one of Japans Three Holy Mountains along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japans Historic Sites and it was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22,2013. Per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries, UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan, in Shinto mythology, Kuninotokotachi is one of the two gods born from something like a reed that arose from the soil when the earth was chaotic. He is known by mythology to reside on top of Mount Fuji, Kuninotokotachi is described as a hitorigami and genderless in Kojiki, while as a male god in Nihon Shoki. Yoshida Kanetomo, the founder of the Yoshida Shintō sect, identified Kuninotokotachi with Amenominakanushi, the current kanji for Mount Fuji, 富 and 士, mean wealth or abundant and a man with a certain status respectively. The origin of the name Fuji is unclear, having no recording of it being first called by this name. A text of the 10th century, Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, says that the name came from immortal, an early folk etymology claims that Fuji came from 不二, meaning without equal or nonpareil. Another claims that it came from 不尽, meaning neverending, a Japanese classical scholar in the Edo era, Hirata Atsutane, speculated that the name is from a word meaning, a mountain standing up shapely as an ear of a rice plant. It is also pointed that huchi means an old woman and ape is the word for fire, research on the distribution of place names that include fuji as a part also suggest the origin of the word fuji is in the Yamato language rather than Ainu. A Japanese toponymist Kanji Kagami argued that the name has the root as wisteria and rainbow. In English, the mountain is known as Mount Fuji, some sources refer to it as Fuji-san, Fujiyama or, redundantly, Mt. Fujiyama. Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as Fuji-san and this san is not the honorific suffix used with peoples names, such as Watanabe-san, but the Sino-Japanese reading of the character yama used in Sino-Japanese compounds. In Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization, the name is transliterated as Huzi, among the most renowned works are Hokusais 36 Views of Mount Fuji and his One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, as well as Utagawa Hiroshiges similarly-titled 36 Views of Mount Fuji. The mountain is mentioned in Japanese literature throughout the ages and is the subject of many poems and it is thought that the first recorded ascent was in 663 by an anonymous monk. The summit has been thought of as sacred since ancient times and was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era, ancient samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area, near the present-day town of Gotemba. The shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo held yabusame in the area in the early Kamakura period, the first ascent by a foreigner was by Sir Rutherford Alcock in September 1868, from the foot of the mountain to the top in eight hours and three hours for the descent
Mount Fuji
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Mount Fuji as seen from a meadow
Mount Fuji
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Brooklyn Museum – woodblock print of Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji
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Panoramic view of routes to Mt. Fuji
32.
Izumo Province
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Izumo Province was an old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. The province is in the Chūgoku Region and it was one of the regions of ancient Japan where major political powers arose. Even today, the Izumo Shrine constitutes one of the important sacred places of Shinto, it is dedicated to kami, especially to Ōkuninushi, mythical progeny of Susanoo. The mythological mother of Japan, the goddess Izanami, is said to be buried on Mt. Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hōki, by the Sengoku period, Izumo had lost much of its importance. It was dominated before the Battle of Sekigahara by the Mōri clan, in Japanese mythology, the entrance to Yomi was located within the province, and was sealed by the god Izanagi by placing a large boulder over the entrance. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Media related to Izumo Province at Wikimedia Commons Izumo Province at JapaneseCastleExplorer. com Murdochs map of provinces,1903
Izumo Province
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Mythic texts
Izumo Province
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Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Izumo Province highlighted
Izumo Province
33.
Takamagahara
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Takama-ga-hara is a place in Japanese mythology. In Shinto, Takama-ga-hara is the place of the kami. It is believed to be connected to the Earth by the bridge Ama-no uki-hashi, in Shinto, ame is a lofty, sacred world, the home of the amatsukami. Some scholars have attempted to explain the myth of descent of the gods from the Takama-ga-hara as an allegory of the migration of peoples, however, it is likely to have referred from the beginning to a higher world in a religious sense. A Shinto myth explains that at the time of creation, light, heavy, turbid elements branched off to become earth. Ame became the home of the amatsukami or gods of heaven, the amatsukami are said to have descended from heaven to pacify and perfect this world). Guide in Takamagahara historic site Ono, Sokyo, Shinto, The Kami Way, Charles E
Takamagahara
–
Mythic texts
Takamagahara
34.
Yomi
–
Yomi or Yomi-no-kuni is the Japanese word for the land of the dead. According to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go after life, once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is impossible to return to the land of the living. Yomi is comparable to Hades or Sheol and is most commonly known for Izanamis retreat to that place after her death, Izanagi followed her there and upon his return he washed himself, creating Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto in the process. Many scholars believe that the image of Yomi was derived from ancient Japanese tombs in which corpses were left for some time to decompose, Yomi has also often been associated with the mythological realm of Ne-no-Kuni, also known as Ne-no-Katasukuni, perhaps the latter was meant to be underwater. Yomi is ruled over by Izanami no Mikoto, the Grand Deity of Yomi, upon his return to Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, Izanagi noted that Yomi is a polluted land. This opinion reflects the traditional Shinto association between death and pollution, later Susanoo takes this position over. Some Japanese Christian texts use 黄泉 to refer to what is called Hell in the English versions, harrowing of Hell Ono, Sokyo, Shinto, The Kami Way, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo 1992, ISBN 4-8053-0189-9 眞言引導要集便蒙
Yomi
–
Yomotsu Hirasaka in
Higashiizumo,
Shimane Prefecture
Yomi
–
Mythic texts
Yomi
Yomi
–
Mictlan
35.
Di Yu
–
Diyu is the realm of the dead or hell in Chinese mythology. Diyu is typically depicted as a maze with various levels and chambers. The exact number of levels in Diyu and their associated deities differ between Buddhist and Taoist interpretations. Some speak of three to four courts, others mention Ten Courts of Hell, each of which is ruled by a judge, other Chinese legends speak of the Eighteen Levels of Hell. According to ideas from Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese folk religion, Diyu is a purgatory that serves to punish, many deities, whose names and purposes are the subject of conflicting accounts, are associated with Diyu. Some early Chinese societies speak of going to Mount Tai. At present, Fengdu and the temples on Mount Tai have been rebuilt into tourist attractions, incorporating artistic depictions of hell, the concept of the Ten Courts of Hell began after Chinese folk religion was influenced by Buddhism. In Chinese mythology, the Jade Emperor put Yama in charge of overseeing the affairs of Diyu, there are 12,800 hells located under the earth – eight dark hells, eight cold hells and 84,000 miscellaneous hells located at the edge of the universe. All will go to Diyu after death but the period of time one spends in Diyu is not indefinite – it depends on the severity of the sins one committed, after receiving due punishment, one will eventually be sent for reincarnation. In the meantime, souls pass from stage to stage at Yamas decision, Yama also reduced the number of hells to ten. He divided Diyu into ten courts, each overseen by a Yama King, among the various other geographic features believed of Diyu, the capital city has been thought to be named Youdu. It is generally conceived as being similar to a typical Chinese capital city, such as Changan, the concept of the eighteen hells started in the Tang dynasty. The Buddhist text Wen Diyu Jing mentioned 134 worlds of hell, Sinners feel pain and agony just like living humans when they are subjected to the tortures listed below. They cannot die from the torture because when the ordeal is over, the following is a list of common punishments and tortures in the hells, Mountain of Knives, Sinners are thrown off cliffs and land on mountainous terrain with sharp blades sticking out. Some depictions show offenders climbing trees with knives or sharp thorns sticking out of trunks, Cauldron torture, Sinners are fried in cauldrons of oil. Dismemberment, Sinners are dismembered by various means, including sawing, slicing into half, mashing/pounding into pulp, being crushed by rocks/boulders, being run over by vehicles, grinding torture, Sinners are put into a grinding machine and ground into a bloody pulp. Burning, Sinners are set aflame or cast into infernos, paolao torture, Sinners are stripped naked and tied to a large hollow metal cylinder with a fire lit at its base. Boiling liquid torture, Boiling liquids are forced down sinners throats or poured on parts of their bodies, Tortures involving removal of body parts or organs, Tongue ripping, eye gouging, teeth extraction, heart digging, disembowelment, skinning, etc
Di Yu
–
Ming dynasty (16th century) glazed earthenware figurines representing three of the ten Yama Kings.
Di Yu
–
Illustration from the
Jade Record: Tortures being meted out in the Sixth Court of Hell: hammering metal spikes into the body;
skinning alive; sawing body in half; kneeling on metal filings.
Di Yu
–
Entrance to the "Ten Courts of Hell" attraction in
Haw Par Villa, Singapore. The
Ox-Headed (right) and Horse-Faced (left) Hell Guards stand guard at the entrance.
Di Yu
–
The headless ghost of
Yue Fei confronting the recently deceased spirit of
Qin Hui in the Sixth Court. The plaque held by the attendant on the left reads: "Qin Hui's ten wicked crimes." From a 19th-century Chinese
Hell Scroll.
36.
Amenonuhoko
–
Amenonuhoko is the name given to the spear in Japanese mythology used to raise the primordial land-mass, Onogoro-shima, from the sea. It is often represented as a naginata, according to the Kojiki, Shintos genesis gods Izanagi and Izanami were responsible for creating the first land. To help them do this, they were given a spear decorated with jewels, named Ame-no nu-hoko, the two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Ame-no-ukihashi, and churned the sea below with the naginata. When drops of salty water fell from the tip, they formed into the first island, Izanagi and Izanami then descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island
Amenonuhoko
–
Searching the Seas with the Tenkei (天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図 Tenkei o motte sōkai o saguru no zu?). Painting by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1880–90 (MFA, Boston). Izanagi to the right, Izanami to the left
37.
Kusanagi
–
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, but its name was changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. In folklore the sword represents the virtue of valor, the history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the god Susanoo encountered a family of kunitsukami headed by Ashinazuchi in Izumo Province. Susanoo investigated the creature, and after an encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-himes hand in marriage, which was agreed, transforming her temporarily into a comb to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps. He instructed the preparation of eight vats of sake to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates, the monster took the bait and put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast and he chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi and these gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows loosed to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death and he also killed the warriors horse to prevent his escape. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to commemorate his narrow escape, eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wifes advice to take the sword with him. Although the sword is mentioned in the Kojiki, this book is a collection of Japanese myths and is not considered an historical document, the first reliable historical mention of the sword is in the Nihonshoki. In the Nihonshoki, the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial palace in 688, along with the jewel and the mirror, it is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the sword representing the virtue of valor. Kusanagi is allegedly kept at Atsuta Shrine but is not available for public display, per his account, a stone box was inside a wooden box of length 150 cm, with red clay stuffed into the gap between them. Inside the stone box was a log of a camphor tree, acting as another box. Above that was placed a sword, red clay was also stuffed between the stone box and the camphor tree box. The sword was about 82 cm long and its blade resembled a calamus leaf. The middle of the sword had a thickness from the grip about 18cm with an appearance like a fish spine, the sword was fashioned in a white metallic color, and well maintained
Kusanagi
Kusanagi
–
Atsuta Shrine in
Nagoya dates back to c. 100 CE [
citation needed] and houses the Kusanagi sword
Kusanagi
–
Real
38.
Imperial Regalia of Japan
–
The Imperial Regalia of Japan, also known as the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan, consist of the sword Kusanagi, the mirror Yata no Kagami, and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama. The regalia represent the three virtues, valor, wisdom, and benevolence. Since 690, the presentation of items to the Emperor by the priests at the shrine has been a central element of the enthronement ceremony. This ceremony is not public, and these items are by tradition seen only by the Emperor, because of this, no known photographs or drawings exist. Two of the three treasures were last seen during the accession and enthronement of Emperor Akihito in 1989 and 1993 and these treasures were eventually said to be passed down to Emperor Jimmu, who was the first Emperor of Japan and was also Ninigis great-grandson. Traditionally, they were a symbol of the divinity as a descendant of Amaterasu. Susanoo later presented the sword Kusanagi to Amaterasu as a token of apology, he had obtained it from the body of an eight-headed serpent, Yamata no Orochi. At the conclusion of the Genpei War in 1185, the eight year-old Emperor Antoku and they were present when the Taira were defeated by the rival Minamoto clan at the Battle of Dan-no-ura, which was fought on boats in the shallow Kanmon Straits. The child-emperors grandmother threw herself, the boy, the sword, the mirror was recovered, but according to the main account of the battle, a Minamato soldier who tried to force open the box containing it was struck blind. The jewel was recovered shortly afterwards by divers, but the sword was lost, Regalia Chrysanthemum Throne Imperial House of Japan Japanese mythology National seals of Japan Order of the Sacred Treasure Shinto
Imperial Regalia of Japan
39.
Buddhism in Japan
–
Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since its official introduction in 552 AD according to the Nihon Shoki from Baekje, Korea by Buddhist monks. Though some Chinese sources place the first spreading of the religion earlier during the Kofun period, Buddhism has had a major influence on the development of Japanese society and remains an influential aspect of the culture to this day. In modern times, Japans most popular schools of Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon Buddhism, as of 2008 approximately 34% of the Japanese identify as Buddhists and the number has been growing since the 1980s. In 2009, a survey showed that over half the Japanese families had a butsudan or Buddhist altar in their homes. In 2009 data from the Agency of Cultural Affairs stated that there were 89 million Buddhists in Japan, in 2011, after the Tsunami, it was reported that 90% of the Japanese identified as Buddhist or Shinto or a combination of both. In 2013, official said there were over 87 million Buddhists in Japan. The arrival of Buddhism in Japan is ultimately a consequence of the first contacts between China and Central Asia, where Buddhism had spread from the Indian subcontinent. These contacts occurred with the opening of the Silk Road in the 2nd century BC and these contacts culminated with the official introduction of Buddhism in China in 67 CE. Historians generally agree that by the middle of the 1st century, according to the Book of Liang, which was written in 635, five Buddhist monks from Gandhara traveled to Japan in 467. In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion and they propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result the customs of Fusang changed, the powerful Soga clan played a key role in the early spread of Buddhism in the country. Initial uptake of the new faith was slow, and Buddhism only started to spread some years later when Empress Suiko openly encouraged the acceptance of Buddhism among all Japanese people. On January 15,593, Soga no Umako ordered relics of Buddha deposited inside the stone under the pillar of a pagoda at Asuka-dera. In 607, in order to obtain copies of sutras, an envoy was dispatched to Sui China. As time progressed and the number of Buddhist clergy increased, the offices of Sōjō, by 627, there were 46 Buddhist temples,816 Buddhist priests, and 569 Buddhist nuns in Japan. These were not exclusive schools, and temples were apt to have scholars versed in several of the schools and it has been suggested that they can best be thought of as study groups. This kind of Buddhism had little to offer the illiterate and uneducated masses and their practice was a combination of Buddhist and Daoist elements and the incorporation of shamanistic features of indigenous practices. Some of these figures became popular, and were a source of criticism towards the sophisticated academic and bureaucratic Buddhism of the capital
Buddhism in Japan
–
Daibutsu,
Kamakura.
Buddhism in Japan
–
Pagoda of
Yakushi-ji in
Nara (730)
Buddhism in Japan
–
Byōdō-in (Pure Land sect), located in
Uji, Kyoto
40.
Bon Festival
–
Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of ones ancestors. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, the festival of Obon lasts for three days, however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan reacted differently, shichigatsu Bon is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around 15 July in eastern Japan, coinciding with Chūgen. Hachigatsu Bon is based on the calendar, is celebrated around the 15th of August and is the most commonly celebrated time. Kyū Bon is celebrated on the 15th day of the month of the lunar calendar. Kyū Bon is celebrated in areas like the part of the Kantō region, Chūgoku region, Shikoku. These three days are not listed as public holidays but it is customary that people are given leave, Obon is a shortened form of Ullambana. It is Sanskrit for hanging upside down and implies great suffering, the Japanese believe they should ameliorate the suffering of the Urabanna. Bon Odori originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana, a disciple of the Buddha and he discovered she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm, Buddha instructed him to make offerings to the many Buddhist monks who had just completed their summer retreat, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The disciple did this and, thus, saw his mothers release and he also began to see the true nature of her past selflessness and the many sacrifices that she had made for him. The disciple, happy because of his mothers release and grateful for his mothers kindness, from this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or Bon Dance, a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated. As Obon occurs in the heat of the summer, participants traditionally wear yukata, many Obon celebrations include a huge carnival with rides, games, and summer festival food like watermelon. Families sent their ancestors back to their permanent dwelling place under the guidance of fire. Fire, which marked the commencement as well as the closing of the festival, Bon Odori, meaning simply Bon dance, is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, each region has a local dance, as well as different music. The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the message of Obon. Consequently, the Bon dance will look and sound different from region to region, hokkaidō is known for a folk-song known as Sōran Bushi
Bon Festival
–
Obon in the late
Edo period
Bon Festival
–
Kyoto's
Gozan no Okuribi bonfire lit during the Obon festival
Bon Festival
–
Participants place candle-lit lanterns in the
Sasebo River during Obon.
Bon Festival
–
An Obon offering
41.
Setsubun
–
Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring in Japan. The name literally means seasonal division, but usually the term refers to the spring Setsubun and this special ritual is called mamemaki. Setsubun has its origins in tsuina, a Chinese custom introduced to Japan in the eighth century, the custom of mamemaki first appeared in the Muromachi period. It is usually performed by the toshiotoko of the household, or else the male head of the household, roasted soybeans are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni mask, while the people say Demons out. Luck in. and slam the door and this is still common practice in households but many people will attend a shrine or temples spring festival where this is done. The beans are thought to purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune. The gestures of mamemaki look similar to the Western custom of throwing rice at newly married couples after a wedding, at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines all over the country, there are celebrations for Setsubun. Priests and invited guests will throw roasted soy beans, small envelopes with money, sweets, candies, in some bigger shrines, even celebrities and sumo wrestlers will be invited, these events are televised nationally. At Sensō-ji in the Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo, crowds of nearly 100,000 people attend the annual festivities. This custom started in Osaka, but in recent years eho-maki can be purchased at stores in the Kanto area, charts are published and occasionally packaged with uncut makizushi during February. Some families put up small decorations of sardine heads and holly leaves on their house entrances so that bad spirits will not enter, ginger sake is customarily drunk at Setsubun. Other customs during this time included religious dance, festivals, and bringing tools inside the house that might normally be left outside, because Setsubun was also considered to be apart from normal time, people might also practice role reversal. Such customs included young girls doing their hair in the styles of women and vice versa, wearing disguises. This custom is practiced among geisha and their clients when entertaining on Setsubun. Traveling entertainers, who were normally shunned during the year because they were considered vagrants, were welcomed on Setsubun to perform morality plays and their vagrancy worked to their advantage in these cases because they could take the spirits with them. In the Tohoku area of Japan, the head of the household would take roasted beans in his hand, pray at the family shrine, peanuts are sometimes used in place of soybeans. There are many variations on the famous Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi chant, for example, in the city of Aizuwakamatsu, people chant 鬼の目玉ぶっつぶせ！, lit. Holidays of Japan Ehōmaki, a sushi roll often eaten for good luck on setsubun, taoism in Japan Risshun Rikka Risshū Rittō Feast of the Lemures Zvončari Exorcism Japan-guide – Setsubun Bean scatterer calculator Japanlinked – Setsubun Setsubun Miscellaneous Notes on Setsubun
Setsubun
–
Tokuan shrine
Setsubun
–
Celebrities throw roasted beans in
Ikuta Shrine, Kobe
Setsubun
–
A supermarket shelf with masks, roasted soybeans and other materials for the festival.
Setsubun
–
Sardine head talisman on house entrance to keep bad spirits away
42.
Torii
–
A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. The presence of a torii at the entrance is usually the simplest way to identify Shinto shrines, and they are however a common sight at Japanese Buddhist temples too, where they stand at the entrance of the temples own shrine, called chinjusha and are usually very small. Their first appearance in Japan can be pinpointed to at least the mid-Heian period because they are mentioned in a text written in 922. The oldest existing stone torii was built in the 12th century, the oldest wooden torii is a ryōbu torii at Kubō Hachiman Shrine in Yamanashi prefecture built in 1535. Torii were traditionally made from wood or stone, but today they can be made of reinforced concrete, copper. They are usually either unpainted or painted vermilion with a black upper lintel, Inari shrines typically have many torii because those who have been successful in business often donate in gratitude a torii to Inari, kami of fertility and industry. Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto has thousands of torii, each bearing the donors name. The function of a torii is to mark the entrance to a sacred space, for this reason, the road leading to a Shinto shrine is almost always straddled by one or more torii, which are therefore the easiest way to distinguish a shrine from a Buddhist temple. If the sandō passes under multiple torii, the outer of them is called ichi no torii, the following ones, closer to the shrine, are usually called, in order, ni no torii and san no torii. Other torii can be found farther into the shrine to represent increasing levels of holiness as one nears the inner sanctuary, Also, because of the strong relationship between Shinto shrines and the Japanese Imperial family, a torii stands also in front of the tombs of each Emperor. Whether torii existed in Japan before Buddhism or, to the contrary, arrived with it is, however, in the past torii must have been used also at the entrance of Buddhist temples. Even today, as prominent a temple as Osakas Shitennō-ji, founded in 593 by Shōtoku Taishi, many Buddhist temples include one or more Shinto shrines dedicated to their tutelary kami, and in that case a torii marks the shrines entrance. Benzaiten is a syncretic goddess derived from the Indian divinity Sarasvati which unites elements of both Shinto and Buddhism, for this reason halls dedicated to her can be found at both temples and shrines, and in either case in front of the hall stands a torii. The goddess herself is sometimes portrayed with a torii on her head, finally, until the Meiji period torii were routinely adorned with plaques carrying Buddhist sutras. The association between Japanese Buddhism and the torii is therefore old and profound, yamabushi, Japanese mountain ascetic hermits with a long tradition as mighty warriors endowed with supernatural powers, sometimes use as their symbol a torii. The torii is also used as a symbol of Japan in non-religious contexts. For example, it is the symbol of the Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, the origins of the torii are unknown and there are several different theories on the subject, none of which has gained universal acceptance. They may, for example, have originated in India from the gates in the monastery of Sanchi in central India
Torii
–
The famous torii at
Itsukushima Shrine, a Ryōbu-style torii.
Torii
–
A torii at the entrance of
Shitennō-ji, a Buddhist temple in
Osaka
Torii
–
Buddhist goddess
Benzaiten, a torii visible on her head
Torii
43.
Shinto shrine
–
A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more Shinto kami. Its most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects, structurally, a Shinto shrine is usually characterized by the presence of a honden or sanctuary, where the kami is enshrined. The honden may however be completely absent, as for example when the stands on a sacred mountain to which it is dedicated. There may be a haiden and other structures as well, however, a shrines most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects rather than for worship. Miniature shrines can occasionally be found on roadsides, large shrines sometimes have on their precincts miniature shrines. The portable shrines which are carried on poles during festivals enshrine kami and are therefore true shrines. in 927 CE and this work listed all of the 2,861 Shinto shrines existing at the time, and the 3,131 official-recognized and enshrined Kami. Certainly, that number has grown and greatly exceeded this figure through the following generations, in Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan placed the number of shrines at 79,467, mostly affiliated with the Association of Shinto Shrines. Some shrines, such as the Yasukuni Shrine are totally independent of any outside authority, the number of Shinto shrines in Japan is estimated to be around 100,000. This figure may, or may not, include private shrines in homes and owned by groups, abandoned or derelict shrines. Ancestors are kami to be worshiped, yayoi-period village councils sought the advice of ancestors and other kami, and developed instruments to evoke them. Yoshishiro means approach substitute and were conceived to attract the kami to allow them physical space, village-council sessions were held in quiet spots in the mountains or in forests near great trees or other natural objects that served as yorishiro. These sacred places and their yorishiro gradually evolved into todays shrines, whose origins can be seen in the Japanese words for mountain and forest. Many shrines have on their grounds one of the original great yorishiro, the first buildings at places dedicated to worship were surely huts built to house some yorishiro. A trace of this origin can be found in the term hokura, deity storehouse, which evolved into hokora, true shrines arose with the beginning of agriculture, when the need arose to attract kami to ensure good harvests. These were, however, just temporary structures built for a particular purpose, Ōmiwa Shrine in Nara, for example, contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve the mountain on which it stands. Those images or objects are therefore unnecessary, for the same reason, it has a worship hall but no place to house the kami. Archeology confirms that, during the Yayoi period, the most common shintai in the earliest shrines were nearby mountain peaks that supplied water to the plains where people lived. Besides the already mentioned Ōmiwa Shrine, another important example is Mount Nantai, significantly, the name Nantai means mans body
Shinto shrine
–
Two women praying in front of a shrine
Shinto shrine
–
Mount Nantai, worshiped at
Futarasan Shrine, has the shape of the
phallic stone rods found in pre-agricultural Jōmon sites.
Shinto shrine
–
An example of jingū-ji:
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū -ji in an old drawing. In the foreground the shrine-temple's Buddhist structures (not extant), among them a
pagoda, a
belltower and a
niōmon. The shrine (extant) is above.
Shinto shrine
–
Mount Fuji is Japan's most famous shintai.
44.
Buddhist temples in Japan
–
Buddhist temples are, together with Shinto shrines, considered to be among the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan. The Japanese word for a Buddhist temple is tera, and the same kanji also has the pronunciation ji, another ending, -in, is normally used to refer to minor temples. Such famous temples as Kiyomizu-dera, Enryaku-ji, and Kōtoku-in illustrate this naming pattern, in Japan, Buddhist temples co-exist with Shinto shrines, and both share the basic features of Japanese traditional architecture. Some shrines, for example Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū, have a Buddhist-style main gate called sōmon, many temples have a temizuya and komainu, like a shrine. Conversely, some make use of incense or have a shōrō belltower. Others – for example, Tanzan Jinja in Nara – may even have a pagoda, similarities between temples and shrines are also functional. Like a shrine, a Buddhist temple is not primarily a place of worship, its most important buildings are used for the safekeeping of sacred objects, unlike a Christian church, a temple is also a monastery. There are specialized buildings for certain rites, but these are open only to a limited number of participants. Religious mass gatherings do not take place with regularity as with Christian religions, if many people are involved in a ceremony, it will assume a festive character and will be held outdoors. The reason for the structural resemblances between the two lies in their common history. It is in fact normal for a temple to have also a shrine. Shrines enshrining local kami existed long before the arrival of Buddhism, with the arrival of Buddhism in Japan in the 6th century, shrines were subjected to its influence and adopted both the concept of permanent structures and the architecture of Buddhist temples. The successive development of shinbutsu-shūgō and of the honji suijaku theory brought to the almost complete fusion of kami worship and it became normal for shrines to be accompanied by temples in mixed complexes called jingū-ji or miyadera. The opposite was also common, most temples had at least a shrine dedicated to its tutelary kami. As a consequence, for centuries shrines and temples had a relationship where each influenced the other. The clear separation between Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, which today is the norm, emerges only as a result of the shinbutsu bunri law of 1868. This separation was mandated by law, and many shrine-temples were forced to become just shrines, among them famous ones like Usa Hachiman-gū and Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. For example, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gūs giant Niō, being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, were sold to Jufuku-ji, the shrine-temple also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its tahōtō, its midō, and its shichidō garan
Buddhist temples in Japan
–
The hondō, or "
main hall ", of
Higashi Hongan-ji in
Kyoto.
Buddhist temples in Japan
Buddhist temples in Japan
–
A torii at the entrance of
Shitennō-ji, a Buddhist temple in
Osaka
Buddhist temples in Japan
–
Honden of the
Zennyo Ryūō shrine, inside a
Shingon temple in Kyoto
45.
Kunio Yanagita
–
Kunio Yanagita was a Japanese scholar who is often known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku. He was born in Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, after graduating with a degree in law from Tokyo Imperial University, he became employed as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. In the course of his duties, Yanagita had the opportunity to travel throughout mainland Japan. During these business trips, Yanagita became increasingly interested in observing and recording details pertaining to local village customs, under the influence of literary friends such as the writer Shimazaki Toson, Yanagita published works supposedly based on local oral traditions such as Tales of Tono. He collaborated extensively with folklorist Kizen Sasaki, and they published books together. Yanagitas focus on local traditions was part of an effort to insert the lives of commoners into narratives of Japanese history. He argued that historical narratives were typically dominated by events pertaining to rulers and he emphasized the unique practices of different groups of common people, such as sanka or mountain dwellers, and island dwellers. His work is frequently groundbreaking and sometimes has unique cultural records, tōno Monogatari a record of folk legends gathered in Tono, Iwate Prefecture. Famous yōkai in the stories include kappa and zashiki-warashi, kagyūkō Yanagita revealed that the distribution of dialects for the word snail forms concentric circles on the Japanese archipelago. Momotarō no Tanjō He depicted some facets of Japanese society by analyzing the famous folk tale Momotaro and his methodology was followed by many ethnologists and anthropologists. Kaijō no Michi He sought the origin of the Japanese culture in Okinawa and he was inspired by picking up a palm nut borne by the Kuroshio Current when he was wandering on a beach in Iragomisaki, Aichi Prefecture. Kunio Yanagita at Find a Grave
Kunio Yanagita
–
Kunio Yanagita
Kunio Yanagita
–
Matsuoka Five brothers
Kunio Yanagita
–
Kunio Yanagita･Matsuoka Family's Memorial
46.
Lafcadio Hearn
–
In the United States, Hearn is also known for his writings about the city of New Orleans based on his ten-year stay in that city. Hearn was born in and named after the island of Lefkada, one of the Greek Ionian Islands and he was the son of Surgeon-Major Charles Bush Hearn and Rosa Antoniou Kassimatis, a Greek woman of noble Kytheran lineage through her father, Anthony Kassimatis. His father was stationed in Lefkada during the British occupation of the islands, Lafcadio was baptized Patricios Lefcadios Hearn in the Greek Orthodox Church, but he seems to have been called Patrick Lefcadio Kassimati Charles Hearn in English. George Hearn died on 17 August 1850, two months after Lafcadios birth, in 1850 Hearns father was promoted to Staff Surgeon Second Class and was reassigned from Lefkada to the British West Indies. In 1852, he arranged to send his son and wife to live with his family in Dublin, Ireland, Charles Hearns mother, Elizabeth Holmes Hearn, had difficulty accepting Rosa Hearns Catholicism and lack of education. Despite Sarah Brenanes efforts, Rosa suffered from homesickness, when her husband returned to Ireland on medical leave in 1853, it became clear that the couple had become estranged. Charles Hearn was assigned to the Crimean Peninsula, again leaving his pregnant wife, when he came back in 1856, severely wounded and traumatized, Rosa had returned to her home island of Cerigo in Greece, where she gave birth to their third son, Daniel James Hearn. Lafcadio had been left in the care of Sarah Brenane, Charles Hearn petitioned to have the marriage with Rosa annulled, on the basis of her lack of signature on the marriage contract, which made it invalid under English law. After being informed of the annulment, Rosa almost immediately married Giovanni Cavallini, Cavallini required as a condition of the marriage that Rosa give up custody of both Lafcadio and James. As a result, James was sent to his father in Dublin, neither Lafcadio nor James saw their mother again, who had four children with her second husband. Rosa was eventually committed to the National Mental Asylum on Corfu, Charles Hearn, who had left Lafcadio in the care of Sarah Brenane for the past 4 years, now appointed her as Lafcadios permanent guardian. He married his sweetheart, Alicia Goslin, in July 1857, and left with his new wife for a posting in Secunderabad. Lafcadio never saw his father again, Charles Hearn died of malaria in the Gulf of Suez in 1866, in 1857, at age seven and despite the fact that both his parents were still alive, Hearn became the permanent ward of his great aunt, Sarah Brenane. She divided her residency between Dublin in the months, her husbands estate at Tramore, County Waterford on the southern Irish coast. Brenane also engaged a tutor during the year to provide basic instruction. Hearn began exploring Brenanes library and read extensively in Greek literature, Hearn became fluent in French and would later translate into English the works of Guy de Maupassant, who coincidentally attended the school shortly after Hearns departure. In 1863, again at the suggestion of Molyneux, Hearn was enrolled at St. Cuthberts College, Ushaw, in this environment, Hearn adopted the nickname Paddy to try to fit in better, and was the top student in English composition for three years. At age 16, while at Ushaw, Hearn injured his eye in a schoolyard mishap
Lafcadio Hearn
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Lafcadio Hearn in 1889 by
Frederick Gutekunst
Lafcadio Hearn
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Cover page of first issue of Ye Giglampz, a satirical weekly published in 1874 by Lafcadio Hearn and Henry Farny
Lafcadio Hearn
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Char-Coal: Cartoon published in New Orleans Daily Item on 25 August 1880.
Lafcadio Hearn
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Alligators: Cartoon published in New Orleans Daily Item on 13 September 1880
47.
Shigeru Mizuki
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Shigeru Mizuki was a Japanese manga author and historian, best known for his series GeGeGe no Kitarō – originally titled Hakaba Kitarō – Kappa no Sanpei, and Akuma-kun. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato in Tottori prefecture, he moved to Chōfu. His pen-name, Mizuki, comes from the time when he managed an inn called Mizuki Manor while he drew pictures for kamishibai, a specialist in stories of Yōkai, he is considered a master of the genre. Mizuki was also a historian, publishing works relating to world history, Japanese history. Mizuki was born Shigeru Mura in the city of Osaka, the second of three sons and he was raised in the coastal city of Sakaminato, where he spent much of his childhood as a scrapper, picking fights and participating in childish warfare with the neighbouring children. He displayed from an age a particular talent for art. However, in 1942, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and his wartime experiences affected him greatly, as he contracted malaria, watched friends die from battle wounds and disease, and dealt with other horrors of war. Finally, in an Allied air raid, he was caught in an explosion, regarding this life-changing event, a Nov. The result of Mizukis wartime experience was a concurrent sense of pacifism, while in a Japanese field hospital on Rabaul, he was befriended by the local Tolai tribespeople, who offered him land, a home, and citizenship via marriage to one of their women. Mizuki acknowledged that he considered remaining behind, but was shamed by a doctor into returning home to Japan first to face his parents. Upon arriving home, Mizuki had initially planned to return to New Guinea, however and his injuries did little to help, nor did the fact that his older brother, an artillery officer, was convicted as a war criminal for having prisoners of war executed. From his return until 1956 he worked as a theater operator until his break as a cartoonist. In 1957, Mizuki released his work, Rocketman. Since then, he has published works, both on yōkai and military works. He has also many books on both subjects, including an autobiography about his time on New Britain Island and a manga biography of Adolf Hitler. When not working in field, he paints a number of subjects. In 2003, he returned to Rabaul to rekindle his friendship with the natives, in 2005, Mizuki appeared in a cameo role in Yōkai Daisenso directed by Takashi Miike, a film about Yōkai inspired by his work as well as the work of Aramata Hiroshi. A brief explanation about his works also is mentioned in the film, in 2010, NHK broadcast an asadora about his married life, Gegege no Nyōbō, based on his wifes autobiography
Shigeru Mizuki
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Mizuki Road
Shigeru Mizuki
Shigeru Mizuki
48.
Tokugawa period
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The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the countrys 300 regional daimyō. The shogunate was established in Edo on March 24,1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3,1868, instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area, after Hideyoshis death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi family. Ieyasus victory over the western daimyōs at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyōs, but his assumption of the title of shogun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shogun. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication, in 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka. The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan, the political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority and this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or related houses and they were twenty-three daimyōs on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu, the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or house daimyōs, rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century,145 fudai controlled such smaller han, members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the group, the tozama, former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago, because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions. The Tokugawa not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyōs and the religious orders. The emperor was held up as the source of political sanction for the shogun
Tokugawa period
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Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Tokugawa period
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Tokugawa Ieyasu, first
shogun of the
Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa period
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The
San Juan Bautista is represented in
Claude Deruet 's painting of
Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome in 1617, as a galleon with Hasekura's flag (red swastika on orange background) on the top mast.
Tokugawa period
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Itinerary and dates of the travels of Hasekura Tsunenaga
