By the way, we can find impressive words of Izanagi-no-mikoto at the scene of divorce from Izanami-no-mikoto. In escaping from pursues commanded by his wife deity, he plucked off three fruits from a peach or plum tree standing at Yomotuhira-saka and repulsed the army by throwing them. In this scene, he asked these peaches “ As you have helped me, please help any people of this life in Japan, Ashihara-no-nakatu-kuni, when they are in distress and in pain suffering from hardship,” and conferred a deity name, Ohokamuzumi-no-mikoto, on them. These words seem to appear virtue of Izanagi-no-mikoto that he cherished his people deeply as a protector of his nation.
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2008年7 月
2008年7 月31日 (木)
2008年7 月30日 (水)
The Story of Divorce in the Kojiki
The story of divorce between Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto in the Kojiki is so impressive, because through their words they expressed the nature of life and death of human-beings. When Izanami-no-mikoto parted from her husband on the border of the land of dead, Yomotuhira-saka, where Izanagi-no-mikoto had closed the road with a huge rock, she cursed him and said “My dear husband, if you will do such a terrible thing, I will kill one thousand of your people a day! “ Responding to this curse, Izanagi-no-mikoto said “My dear wife, if you will do so, I will built one thousand and five hundreds houses for newborn babies!” From this conversation, we can recognize that this pair deity made human-beings mortal.
2008年7 月29日 (火)
The Births of the Sibling Deities in The Kojiki
As for the Kojiki, the complier, Oono-yasumaro, disposed this scene of births of the sibling three deities after the demise of Izanami-no-mikoto. The Kojiki describes that when she bore the fire deity, Kagututi, she passed away to the land of the dead. The story that a husband deity pursued a late wife deity into the land of dead, yielded to a desire for seeing her figure, of course, which had already changed ugly, brought her a intolerable shame and hightailed in throwing his ornaments and belongings against her pursuers, ranges in the world as a tale of maledictory escape. Even though such a story notifying breaking taboo is rather popular, the Japanese myth would have handed down something historical event to posterity. It is also mysterious that the main text of the Chronicle of Japan disregarded this story of divorce, although some of additional texts in this book introduced it.
2008年7 月28日 (月)
Amaterasu-oomikami in the Chronicle of Japan
A historian, Yuuko Kuranishi, said that the reason why the editor of the Chronicle of Japan, Toneri-shinnou, emphasized the birth of Amaterasu-oomikami rather than other two sibling deities is probably that he tried to make it clear that the ancestor of the Tennou should exist in the Heaven because of her unearthly brightness. As a matter of fact, the Japanese has call the Tennou and his attendants in the Chotei “heavenly persons” emphasizing their celestial and sublime feature. Undoubtedly, this celestial factor has been an origin of reverence of the Japanese to the Tennou who would be a descendant of the heavenly deity.
2008年7 月27日 (日)
The Birth of Amaterasu-oomikami in the Japanese Myth
Curiously enough, the scene of births of three sibling deities is described in differnt situations between in the Chronicle of Japan and in the Kojiki. In the main text of the Chronicle of Japan, parent deities, Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, bore their children deities after bearing natural deities. At first, the parent deities would have intended to be delivered of a lord of the state in the Earth. The sun goddess, Amaterasu-oomikami, however, would have been so brilliant and so graceful that her parent deities would have changed their minds and have decided to raise their beautiful daughter to the Heaven in order to let her shine all over the state.
2008年7 月26日 (土)
The Japanese Myth and Ancestors
The relation between deities and the Heaven set up from the third stage where the pairs of deities, particularly Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto who would be a parents of eight Japanese Islands, Oo-ya-sima, and other small islands, would have come into existence, but it does follow from this that we cannot pursue anymore the question where the Japanese, the Yayoi people, came from. If ancestors of the Japanese had come directly from the Heaven truly, as the two history books described, it should be in vain to search for the origin somewhere in the Eurasian Continent.
2008年7 月25日 (金)
Births of Natural Deities in Japan
In addition to appearance of the geographical territory of Japan, the pair deities would have born spirits of rivers, mountains, trees, grass, winds, and so on, as every natural deity. Such births of natural deities with persons resemble to those of Greek Myth. At last, when Izanami-no-mikoto would have been confined to give birth to spirit of fire, she would have died burned by her baby deity, Kagutzuchi. In a moment of anger, Izanagi-no-mikoto would have killed his son Kagutzuchi and cut his body with a sword. In this scene of pitiful infanticide, more deities would have born from both of blood dropping from father’s sword and the separated parts of son’s body. Moderns should be impressed more cruelly by such a merciless scene than the ancients who were accustomed to cruelties and savageries were.
2008年7 月24日 (木)
The Birth of the Japanese Archipelago
As for the third stage, it is significant that both of the Japanese history books state the advent of a pair of deities after those of the three or four pairs of deities, a god Izanagi-no-mikoto and a goddess Izanami-no-mikoto. It is this pair who would mediate between the Heaven and Japan, because they would have given birth to the Japanese Archipelago on a floating bridge of Heaven. In this sentence, the Shinto is not universal but inherent and vernacular religion limiting the sphere within the Japanese Islands. In essence, it has no inclination to be propagated beyond its own territory, though it was regarded as an aggressive religion before the WWII.
2008年7 月23日 (水)
The Apearance of Pairs of Deities in Japanese History Books
Let us now return to the third stage described in the Japanese Chronicle and the Kojiki, wherein pairs of deities appeared following the first single deities. Curious to say, the Chronicle of Japan mentions three pairs of deities in the main text, Uhijini-no-mikoto and Suhijini-no-mikoto as the first pair, Ootonoji-no-mikoto and Oonomabe-no-mikoto as the second and Omotaru-no-mikoto and Kasikone-no-mikoto as third, while the Kojiki, enemarating four pairs of deities, adds one more pair deities, Tunoguhi-no-kami and Ikuguhi-no-kami, after the first pair in the Chronicle of Japan. This difference also would be a trace suggesting ancient integration process of Japan.
2008年7 月22日 (火)
An Explanation for the Japanese Polythism
The criticism for the Japanese polytheism, wherein the final Judgment by the God is not supposed, incurred by monotheists, that is to say a lack of morality, may not apply. Because it is considerably difficult for human-beings to discern good from bad and choose right and proper ways to the better world in this ambiguous and ever-changing society in living up to the implicit expectations of the Heaven, with no scriptures, no commandments and no intimidation of retributions.
