The Japanese Myths and The Greek Philosophy

      Sometimes it has been pointed out that the Japanese myths resemble to those of the Greek on the ground of polytheism and active deities with human nature. As far as the stage, however, on which the first deities would appear, it is rather similar to ancient Greek philosophy wherein philosophers, particularly Milesians, eagerly inquired into cosmos, the origin of the universe[i]. As of old, Japanese people have expressed it in imaging the eternal universe by a conventional phrase “the time when the Heaven and Earth separated,” and they have recited this phrase in Shinto prayers or have composed poems, Uta, the traditional style of Japanese poetry, ever and again. 

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[i] Hideya Yamakawa, The Ancient Greek Thoughts, Kodansya, Tokyo, 1993, pp. 20-26.