MYTH
=Character of Japanese Myth.=—Japanese myth covers much the same
ground as the myths of other countries. We have the explanatory myth,
invented in order to account for some custom or rite, some natural
phenomenon, a name of a place or person, etc. There is an abundance
of highly frivolous, revolting, childish, and unmeaning—to us at
least—matter, and the various versions of the stories which have come
down to us are often wholly inconsistent with one another. From the
sketch of the mythical narrative which is given below, many details of
this description have necessarily been omitted. There are, however,
two leading ideas by which Japanese myth is redeemed from summary
condemnation as a mere farrago of childish nonsense. In the first
place, it is permeated by the conception of the so-called inanimate
universe as being in reality instinct with sentient life. The old
Shintoists had not grasped the more general and philosophic notion of
the Immanence of Deity in all things. With their limited scientific
knowledge this was impossible. But they had the same idea in a more
desultory, fragmentary way. To them, the Sun, the Wind, the Sea, were
_Kami_ who could hear and answer prayer, and exercise a providential
care over mankind. But the synthesis of these and other aspects of
nature and humanity into one divine whole is necessarily wanting. The
second idea which inspires Japanese myth corresponds to our European
notion of the divine right of kings, which, apart from the accident of
heredity, is not such a negligible quantity as is sometimes supposed.
The Mikados are represented as deriving their authority, whether as
high-priests or sovereigns, from their ancestor, the Sun-goddess,
and have, therefore, a divinely ordered right to the reverence and
obedience of their subjects.
There is no summer and winter myth in the old records, no deluge myth,
and no eclipse myth. The stars are strangely neglected. Earthquakes are
hardly noticed. There is no Returning Saviour myth, and no Journey of
the Dead, though the expressions ‘Even Pass of Hades’ and _Yaso-kumade_
(eighty-road-windings, an alternative word for the land of Darkness)
suggest that this idea was not unknown. The creation of mankind
generally is not accounted for; but the origin of many of the ruling
caste is ascribed to direct descent from the principal divinities, just
as the Mikado is said to be descended from the Sun-goddess.
=First Gods.=—Four different first gods are mentioned by the various
authorities. None of these ever attained to much importance. They
were no doubt collected or invented with the purpose of eking out a
genealogical tree for the greater divinities who came afterwards. One
of these, called _Ame yudzuru hi ame no sagiri Kuni yudzuru tsuki Kuni
no sagiri_, is described as the Heavenly Parent. But we know nothing
more about him or her—the sex is doubtful—and it is impossible to
regard this interminable title as the name of a real god, any more than
we can think that Shakespeare’s _honorificabilitudinitatibus_ was ever
meant for a genuine word. The derivation, however, shows that this,
like the other first gods, was intended as a nature-deity. The four
generations which follow consist of obscure personages, all of whom
disappear at once from the record. Their names, too, are suggestive
of nature, and more especially agriculture-deities. In the sixth
generation we find two deities, named _Kami-musubi_ and _Taka-musubi_,
_i.e._ High-growth and Divine-growth, who were of some importance in
later times.
=Izanagi and Izanami.=—With these two deities Japanese myth really
begins.
The _Nihongi_ tells us that—
‘Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of Heaven (the
rainbow) and held counsel together, saying “Is there not a country
beneath?” Thereupon they thrust down the “Jewel-Spear of Heaven,” and
groping about with it, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from
the point of the spear coagulated and formed an island which received
the name of Onogoro-jima or the “Self-Coagulating Island.” The two
deities thereupon descended and dwelt there. Accordingly they wished
to be united as husband and wife, and to produce countries. So they
made Onogoro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land.’
The _Kojiki_ says that Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by all the
heavenly deities ‘to regulate and fully consolidate’ the floating
land beneath. But all the accounts, the _Kojiki_ included, proceed to
represent the islands of Japan as having been generated by them in
the ordinary manner. We have therefore three distinct conceptions of
creation in Japanese myth—first, as generation in the most literal
sense; second, as reducing to order; and third, as growth (_Musubi_).
‘The two deities having descended on Onogoro-jima erected there
an eight-fathom house with an august central pillar. Then Izanagi
addressed Izanami, saying, “Let me and thee go round the heavenly
august pillar, and having met at the other side, let us become united
in wedlock.” This being agreed to, he said, “Do thou go round from the
left, and I will go round from the right.” When they had gone round,
Izanami spoke first and exclaimed, “How delightful! I have met a
lovely youth.” Izanagi then said, “How delightful! I have met a lovely
maiden.” Afterwards he said, “It was unlucky for the woman to speak
first.” The child which was the first offspring of their union was
the Hiruko (leech-child), which at the age of three was still unable
to stand upright, and was therefore placed in a reed-boat and sent
adrift.’
Izanagi and Izanami then procreated the islands of Japan with a number
of other gods, among whom were _Iha-tsuchi-biko_ (rock-earth-prince),
_Oho-ya-biko_ (great-house-prince), the Wind-gods, a variety of marine
deities, _Ame no Mikumari_ (the heavenly water distributor), the god
of Moors (who is also the god of Herbs and Grasses), the god of Trees,
the gods of Mountains and Valleys, and the goddess of Food. The last
deity to be produced was the god of Fire, _Kagu-tsuchi_, also called
_Ho-musubi_ (Fire-growth). In giving birth to him, Izanami was burnt
so that she sickened and lay down. From her vomit, fæces, and urine
were born deities which personify the elements of metal, water, and
clay. When Izanami died, Izanagi, in his grief and rage, drew his sword
and slew Kagu-tsuchi, thereby generating a number of other deities, two
of whom, named Take-mika-tsuchi and Futsunushi, were favourite objects
of worship in later times.
The creation of the Sun and Moon is variously accounted for. Some say
that they were the children of Izanagi and Izanami, others that they
were born from the lustrations of Izanagi when he returned from Yomi. A
third child, Susa no wo, the boisterous and unruly Rain-storm god, was
produced at the same time.
When Izanami died she went to the Land of Yomi, whither she was
followed by her husband. But as she had already eaten of the food
of that region, he could not bring her back with him. She forbade
him to look on her, but he persisted and saw that she was already a
putrid corpse. Izanami then complained that he had put her to shame,
and caused him to be pursued by the Ugly Females of Hades and other
personifications of corruption and disease who dwelt there. She herself
had become Death personified. Izanagi, in his flight, flung down
various objects which delayed his pursuers—a well-known incident of
myth—until he reached the Even Pass of Hades, where he pronounced the
formula of divorce.
When Izanagi returned to earth he bathed in the sea in order to remove
the pollution incurred by his visit to Yomi, and in so doing produced
a number of deities, some of whom are Ocean-gods and others associated
with the ancient Japanese ceremonies of religious purification.
=Susa no wo and the Sun-Goddess.=—Susa no wo (the Rain-storm god)
was at first appointed to rule the Sea, but he preferred to join his
mother, Izanami, in Hades, and was accordingly despatched thither by
his father. Before taking his departure, however, he ascended to heaven
to take leave of his elder sister Amaterasu, the Sun-goddess. All the
mountains and rivers shook, and every land and country quaked as he
passed upwards. Amaterasu, in alarm, armed herself as a warrior with
sword and bow, stamped her feet into the hard ground up to her thighs,
kicking away the earth like rotten snow, and, confronting him like a
valiant man, challenged him to declare the reason of his coming. Susa
no wo protested that it was only a friendly visit, and as a proof of
his good intentions proposed that they should produce children between
them by each one crunching in his mouth and spurting out fragments
of the sword and jewels worn by the other. One of the children thus
born was called _Masaya a katsu kachi hayahi ama no oshihomimi_, the
forefather of the present Imperial dynasty. There were seven others who
figure largely in the genealogies of the Japanese nobility.
But the true nature of the Rain-storm god was not long repressed. He
destroyed his sister’s rice-fields, defiled the sacred hall where
she was celebrating the harvest festival, and flung a piebald colt
that had been flayed backwards into the sacred weaving-room where
the garments of the gods were woven. The Sun-goddess had borne his
previous outrages with calmness and forbearance, but this last (a
malicious magical practice?) was beyond endurance. She retired in
disgust and shut herself up in the Rock-cave of Heaven, leaving the
world to darkness. This proceeding of Amaterasu was followed by dire
results. ‘The voices of the evil deities were like unto the flies in
the fifth moon as they swarmed, and a myriad portents of woe arose.’
The gods, in consternation, held an assembly in the dry bed of the
River of Heaven (the Milky Way) to devise means for inducing her
to emerge from the cave, and a number of expedients were adopted
which were evidently borrowed from the ritual of the time when the
myth became current. The deities who were specially concerned with
this duty are obvious counterparts of the actual officials of the
Mikado’s Court, and included a prayer-reciter, an offering-provider,
a mirror-maker, a jewel-maker, a diviner, with—according to some
accounts—many others. All this is most convenient for the genealogists
of later times. Amaterasu at length reappeared, to the great delight
of everybody. Susa no wo was fined in a thousand tables of offerings
and expelled from Heaven. Before proceeding to Yomi, he went down to
Earth. Here he appears in a totally new character as the Perseus of a
Japanese Andromeda, whom he rescues from a huge serpent, having first
intoxicated the monster. Of course they are married and have numerous
children. Her name, Inada-hime (rice-land-lady), is probably not
without significance as that of the wife of a Rain-storm god. Another
story represents him as the murderer of the Food-goddess, who had
offended him by producing viands for his entertainment from various
parts of her body. But a different version ascribes this crime to the
Moon-god, and gives it as the reason why the Sun-goddess refused to
have any further relations with him. This, of course, explains why the
two luminaries are not seen together.
Here it may be pointed out that, notwithstanding the anthropomorphic
character of many of the above details it is evidently the sun itself
which is concealed in the Rock-cave. Modern Euhemerists deny this. But
the evidence is far too strong to be disregarded. Her names, Amaterasu
(Heaven Shining-one) and Hirume (Sun-female), are conclusive on this
point. The modern commentator Motoöri agrees, or rather maintains,
that Amaterasu is the very sun which we see in heaven. Those Japanese
who in the twentieth century talk of the imperial visit to Ise as
ancestor-worship are sorely puzzled to justify their position. Imbued
with the philosophy of China and the science of Europe, they naturally
find it difficult to understand how the Mikado can be really descended
from the sun. Some resort to the Euhemeristic theory that she was a
mortal Empress who lived in a place on earth called Takanna no hara
(plain-of-high-heaven), and speak of rice-culture and the art of
weaving being known in her reign.
The myth of the Sun-goddess and Susa no wo is the central pivot on
which the old mythology turns. All that precedes may be regarded as a
sort of genealogical introduction, and the subsequent narrative as an
epilogue designed to complete the connexion between the living Mikados
and their celestial ancestor.
=Ohonamochi.=—One of Susa no wo’s children was an Earth-god named
Ohonamochi (great-name-possessor), who is at this day a very important
deity. The _Kojiki_ relates his adventures at great length. He was
badly treated by his eighty elder brothers, but assisted by a hare
to whom he had rendered service. He went down to the land of Yomi,
where he married the daughter of Susa no wo. Susa no wo imposed tasks
upon him which by his wife’s assistance he performed successfully,
and ultimately made his escape, taking her with him. The Yomi of this
narrative has little that is characteristic of the abode of the Dead.
Ohonamochi is frequently referred to as the ‘God who made the land,’
and his various names show that he is an Earth-god. He was assisted in
reducing the country to order by his own _mitama_ or double, and by a
dwarf-god called Sukuna-bikona, who came from beyond the sea and is
credited with having instructed mankind in the arts of medicine and
brewing. Ohonamochi had a numerous progeny by various mothers. Among
them were the Harvest-god and the Food-goddess. The _Kojiki_ gives
a genealogy of them and their descendants, most of whom are wholly
unknown to us.
=Ninigi.=—Meanwhile the Sun-Goddess became desirous of establishing
the rule of her own grandchild Ninigi, son of Masaya a katsu, in
Japan. After several fruitless attempts to prepare the country for
his reception by purging it of the swarms of evil deities which
infested it, two gods named Take-mika-tsuchi (Thunder?) and Futsunushi
(Fire?) were sent to summon Ohonamochi to yield over his authority.
After some demur he did so, and Ninigi was accordingly despatched
to earth, accompanied by a long train of attendants who provide
further material for the genealogists. They descended on a mountain
in Kiushiu. Here Ninigi took to wife a Mountain-god’s daughter, named
Konohana Sakuya-hime (the lady who blossoms like the flowers of the
trees), rejecting as too ugly her elder sister Iha-naga-hime (the
rock-long-lady). The latter, indignant at this slight, uttered a
curse:—‘The race of visible men shall change swiftly like the flowers
of the trees, and shall decay and pass away.’ Hence the shortness of
human life. By Konohana Ninigi had three children. The eldest, Ho no
Susori, became a fisherman, the second son, Hohodemi, a hunter.
Ho no Susori once proposed to his brother to exchange their respective
callings. Hohodemi accordingly gave over to his elder brother his bow
and arrows and received a fish-hook in return. But neither of them
profited by the exchange, so Ho no Susori gave back to his brother the
bow and arrows and demanded from him the fish-hook.
Hohodemi, however, had in the meantime lost it in the sea. He took
his sword and forged from it a number of new fish-hooks which he
piled up in a winnowing tray and offered to his brother by way of
compensation. But the latter would have none but his own, and demanded
it so vehemently of Hohodemi as to grieve him bitterly. Hohodemi went
down to the sea-shore and stood there lamenting, when there appeared
to him the Old Man of the Sea, by whose advice he descended into the
sea-depths to the abode of the god of the Sea, a stately palace with
lofty towers and battlements. Before the gate there was a well, and
over the well grew a thick-branching cassia tree into which Hohodemi
climbed. The Sea-god’s daughter Toyo-tama-hime (rich-jewel-maiden)
then came out from the palace to draw water. She saw Hohodemi’s face
reflected in the well, and returning within reported to her father
that she had seen a beautiful youth in the tree which grew by the
well. Hohodemi was courteously received by the Sea-god, Toyo-tama-hiko
(rich-jewel-prince), who, when he heard his errand, summoned before
him all the fishes of the sea and made inquiry of them for the lost
fish-hook, which was eventually discovered in the mouth of the Tai.
Toyo-tama-hiko delivered it to Hohodemi, telling him when he gave it
back to his brother to say, ‘a hook of poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook
of downfall,’ to spit twice, and to hand it over with averted face.
Hohodemi married the Sea-god’s daughter Toyo-tama-hime and remained
with her for three years. He then became home-sick and returned to
the upper world. On the beach where he came to land, he built for his
wife, who was soon to follow, a parturition house which he thatched
with cormorant’s feathers. The roofing was still unfinished when she
arrived, riding on a great tortoise. She went straight into the hut,
begging her husband not to look at her. But Hohodemi’s curiosity was
too strong for him. He peeped in and behold! his wife had become
changed into a _wani_ (sea-dragon) eight fathoms long. Deeply
indignant at the disgrace put upon her, Toyo-tama-hime abandoned her
new-born child to the care of her sister, and barring behind her the
sea-path in such a way that from that day to this all communication
between the realms of land and sea has been cut off, returned hastily
to her father’s palace.
Hohodemi’s troubles with his elder brother were renewed on his arrival
home. He was obliged to use against him two talismans given him by his
father-in-law. One of these had the virtue of making the tide flow and
submerge Ho no Susori and thus compel him to sue for mercy (another
account says that Hohodemi whistled and thereby raised the wind and the
sea). Then by a second talisman the tide was made to recede and Ho no
Susori’s life was spared. He yielded complete submission to his younger
brother and promised that he and his descendants to all generations
would serve Hohodemi and his successors as mimes and bondservants. The
_Nihongi_ adds that in that day it was still customary for the Hayato
(or Imperial guards), who were descended from Ho no Susori, to perform
a mimic dance before the Mikados, the descendants and successors of
Hohodemi, in which the drowning struggles of their ancestor were
represented.
There are several features in this story which betray a recent origin
and foreign influences. A comparatively advanced civilisation is
indicated by the sword and fish-hook forged of iron. The institution
of the Hayato as Imperial Guards belongs to a period not very long
antecedent to the date of the _Nihongi_ and _Kojiki_. The palace of the
sea-depths and its Dragon-king are of Chinese, and therefore of recent
origin.
One of Hohodemi’s grandchildren was Jimmu Tennō, who is usually
reckoned the first human sovereign of Japan. He was the youngest of
four brothers and his selection as heir shows that primogeniture,
though to some extent acknowledged in Ancient Japan, was by no means
the universal rule. At the age of forty-five he started from Kiushiu,
which had been the home of the Imperial family since Ninigi descended
there, on an expedition for the conquest of the central part of Japan,
known as Yamato. This event is dated in B.C. 667, 1,792, 470 years
after the descent of Ninigi from heaven. He finally succeeded in
establishing his capital there in B.C. 660. From this date Japanese
history is usually said to begin. In reality there is no genuine
history of Japan for one thousand years more. The chronology for all
this period is a colossal fraud and there is abundant intrinsic
evidence that the narrative itself is no better than legend when it is
not absolute fiction. There is, however, much to be learned from it of
the beliefs and customs of the ancient Japanese.
The descent of the Imperial dynasty from a Sea-god has been noted as an
auspicious omen for the development of Japan as a great naval power.