RATIONALIZATION
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES
THE southwestern extremity of the main island of Japan is embraced by
two large islands, Kyushu and Shikoku, the former lying on the west
of the latter and being, in effect, the southern link of the island
chain which constitutes the empire of Japan. Sweeping northward from
Formosa and the Philippines is a strong current known as the
Kuro-shio (Black Tide), a name derived from the deep indigo colour of
the water. This tide, on reaching the vicinity of Kyushu, is
deflected to the east, and passing along the southern coast of Kyushu
and the Kii promontory, takes its way into the Pacific. Evidently
boats carried on the bosom of the Kuro-shio would be likely to make
the shore of Japan at one of three points, namely, the south, or
southeast, of Kyushu, the south of Shikoku or the Kii promontory.
Now, according to the Records, the first place "begotten" by Izanagi
and Izanami was an island called Awa, supposed to be in the vicinity
of Awaji. The latter is a long, narrow island stretching from the
northeast of Shikoku towards the shore of the main island--which it
approaches very closely at the Strait of Yura--and forming what may
be called a gate, closing the eastern entrance to the Inland Sea.
After the island of Awa, the producing couple gave birth to Awaji and
subsequently to Shikoku, which is described as an island having four
faces, namely, the provinces of Awa, Iyo, Tosa, and Sanuki.
Rejecting the obviously allegorical phantasy of "procreation," we may
reasonably suppose ourselves to be here in the presence of an
emigration from the South Seas or from southern China, which debarks
on the coast of Awaji and thence crosses to Shikoku. Thereafter, the
immigrants touch at a triplet of small islands, described as "in the
offing," and thence cross to Kyushu, known at the time as Tsukushi.
This large island is described in the Records as having, like
Shikoku, one body and four faces, and part of it was inhabited by
Kumaso, of whom much is heard in Japanese history. From Kyushu the
invaders pass to the islands of Iki and Tsushima, which lie between
Kyushu and Korea, and thereafter they sail northward along the coast
of the main island of Japan until they reach the island of Sado.
All this--and the order of advance follows exactly the procreation
sequence given in the Records--lends itself easily to the supposition
of a party of immigrants coming originally from the south, voyaging
in a tentative manner round the country described by them, and
establishing themselves primarily on its outlying islands.
The next step, according to the Records, was to Yamato. About this
name, Yamato, there has been some dispute. Alike in ancient and in
modern times the term has been applied, on the one hand, to the whole
of the main island, and, on the other, to the single province of
Yamato. The best authorities, however, interpret it in the latter
sense for the purposes of the Izanagi-and-Izanami legend, and that
interpretation is plainly consistent with the probabilities, for the
immigrants would naturally have proceeded from Awaji to the Kii
promontory, where the province of Yamato lies. Thereafter--on their
"return," say the Records, and the expression is apposite--they
explored several small islands not identifiable by their names but
said to have been in Kibi, which was the term then applied to the
provinces of Bingo, Bitchu, and Bizen, lying along the south coast of
the Inland Sea and thus facing the sun, so that the descriptive
epithet "sun-direction" applied to the region was manifestly
appropriate.
In brief, the whole narrative concerts well with the idea of a band
of emigrants carried on the breast of the "Black Tide," who first
make the circuit of the outlying fringe of islands, then enter the
mainland at Yamato, and finally sail down the Inland Sea, using the
small islands off its northern shore as points d'appui for
expeditions inland.
JAPANESE OPINION
Japanese euhemerists, several of whom, in former times as well as in
the present, have devoted much learned research to the elucidation of
their country's mythology, insist that tradition never intended to
make such a demand upon human credulity as to ask it to believe in
the begetting of islands by normal process of procreation. They
maintain that such descriptions must be read as allegories. It then
becomes easy to interpret the doings of Izanagi and Izanami as simple
acts of warlike aggression, and to suppose that they each commanded
forces which were to have co-operated, but which, by failing at the
outset to synchronize their movements, were temporarily unsuccessful.
It will seem, as we follow the course of later history, that the
leading of armies by females was common enough to be called a feature
of early Japan, and thus the role assigned to Izanami need not cause
any astonishment. At their first miscarriage the two Kami, by better
organization, overran the island of Awaji and then pushed on to
Shikoku, which they brought completely under their sway.
But what meaning is to be assigned to the "plain of high heaven"
(Takama-ga-hara)? Where was the place thus designated? By a majority
of Japanese interpreters Takama-ga-hara is identified as the region
of Taka-ichi in Yamato province. The word did not refer to anything
supernatural but was used simply in an honorific sense. In later ages
Court officials were called "lords of the moon" (gekhei) or
"cloud-guests" (unkaku), while officials not permitted to attend the
Court were known as "groundlings" (jige); the residence of the
Emperor was designated "purple-clouds hall" (shishin-deri); to go
from the Imperial capital to any other part of the country was to
"descend," the converse proceeding being called to "ascend," and the
palace received the names of "blue sky" and "above the clouds."
To-day in Yamato province there is a hill called Takama-yama and a
plain named Takama-no. The Records say that when the Sun goddess
retired to a rock cave, a multitude of Kami met at Taka-ichi to
concert measures for enticing her out, and this Taka-ichi is
considered to be undoubtedly the place of the same name in Yamato.
But some learned men hold that Takama-ga-hara was in a foreign
country, and that the men who emigrated thence to Japan belonged to a
race very superior to that then inhabiting the islands. When,
however, the leader of the invaders had established his Court in
Yamato the designation Takama-ga-hara came to be applied to the
latter place.
Whichever theory be correct--and the latter certainly commends itself
as the more probable--it will be observed that both agree in
assigning to Takama-ga-hara a terrestrial location; both agree in
assigning the sense of "unsettled and turbulent" to the "floating,
drifting" condition predicated of the country when the Kami first
interested themselves in it, and both agree in interpreting as an
insignium of military authority the "jewelled spear" given to Izanagi
and Izanami--an interpretation borne out by the fact that, in
subsequent eras of Japanese history, it was customary for a ruler
to delegate authority in this manner. Applying the same process
of reasoning to the socalled "birth" of Kami, that process
resolves itself very simply into the creation of chieftains and
administrators.
RATIONALIZATION OF THE LEGEND OF THE VISIT TO HADES
It would seem that from Yamato the invaders prosecuted their campaign
into the interior, reaching Izumo on the west coast. The Records
say that after Izanami's death in giving birth to the Kami of fire,
she was buried at Mount Kagu on the confines of Izumo and Hoki.
Now the land of Yomi generally interpreted "underworld"--which
Izanagi visited in search of Izanami, was really identical with
Yomi-shima, located between the provinces of Hoki and Izumo, and
Ne-no-Kuni*--commonly taken to mean the "netherland"--subsequently
the place of Susanoo's banishment, was in fact a designation of
Izumo, or had the more extensive application of the modern Sanin-do
and Sanyo-do (districts in the shadow of the hill and districts on
the sunny side of the hill), that is to say, the western provinces
and the south coast of the Inland Sea.
*In the language of ancient Japan ne meant "mountain," and Ne-no-Kuni
signified simply "Land of Mountains."
What the allegory of the visit to hades would seem to signify,
therefore, was that Izanami was defeated in a struggle with the local
chieftains of Izumo or with a rebellious faction in that province;
was compelled to make act of submission before Izanagi arrived to
assist her--allegorically speaking she had eaten of the food of
hades--and therefore the conference between her and Izanagi proved
abortive. The hag who pursued Izanagi on his retreat from Yomi
represents a band of amazons--a common feature in old Japan--and his
assailant, the Kami of thunder, was a rebel leader.
As for the idea of blocking the "even pass of hades" with rocks, it
appears to mean nothing more than that a military force was posted at
Hirasaka--now called Ifuyo-saka in Izumo--to hold the defile against
the insurgent troops under Izanami, who finally took the field
against Izanagi. It may be inferred that the struggle ended
indecisively, although Izanagi killed the chieftain who had
instigated the rebellion (the so-called "Kami of fire"), and that
Izanami remained in Izumo, becoming ruler of that province, while
Izanagi withdrew to the eastern part of Tsukushi (Kyushu), where he
performed the ceremony of grand lustration.
THE STORY OF SUSANOO
The story of Susanoo lends itself with equal facility to
rationalization. His desire to go to his "mother's land" instead of
obeying his father and ruling the "sea-plain" (unabara)--an
appellation believed by some learned commentators to apply to
Korea--may easily be interpreted to mean that he threw in his lot
with the rebellious chiefs in Izumo. Leading a force into Yamato, he
laid waste the land so that the "green mountains were changed into
withered mountains," and the commotion throughout the country was
like the noise of "flies swarming in the fifth month." Finally he was
driven out of Yamato, and retiring to Izumo, found that the local
prefect was unable to resist the raids of a tribe from the
north under the command of a chief whose name--Yachimata no
Orochi--signified "eight-headed serpent."
This tribe had invaded the province and taken possession of the hills
and valleys in the upper reaches of the river Hi, whence tradition
came to speak of the tribe as a monster spreading over hills and
dales and having pine forests growing on its back. The tribute of
females, demanded yearly by the tribe, indicates an exaction not
uncommon in those days, and the sword said to have been found by
Susanoo in the serpent's tail was the weapon worn by the last and the
stoutest of Orochi's followers.
There is another theory equally accordant with the annals and in some
respects more satisfying. It is that Susanoo and his son, Iso-takeru,
when they were expelled from Yamato, dwelt in the land of
Shiragi--the eastern of the three kingdoms into which Korea was
formerly divided--and that they subsequently built boats and rowed
over to Izumo. This is distinctly stated in one version of the
Chronicles, and another variant says that when Iso-takeru descended
from Takama-ga-hara, he carried with him the seeds of trees in great
quantities but did not plant them in "the land of Han" (Korea).
Further, it is elsewhere stated that the sword found by Susanoo in
the serpent's tail was called by him Orochi no Kara-suki (Orochi's
Korean blade), an allusion which goes to strengthen the reading of
the legend.
THE DESCENT OF NINIGI
Omitting other comparatively trivial legends connected with the age
of Susanoo and his descendants, we come to what may be called the
second great event in the early annals of Japan, namely, the descent
of Ninigi on the southern coast of Tsukushi (Kyushu). The Records and
the Chronicles explicitly state that this expedition was planned in
the court at Takama-ga-hara (the "plain of high heaven"), and that,
after sending forces to subdue the disturbed country and to obtain
the submission of its ruler, the grandson (Ninigi) of the Sun goddess
was commissioned to take possession of the land. It is also clearly
shown that Izumo was the centre of disturbance and that virtually all
the preliminary fighting took place there. Yet when Ninigi descends
from Takama-ga-hara--a descent which is described in one account as
having taken place in a closed boat, and in another, as having been
effected by means of the coverlet of a couch--he is said to have
landed, not in Izumo or in Yamato, but at a place in the far south,
where he makes no recorded attempt to fulfil the purpose of his
mission, nor does that purpose receive any practical recognition
until the time of his grandson Iware. The latter pushes northward,
encountering the greatest resistance in the very province (Yamato)
where his grandfather's expedition was planned and where the Imperial
Court was held.
It is plain that these conditions cannot be reconciled except on one
of two suppositions: either that the Takama-ga-hara of this section
of the annals was in a foreign country, or that the descent of Ninigi
in the south of Japan was in the sequel of a complete defeat
involving the Court's flight from Yamato as well as from Izumo.
Let us first consider the theory of a foreign country. Was it Korea
or was it China? In favour of Korea there are only two arguments, one
vague and the other improbable. The former is that one of Ninigi's
alleged reasons for choosing Tsukushi as a landing-place was that it
faced Korea. The latter, that Tsukushi was selected because it
offered a convenient base for defending Japan against Korea. It will
be observed that the two hypotheses are mutually conflicting, and
that neither accounts for debarkation at a part of Tsukushi
conspicuously remote from Korea. It is not wholly impossible,
however, that Ninigi came from China, and that the Court which is
said to have commissioned him was a Chinese Court.
In the history of China a belief is recorded that the Japanese
sovereigns are descended from a Chinese prince, Tai Peh, whose father
wished to disinherit him in favour of a younger son. Tai Peh fled to
Wu in the present Chekiang, and thence passed to Japan about 800 B.C.
Another record alleges that the first sovereign of Japan was a son of
Shao-kang of the Hsia dynasty (about 850 B.C.), who tattooed his body
and cut off his hair for purposes of disguise and lived on the bank
of the Yangtsze, occupying himself with fishing until at length he
fled to Japan.
That Ninigi may have been identical with one of these persons is not
inconceivable, but such a hypothesis refuses to be reconciled with
the story of the fighting in Izumo which preceded the descent to
Tsukushi. The much more credible supposition is that the Yamato
Court, confronted by a formidable rebellion having its centre in
Izumo, retired to Tsukushi, and there, in the course of years,
mustered all its followers for an expedition ultimately led by the
grandson of the fugitive monarch to restore the sway of his house.
This interpretation of the legend consists with the fact that when
Jimmu reached Yamato, the original identity of his own race with that
of the then ruler of the province was proved by a comparison of
weapons.
THE CASTLE OF THE OCEAN KAMI
With regard to the legend of the ocean Kami, the rationalists
conceive that the tribe inhabiting Tsukushi at the time of Ninigi's
arrival there had originally immigrated from the south and had
gradually spread inland. Those inhabiting the littoral districts were
ultimately placed by Ninigi under the rule of Prince Hohodemi, and
those inhabiting the mountain regions under the sway of Prince
Hosuseri. The boats and hooks of the legend are symbolical of
military and naval power respectively. The brothers having quarrelled
about the limits of their jurisdictions, Hohodemi was worsted, and by
the advice of a local elder he went to Korea to seek assistance.
There he married the daughter of the Ocean King--so called because
Korea lay beyond the sea from Japan--and, after some years'
residence, was given a force of war-vessels (described in the legend
as "crocodiles") together with minute instructions (the tide-ebbing
and the tide-flowing jewels) as to their skilful management. These
ships ultimately enabled him to gain a complete victory over his
elder brother.
WHAT THE JAPANESE BELIEVE
These rationalizing processes will commend themselves in different
degrees to different minds. One learned author has compared such
analyses to estimating the historical residuum of the Cinderella
legend by subtracting the pumpkin coach and the godmother. But we are
constrained to acknowledge some background of truth in the annals of
old Japan, and anything that tends to disclose that background is
welcome. It has to be noted, however, that though many learned
Japanese commentators have sought to rationalize the events described
in the Records and the Chronicles, the great bulk of the nation
believes in the literal accuracy of these works as profoundly as the
great bulk of Anglo-Saxon people believes in the Bible, its
cosmogony, and its miracles.
The gist of the Japanese creed, as based on their ancient annals, may
be briefly summarized. They hold that when the Sun goddess handed the
three sacred objects to Ninigi--generally called Tenson, or "heavenly
grandchild"--she ordained that the Imperial Throne should be coeval
with heaven and earth. They hold that the instructions given with
regard to these sacred objects comprised the whole code of
administrative ethics. The mirror neither hides nor perverts; it
reflects evil qualities as faithfully as good; it is the emblem of
honesty and purity. The jewel illustrates the graces of gentleness,
softness, amiability, and obedience, and is therefore emblematic of
benevolence and virtue.* The sword indicates the virtues of strength,
sharpness, and practical decision, and is thus associated with
intelligence and knowledge. So long as all these qualities are
exercised in the discharge of administrative functions, there can be
no misrule.
*It must be remembered that the jewel referred to was a piece of
green or white jade.
They further hold that when the Sun goddess detailed five Kami to
form the suite of Ninigi, these Kami were entrusted with the
ministerial duties originally discharged by them, and becoming the
heads of five administrative departments, transmitted their offices
to generation after generation of their descendants. Thus Koyane was
the ancestor of the Nakatomi family who discharged the priestly
duties of worship at the Court and recited the Purification Rituals;
Futodama became the ancestor of the Imibe (or Imbe), a hereditary
corporation whose members performed all offices connected with
mourning and funerals; Usume became ancestress of the Sarume, whose
duties were to perform dances in honour of the deities and to act as
mediums of divine inspiration; Oshihi was the ancestor of the Otomo
chief who led the Imperial troops, and Kume became the ancestor of
the Kumebe, a hereditary corporation of palace guards. Further, they
hold that whereas Ninigi and his five adjunct Kami all traced their
lineage to the two producing Kami of the primal trinity, the special
title of sovereignty conferred originally on the Sun goddess was
transmitted by her to the Tenson (heavenly grandchild), Ninigi, the
distinction of ruler and ruled being thus clearly defined. Finally
they hold that Ninigi and these five adjunct Kami, though occupying
different places in the national polity, had a common ancestor whom
they jointly worshipped, thus forming an eternal union.
ENGRAVING: ANCIENT CIVIL AND MILITARY HEAD-GEAR