Some have speculated that Susano’o’s obnoxious behavior is a memory of ancient rite whereby people summoned kami by howling and weeping. If you have, then let’s get right into it! If you haven’t, I’m pretty sure none of this will make any sense. So, I’m assuming that you’ve already read my version of Amaterasu and the Rock Cave, so I’ve broken down my exegesis into about four sections going through each part of the myth. If Japanese gods teach us anything, it’s how to observe rituals correctly. Doing the correct rituals at the right time to appease them or to ask for their help is the most important thing for humans who wish to interact with kami. It is a syncretic polytheistic system which requires cultic practices similar to the Greek and Roman gods. As I mentioned in a previous article, Japanese religion is not a system based on authoritative texts like the Torah, the Bible, or the Q’uran. They are part of a natural order that are bound by the same rules as the humans who study these stories. If these are indeed divine beings, they don’t impart any sort of morality and they rarely – if ever – act as role models. One thing that I’ve kept coming back to is the precocious and sometimes silly or self-absorbed nature of the heavenly kami depicted in these myths. Furthermore, we see descriptions of Shintō rituals – either the origins of them or hints that these rites and beliefs existed prior to the compilation of these myths in the 7 th century. In a not unobvious way, the Kojiki describes how the divine ancestors of the courtiers assisted the divine ancestor of the imperial family in the Rock Cave Myth which implies their subservience to the royal family. It also legitimized the ranks and duties of the most noble clans of the 大和朝廷 Yamato Chōtei Yamato Court by illustrating their divine descent as well. If we keep in mind that 天武天皇 Tenmu Tennō Emperor Tenmu commissioned the Kojiki in order to emphasize the imperial family’s divine origins and to clarify their position as the rightful rulers of the realm. The Rock Cave Myth is by far the most famous of all Japanese myths. Otherwise, none of this will make any sense to you. Explanation of the Creation Myth Welcome to Japan’s Most Famous LegendĪlso, if you haven’t read Amaterasu and the Rock Cave and all of my footnotes, go do that first.
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