Japanese Shinto is a polytheistic religion based on nature beliefs. (It occasionally includes as deities some figures who are thought to have been real.)
In a previous article, we discussed the fact that Japanese emperors are descended from gods. (This is only a mythological story). So what is the name of the emperor’s ancestor god?
It is Amaterasu (a Sun Goddess). She is a well-known deity and is often quoted in fantasy works, so even Japanese people who are not interested in Shinto are familiar with her name. Some people overseas may also know her name.
Amaterasu is in a sense the supreme deity in Japan, but she is actually not the first deity in Shinto.
If you unravel Shinto in detail, you will find that before Amaterasu there were many ‘cosmic deities’ and ‘husband and wife deities who created the land and produced many gods’. Amaterasu is considered to be the deity created from the left eye of the husband（Izanagi）※of the husband and wife deity. （※ Husband (father). Not wife (mother).）
Amaterasu, a direct descendant of the heavenly deities, took on the role of watching over the Japanese nation from the heavens, making her one of the supreme deities of Shintoism, a role that was subsequently linked to the venerable lineage of the Emperors.
Imperial chrysanthemum crest. It is also designed on Japanese passports.
These myths were largely formed over 1,300 years ago, but in fact their background reflects the actual social dynamics of the time.
The basis of these mythological systems was developed during the Yamato dynasty, which was established some 1,500 years ago.
The Yamato dynasty was a civilisation that flourished in present-day Nara Prefecture. Over the next few hundred years, cultural advances and several transfers of the capital eventually anchored it in Kyoto. It is on this basis that the genealogy of the emperors is based. Modern emperors also lived in Kyoto until 150 years ago.
However, the Yamato dynasty, which was the starting point for Japanese Shintoism and the Emperors, also had an ancestor that could be described as a preliminary stage…
Their ancestors were a clan that lived in the southern part of Kyushu (present-day Miyazaki Prefecture). A large number of people from this clan grouped together and moved eastwards across the Seto Inland Sea to the Kii Peninsula and Nara Prefecture, where they established the Yamato dynasty.
According to mythology, Ninigi, a grandson of Amaterasu, descended to Hyuga (Miyazaki Prefecture) and established a civilisation there, followed by the Great Migration four generations later. The leader of the Great Migration and the establishment of the Yamato dynasty was ‘Yamato-Iwarebiko’. He was the first emperor, Emperor Jinmu.
Emperor Jinmu, who is said to be the first emperor.
This is how the link between Japanese Shintoism and the Emperors took shape as a myth. However, this mythology still contains discomfort and contradictions that persist to this day. (Of course, it is unreasonable to expect complete rationality from a myth that is a fantasy…(^_^;)
Amaterasu, the ancestor and supreme deity of the Emperors, was written as a goddess born from the left eye of her father Izanagi. And at the same time she was the eldest daughter of two younger brothers.
One was Tsukuyomi, born from Izanagi’s right eye. The other was ‘Susanoo’, born from his nose.（Su_sa_no_o）
This second son, Tsukuyomi, is also shrouded in mystery, but I would like to leave him out of this issue. (Maybe one day, if I get the chance…)
The problem was his third son, Susanoo, and his sixth generation descendant, ‘Okuninushi’.
Susanoo was the younger brother of Amaterasu and was originally a revered deity. However, his behaviour was violent and he was even referred to as the ‘god of storms’. He caused damage on earth, and even once he returned to the heavenly realm, he did not recover from his tyrannical behaviour.
Susanoo
Once he swore an oath before his sister Amaterasu and was pardoned, but he soon became violent again. Because of the incidents caused by Susanoo, horses in the heavens and Amaterasu’s attendants even died.
Amaterasu initially protected him, but eventually became so disgusted with Susanoo’s tyranny that she retreated into a cave. (This caused the earth to go completely dark.)
Thanks to the efforts of many gods, the sun god Amaterasu returned from her cave and light was restored on earth, but the uproar completely angered them. They united in punishing Susanoo and banished him from the heavens to earth…
From a general point of view, the ‘Fall of Susanoo’ may be convenient for the heavenly world, but for the people on earth, it is an extremely annoying procedure, isn’t it? The rampaging boy would come back again.
Japanese mythology, however, takes an unexpected turn from here…
Upon his return to earth, Susanoo travelled through the earth and met a sad couple and their daughter in a corner of a desolate village.
Susanoo asked, “Why do you mourn so much?” He asked. The couple replied: “Every year a serpent with eight heads appears and eats our daughters one by one. This year it will be the turn of the last remaining girl”. The serpent’s name was Yamata no Orochi.
Taking pity on this father and daughter, Susanoo devised a plan.
First, he used his divine powers to turn the daughter into a comb and inserted it in his own hair.
In this way, he hid her from Orochi.
Next, he commanded the couple to prepare a large quantity of very strong sake※, divided it into eight jars and placed each in front of one of the eight gates. （※ strong sake＝Strong alcohol wine）
As time passed and the sun went down and darkness enveloped the area, eerie roars and earthquakes began to be heard from deep in the forest. It was as if the mountains were moving.
Beyond the trees, I saw 16 eyes shining bright red and blazing. And it is slowly approaching. Susanoo hides in a thicket of trees, clutching his sword in his hand, waiting patiently for the right moment.
Eventually, Orochi came within a stone’s throw of Susanoo, but then he noticed the sake pots at the eight gates. Orochi, who was fond of sake, put his eight heads into each of the eight jars and began to drink from them.
The sake that Susanoo had the couple prepare was called Yashiori no sake, a sweet, easy-drinking and very strong sake that had been brewed eight times.
By the time Orochi had drunk all the sake in the jars, he was so drunk that he fell asleep with his head in each of the eight jars.
Susanoo went out and struck off each of those eight heads.
Susanoo then tried to cut off Orochi’s tail as well, but when he drove his sword into it, it hit something hard in the tail.
When he cut open the tail, a divine sword came out from inside.
Susanoo named this sword the ‘Ama-no-Murakumo Sword’ and dedicated it to the heavenly realm where he had previously been.
Susano’o then took his daughter, whom he had restored to human form from a comb, as his wife, and his daughter’s parent couple as his family, and established a long and peaceful country in the land…
The Ama-no-Murakumo Sword has been handed down to the present day as one of the ‘three sacred Treasures’ of imperial legitimacy.
The story is a saga of a man who saves his parents and daughter from the threat of a monster, but it is a very different impression from that of Susanoo up to that point. The man who was an untouchable ruffian and a hated man is now treated as a hero in a complete turnaround.
What does this radical turnaround mean?
Even today, we do not have a complete interpretation of this folklore, but in the latter part of this article I will try to give some insight into it.
In case you are wondering, the area where Susanoo took a wife and established a stable country corresponds to present-day Shimane Prefecture…