Visions of excess and excesses of vision: Women and transgression in Japanese myth

Abstract

A persistent problem for historians of Japanese religions has been proper identification and definition of Other World, a realm beyond ordinary experience that is also thought to be abode of kami and, occasionally, of dead as well. Despite fact that Japanese tradition uses several names to refer to that experiential zone, most scholars conceive of it as a single entity and thus contribute to a confusion that has continued unabated to this day. It does not take wild flights of imagination to suspect that Japanese scholars themselves might be under Western academic and/or religious influences when they use term takai (other world) to refer globally to three supernatural realms (namely, Yomi no kuni, the land of darkness, Takamagahara the high heavenly plain, and Tokoyo, the permanent realm) that are mentioned in myths. Although vague or simplistic distinctions are made at times, designations are almost always conflated in a single category. In all cases, however, scholars fail to provide sophisticated interpretations of terms. Even Carmen BLACKER conceives of other world as a single realm; while recognizing topic's importance, since she devotes a chapter to it in her book on Japanese shamanism, she offers little solace: