Japanese Mythology Research Articles

Enhancing immersive sensation at the Iwami Kagura performance space using omnidirectional speakers: a case study of the worship halls at Shrines in the Iwami region, Japan

Iwami Kagura, originated from Iwami region in western Shimane, Japan-is a religious rituals narrating Japanese mythology has been persevered through centuries, maintaining its relevance in the present time. These religious rituals mainly dedicated to gods, features dynamic masked dance, fast music and vibrant costume creating an immersive experience for diverse audiences. The Iwami Kagura performances are popular inside and outside of Japan making a source of tourism for the region. Originally, Iwami Kagura was performed in the worship halls at shrines, therefore, it is important to understand the sacred atmosphere created by the performance considering acoustic measures that make the space immersive. In this study, we focused on the Iwami Kagura performed at worship halls of two shrines and compared the acoustic effects of omnidirectional speakers in both the shrines. Usually, directional speakers are used to amplify parts of performers' voices and music, however, performing space at shines are small in volume, and the directional speakers will provide strong direct sound to performers' voices and sound of flute. Thus, we studied acoustic characteristics of performance space within the precincts of the shrines, the acoustic effects of loudspeakers used and improved sense of presence using omnidirectional speakers.

A Brief Analysis of the Existence Significance and Self-value of Female Gods in Japanese Mythology from the Background of The Times-- taking Amaterasu and Izanami as examples

Different from other countries, the Japanese royal family has the idea of "divine authority" and "blood of God", and in Japan as a patriarchal society, Amaterasu, the highest god in mythology, is a female god. In Greek mythology, the appearance of women was often ac-companied by jealousy, guilt, or eroticism. On the contrary, in Japanese mythology, the female gods such as Moon reading God, Izanami, and Tiandian goddess all play an important role. This paper will take Amaterasu and Izanami as examples, and analyze from the background of The Times why Japanese scholars give such a status to female gods, and what kind of existence meaning and self-value of women as gods in mythology.

A study of the characteristics of the Moon deity in Japanese mythology

A study of the characteristics of the Moon deity in Japanese mythology

Solar deity in Japanese mythology

Solar deity in Japanese mythology

Modern Anxieties and Traditional Influence in Horror Anime

Japan has a longstanding tradition of horror narratives that feature a variety of macabre embodiments. They draw upon ancient folklore, thereby providing a unique perspective on spirits specific to Japanese culture. The influence of these countless supernatural beings from Japanese mythology and folklore has molded many incarnations seen in popular culture, which have been commonly deemed “strange” and “weird”. This study seeks to demystify the ambiguity and “strangeness” surrounding three Japanese anime series, Another, Yamishibai, and Mononoke. It attempts to analyze how each of these anime employs folklore and traditional art-styles to portray a modern society plagued with sociocultural complications.

Introducing the Research Project “Sacred Narrative – The Political Dimension of Japanese Mythology”

The Kojiki and Nihon shoki have been integral to the formation of Japanese identity, especially since the 18th century. As such, they were constantly exposed to processes of sacralization and desacralization, i.e., the attribution and removal of authority. The research project “Sacred Narrative – The Political Dimension of Japanese Mythology” is concerned with how certain systems of thought or ideology used these texts in a way that raised them to an elevated position or deprived them of it. Organized in three focus areas, the project delves into the topic of the historical change the Kojiki and Nihon shoki underwent in terms of interpretation and instrumentalization from the Edo period up to modern-day Japan. These investigations are integrated into the research group “De/Sacralization of Texts” at the University of Tübingen that started its work in January 2022. In this interdisciplinary context, “Sacred narrative” seeks to promote the integration of East-Asian textuality into general theory formation.

Like a Fierce God: Reenvisioning the Enemy in the Legend of Empress Jingū in the Wake of the Mongol Invasions

The legend of Empress Jingū’s conquest of the Korean peninsula is well-known for its many divine elements. However, the legend’s successful conquest of a foreign enemy has also been key to its longevity. In particular, the Mongol Invasions of the late thirteenth century inspired a renaissance of the Jingū legend in the fourteenth, with the addition of several new motifs. One such motif is Jinrin, a red demon with multiple heads and immense power from the continent who threatens Japan before being slain by Jingū’s husband Emperor Chūai. In this paper, I argue that the Jinrin motif plays an important role in reenvisioning Jingū’s conquest as a war against evil. Though Jinrin may have antecedents in the Buddhist Canon and Japanese mythology, this “fierce god” emerges in the medieval Hachiman tradition in origin narratives and later in regional kagura. Jinrin serves as a visual representation of the threat of the Korean kingdoms and an opportunity for Chūai’s heroism and honorable death, creating a clear juxtaposition between a depraved Korean peninsula and an ethical Japan. Thus, Jinrin provides a vibrant example of how the belief in Japan as land of the gods (shinkoku shisō) galvanized a reinterpretation of Japan, its world, and its history.

The Mythical Elements of “Tree” in Animation : Focusing on Japanese Mythology, My Neighbor Totoro, Another World Restaurant, The Piano Forest, and Miyori Forest

The Mythical Elements of “Tree” in Animation : Focusing on Japanese Mythology, My Neighbor Totoro, Another World Restaurant, The Piano Forest, and Miyori Forest

The Mythology of Insect-Loving Japan.

Simple SummaryThis article discusses the inclusion of insects in Japanese myths. It is believed that the Japanese have more cultural affinity towards insects when compared to elsewhere in the world. It is reasonable to expect that this attitude toward insects is based on the prevalence of insects in Japanese myths. However, insects appear only seven times in the texts that were reviewed in this study, and are only twice presented in a positive light. Gods and emperors in Japanese lore are not commonly depicted as speaking to insects, or as instructing them to work. Neither are gods, nor humans, portrayed as taking the form of insects. In conclusion, relationships between gods, emperors, and insects are sparse in Japanese myths. In terms of cultural entomology, modern Japanese attitudes toward insects, and the origin thereof, require further investigation.Japanese people are perceived to have a relatively more favorable disposition towards insects than individuals from other nations. Given that insects frequently appear in myths from all over the world, I researched Japanese mythology as a potential origin of this positive outlook toward insects. I reviewed the ancient records Kojiki, Nihonshoki, and Fudoki, and found seven cases where insects appear. In all cases, the insects played relatively minor roles. They did not speak, nor were they under the command of gods or emperors. They did not feature as main characters in ancient poetry, and gods/emperors did not take the shape of any insects. In only two instances were insects featured in a positive light. In general, relationships between gods, emperors, and insects are weak in Japanese mythology, and hence mythology does not appear to be the primary source of Japanese affinity for insects.

O MITO KAPPA COMO RELATO ETNOGRÁFICO

The short story “Kappa” (1927), by the Japanese writer Ryûnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), revolves around the story of a man known only as patient number 23, an inmate at the S. insane asylum, who tells that he lived a season in the land of the kappas (half humanoid and half amphibians, from Japanese mythology) and describes their way of life in comparison with that of Japanese society. The anthropological movement of making the strange world of the kappas familiar and, in turn, making the human world exotic, runs through the entire tale. The aim of this work, therefore, is to explore the idea of the kappa myth as an ethnographic report, analyzing, from an anthropological perspective, the imaginary journey (or not?) of the protagonist, psychiatric patient number 23, into the world of these mythological beings.

The Formation of Female Image in Japanese Mythology

Mitolojik anlatıların, tarih öncesi çağlarda doğayı, yaşamı, ölümü, felsefeyi, sanatı, siyaseti, hukuku vb. unsurları şekillendirici ve toplumun düşünce sistemini yansıtıcı işlevlerinin olduğu bilinmektedir. Mitlerin sahip olduğu bu özellikler, Japon mitolojisini de Japon toplumunun ortaya çıkışı ve Japon kimliğinin inşası süreçlerinde ön plana çıkartmıştır. Tarih öncesi devirlerden modern döneme kadar Japon toplumunda, toplumsal yaşam içinde kadın çoğunlukla ikincil planda yer almıştır. Antik Japon toplumlarında (Şintoizm’in de etkisiyle) kadının toplum içindeki konumu her ne kadar güçlenmişse de yabancı kaynakların Japon toplumunun dini ve düşünce sistemine etki etmesiyle birlikte yeniden düşüşe geçmiştir. Edo döneminde ise kadının toplumsal hayat içindeki konumu erkek egemen bir toplumsal yapı içinde “eşine itaat eden ve evine bağlı” bir kadın imgesine dönüşmüştür. Kadının ikincil konumu Meiji döneminde yapılan Batılılaşma ve modernleşme faaliyetleri kapsamında biraz daha iyileştirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Ancak bu modernleşme düşüncesi içinde kadının toplumsal hayattaki statüsünün yükseltilememesinin temelinde Japon halkının düşünce sistemini oluşturan mitolojik anlatılar yer almaktadır. Mitlerde yaratılışa ve diğer olaylara dair anlatılarda yansıtılan kadın ve erkek imgesi “kadınlık” ve “erkeklik” rollerinin toplumsal hafıza içinde ele alınmasına kaynaklık etmiştir. Bu kapsamda yapılan çalışmada, Japon mitolojisini şekillendiren mitler incelenerek buradaki dişil karakterler betimlenmeye ve kadın imgesinin Japon mitolojisi içinde nasıl yansıtıldığı anlamlandırılmaya çalışılmıştır.

The virtual cultural tourist: Film-induced tourism and Kubo and the Two Strings

Over the past two decades, there has been growing research in film-induced tourism. Much of this research is focused on how film influences tourist destination choices. There has been less emphasis, however, on the nature and types of movies that may induce this attraction to such locations. By examining Kubo and the Two Strings (Knight, 2016), a stop-motion animation produced by Laika Studios, this paper aims to apply film studies to explore current understandings of film-induced tourism. This paper argues that Kubo is itself a form of film-induced tourism by positioning the viewer as a virtual cultural tourist whose cinematic experience may be likened to a veritable media pilgrimage through Japanese culture, history and aesthetics. The movie introduces the viewer into an imagined world that borrows from origami, Nō theatre, shamisen music, obon rituals and Japanese symbolism, philosophy and mythology. The resulting pastiche is a constructed diorama that is as transnational and postmodern as it is authentic and indigenous.

The Kojiki/Nihon Shoki Mythology and Chinese Mythology: Theme, Structure, and Meaning

This essay will compare myths found in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki with thematically and structurally similar Chinese myths, and other Japanese texts, in order to shed light on the meanings of both Japanese and Chinese mythology. The authors’ approach is partly in the critical textual study tradition that traces back to Gu Jiegang and Tsuda Sokichi, and partly informed by comparative mythologists, such as Matsumae Takeshi, Nelly Naumann, and Antonio Klaus, with attention to Proppian and Levi-Straussian motifs in structural studies. First, we shall discuss some common themes in Chinese and Kojiki/Nihon Shoki myths. Second, we shall point out common structures in both Chinese and Japanese myths. Finally, we shall try to show how such common themes and structures could potentially help us understand the meanings of the myths in discussion.

ЁКАИ КАК ВАЖНЫЙ ФАКТОР ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ЯПОНСКОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

The analysis of the concept of "youkai" in Japanese mythology, its origin is given, the varieties of youkai are considered. There are references to youkai in ancient monuments of Japanese culture, their reflection in literature and fine arts, modern film and game industries

Cultural Astronomy of the Japanese Archipelago: Exploring the Japanese Skyscape by Akira Goto

Reviewed by: Cultural Astronomy of the Japanese Archipelago: Exploring the Japanese Skyscape by Akira Goto Jeffrey Kotyk Cultural Astronomy of the Japanese Archipelago: Exploring the Japanese Skyscape. By Akira Goto. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2021. 158 pages. ISBN: 9780367407988 (hardcover, also available as e-book). Akira Goto's Cultural Astronomy of the Japanese Archipelago: Exploring the Japanese Skyscape is a welcome monograph dealing with a topic that has largely been undiscussed in the Anglosphere. While the study of historical Japanese astronomy and uranography is well developed, the relevant research tends to focus on imported Chinese models and/or Buddhist astrology without considering autochthonous Japanese skyscapes. Delving into this topic, Goto importantly demonstrates that there was (and arguably still is), in reality, a diversity of perspectives among the denizens of the Japanese archipelago from the Ryukyu peoples to the Ainu of Hokkaido. He emphasizes from the beginning that in this context we ought to treat "Japan" as an archipelago (i.e., as a geographical region), rather than as a national entity. The importance of this approach becomes clear throughout the book as the reader is introduced to entirely different visions of the heavens among different peoples on the islands. Chapter 1 surveys the vernacular names for stars, with a focus on how ordinary people would have used asterisms in everyday life (e.g., for physical positioning and dates) and for other purposes (e.g., warfare, fishing, agriculture). This discussion is especially welcome given how little attention is usually paid to common rather than aristocratic or "official" forms of astral knowledge. Chapter 2 examines stars in Japanese mythology and classical literature and is based on sources including Kojiki and Nihon shoki. For the former Goto cites the 1882 translation by Basil Hall Chamberlain, which is problematic considering it is so dated; in this chapter and others he ought to have cited the original text of his primary sources in kanbun or kobun to show how he would punctuate and interpret them. I also felt that the discussion of the north-south orientation of the ancient capitals (pp. 33–37) could have been expanded. Heijō-kyō and Heian-kyō were based on Chinese models of city planning, a background that should have been treated in greater detail because of its importance both in general and to traditional East Asian architecture more specifically.1 Some of the terminology in this chapter is misleading, for example "28 Sei shuku [End Page 363] (28 houses in Chinese zodiac system)" on page 31. The kanji 宿 (shuku or suku) is normally translated in this context as "lunar station" or "mansion," rather than "house." Buddhists used shuku as functional equivalents of the Indian nakṣatras, which are also translated as "lunar stations" or "mansions" (nakṣatras and Chinese lunar stations had entirely different parameters, however). Moreover, "Chinese zodiac system" is left undefined. A zodiac is formally a division of twelve equal components of the ecliptic, and although zodiac signs did become part of Chinese (and eventually Japanese) astrology, they are separate from the twenty-eight lunar stations. As a second example, on page 33 we read that during the reign of the Tenmu emperor (r. 673–686) "a platform for the first time was erected from which to do horoscopes by means of the stars (Aston 1972, Vol. 2: 326)." This is misleading and anachronistic, since the source text (Nihon shoki) actually says nothing here about horoscopes. The relevant line in W. G. Aston's translation reads, "A platform was for the first time erected from which to divine by means of the stars"; the Chinese in the original is 始興占星臺, which I would translate, "For the first time, a platform for divining the stars was erected."2 A horoscope is a table of calculated planetary positions from which an individual's fate is evaluated and interpreted. This does not actually necessitate live observations, since normally an astrologer calculates the planetary positions at the time of a client's birth. Horoscopy did in fact exist in Japan, but only from the late tenth century with the advent of the Sukuyōdō community of astrologermonks.3 The word 占星 in the period and context of Tenmu's reign would refer to celestial omenology...

Les guerriers dans la brume. Éléments d’archéologie sur la violence et ses acteurs à la fin de la Préhistoire au Japon

Among the many mythological figures, the warrior is an often noticed (and studied) one. Japanese mythology is no exception. Warlike mythical heroes such as Yamato Takeru are often presented as unsettling characters, often prone to uncontrollable outbursts of violence, and both bound by the duties of their service and very self-centered in the choices they make to accomplish them. This kind of untamed, frightening aspect of warlike heroes is often tempered with a “tuned down” tendency, in the more modern sense of the nation-state framework. The Japanese heroes, in this respect, are not treated differently than their European counterparts. In contrast to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, present-day archaeology no longer deals with the verification of the conformity of mythology with material and objective evidence of ancient societies. No one would see the interest in locating Yamato Takeru’s grave in Japan, no more than one would now consider that Heinrich Schliemann was making a valuable scientific point by “uncovering” the tomb of Agamemnon in 1876. Crucially, archaeology opens a window on the apparent realities of armed conflicts in ancient societies. The mist of ancient times when the myths of warlike heroes such as Yamato Takeru were fostered reveals the material reality of violence and its “specialists,” which allows us to grasp essential aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic elements of these societies.

Ареальные связи древней японской мифологии

Ареальные связи древней японской мифологии

On the Origins of the Japanese Language

AbstractIn this article, I deal with the historical development of the Japanese language by applying a multi-disciplinary approach that uses data from a variety of fields. My research indicates that the home-land of the Japonic language family may have been in the lower Yangtze River Valley, from where its speakers moved to the Korean Peninsula and eventually to Japan during the Yayoi period. This spread is associated with the dispersal of wet rice agriculture from the area south of the Yangtze River via the northeastern Asian mainland, where it was in contact with cultures cultivating millet. Old Japanese mythology and genealogical data suggests that the earliest known ethnic group that spoke Japonic may have been the Hayato people of southern Kyūshū.1

Dance as a Sign: Discovering the Relation Between Dance Movement and Culture

This article presents examples of the relationship between culture, dance, and the body in the fields of communication (with oneself, the community, God/deity), the social hierarchy, social values, relations between the individual and the group, and relations between genders, from the perspective of the sociology of the dance. The sociological perspective also indicates the various historical, ritual, control, and regulatory roles that traditional and modern dances play in the communities in which they arise and are performed. The second part of the text contains a case study of the Japanese ankoku butoh dance. The author presents the philosophical roots of the dance (e.g., Japanese mythology, Zen Buddhist philosophy) and the creator’s personal experiences (childhood trauma and post-war social situation) as factors that influenced the dance’s development. The example of ankoku butoh illustrates the interrelation between cultural meanings and dance movements.

Through the Looking Glass

Masamune Shirow's manga, Ghost in the Shell, is a ‘cyberpunk' classic of the 1990's. It focuses on a fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation led by Major Motoko Kusanagi known as Section-9. This classic manga was made into an anime by Mamoru Oshii and became a cult hit in the mid-90s. Its popularity fuelled the production of a number of feature length animated films as well as two anime series. It regained popularity in 2015 following the news that Scarlett Johansson signed to play the lead in a live-action version of the anime that was released in 2017. What is interesting about Ghost in the Shell is not only its ‘cyberpunk' motifs but the very transhumanist themes it conveys. Though considered a ‘cultural/intellectual' movement transhumanism has some interesting ‘religious' elements associated with it, albeit ones that may not fit the usual conventional understanding of ‘religion'. This is especially the case if ‘religion' is seen as the sui generis concept that it is popularly known as, rather than a cultural activity. One of the fundamental beliefs of this movement is that humans will advance physically, intellectually, and psychologically, not through the will of a divine creator, but through human ingenuity and technology. Another popular belief held by some transhumanists is one that suggests that in the 'not-so-distant future' humans will transcend their physical and mental imperfections by uploading themselves into a supercomputer. With transhumanist themes in mind this paper will focus on two main points. The first is that Japanese traditions can be used to strengthen the ‘transhumanism as religion' argument as proposed by Robert Geraci. The second will examine how-through the adoption of Japanese mythology and its articulation in Ghost in the Shell­-cyborg technology can be used to enhance spirituality, thus introducing a new method for understanding the traditional science v religion debate.