New look for Japan's oldest book | The Japan Times Online
A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to read that old Japanese Shinto myths had a god molded from feces. Well, Shinto creation myths didn't end there. From the article above:
"The birth of Japan. The gods give us a story of love and violence." Thus is introduced this Japanese-language manga-illustrated edition of the "Kojiki" (Record of Ancient Matters) dating from 712 and Japan's oldest book. The publication is intended for primary-school children...
For some foreign readers, perhaps unable to read Japanese, the major interest will lie in observing the considerable violence with which the conventions of eighth-century Japanese narrative collide with those of our 21st century.
The text has been edited by a Yokohama National University professor and made more suitable than it actually is. The original has the very first woman, Izanami, burning her genitals when she gives birth to the fire god. Later, various gods are born from her vomit, feces and urine. Her own child, Susano'o, defecates in the sacred hall of his sister Amaterasu and then strews the feces about.
None of this is illustratable, even by the standards of modern manga, and so the celebrated result of such misbehavior -- the retreat of Amaterasu into her cave -- remains largely unmotivated.
And you thought Eve being made from Adam's rib was odd.
Great stuff! I'm a big fan of Norse sagas and Eddas which are full of violence and visceral body fluids/parts becoming part of creation myths and the like. (In their creation myth, the word is made out of the slaughter corpse of a giant).
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why some cultures seem to have a greater predilection to violent/weird imagery in their myths. (Maybe all cultures have it, but it just shows itself in different ways.) Certainly modern US culture and to a lesser extent Anglo culture in general has seen an upsurge in this sort of thing lately, in detective fiction and horror films.
Who knows why?