Kami
[Table of Contents]
MATSUMURA Kazuo
Introduction
The work of comparing mythic elements from Kojiki and Nihon shoki(Nihongi)with mythic traditions of countries close to Japan and analyzing thedistribution of similar mythic elements has long been undertaken by students ofJapanese ethnography. The results of work by Takagi Toshio, Matsumoto Nobuhiro, Oka Masao, Matsumura Takeo, Numazawa Kiichi, Mishina Shôei, Matsumae Takeshi, Ôbayashi TaryôItô Seiji, and YoshidaAtsuhikohave made it abundantly clear that the Kojiki and Nihongi did not occur in isolation, but were products of thecollation of mythic elements shared throughout the surrounding geographicalregion.2 Also, the work of describing the framework within whichthose mythic elements were combined and systematized has made great strides inrecent years under theoretical influence from Levi Strauss's structural studyof myth.3
With the background of this accumulated body ofethnological research and mythic studies, I want to use the the model of binaryopposites found within the structural study of myth as a tool for the analysisof the system of myths found within the Kojikiand Nihongi.
The object of my study will not be the sourcesof the individual mythic elements --- namely, their geographical, historical, andcultural origins --- but rather the Kojikimyths taken as a systematic whole. Further, I will not concentrate so much onpresenting a description of the static system as on discussing the operativefactors within the process whereby the mythic system came into being.
The Kojikiand Nihon shoki were created as theresult of the integration and systematization of disparate mythic elements,each with its own derivation. One can detect in small details and minor elementsof the myths certain aspects that point to their first origins; payingattention to such details and minor elements may facilitate not only a study ofthe derivation of mythic elements, but also the attempt to reconstruct the formthe myths possessed prior to their being recomposed within the system of the Kojiki and Nihongi.
Here, however, I want to focus, rather, on thekind of ideological framework into which the disparate mythic elements wereassembled and integrated. In other words, I want to consider what might becalled the "theological origins" of the mythic system of the Kojiki and Nihongi. Rather than attempting to reconstruct the primitive form,or Ur-text from the pages of theseworks, I am interested in discovering what kind of intellectual processes mayhave been involved in the formation of the matrix which transformed and reincorporatedthose elements.
Further, I want to touch as well on the issue ofthe relationship between myth and ritual. The two are obviously not unrelated,and inasmuch as the myths of the Kojikiand Nihongi were used --- as myths ofkingship --- to assert the ruling legitimacy of the Yamato court and its "greatking" (emperor), it goes without saying that they reflected rituals ofkingship.
Finally, based on the general assumption thatritual behavior is more resistant to change than myth, frequent attempts havebeen made to analyze and explain the various parts of the mythos as reflectingthe rituals of spirit pacification (chinkon-sai), enthronment (daijô-sai), or imperial dedication (the "festival of many islands" or yasoshima-sai), which were observed within the court or by various clans. And itis certain that many questions have been answered as a result of such research.Such success, however, does not necessarily mean that one can easily equatemyth with ritual. To explain myth as nothing more than the reflection, orarticulation in language, of the reality represented by ritual behavior is tobelittle the unique nature of myth itself. Since we have no way of erectingclear-cut standards regarding the degree of ritual to be read into myth, if wedecide, rather, to pay attention to the unique characteristics of mythitself --- the development of its creative imagination unrestricted by reality, itsunfettered elasticity and flexibility, and its nature as a consolidation orsystematization of ideology --- we can recognize the value of minimizing theapplication of ritual data to the understanding of a myth's own internal consistency.Further, this can be done without denying the significance of ritual data as animportant tool for the analysis of myth in general.
To suggest a modern metaphor, ritual might bethought of somewhat like a television image without sound, while myth is thesoundtrack accompanying the visual image on the screen. While the union ofimage and soundtrack produces the most complete message, it is also possiblefor the soundtrack (spoken language) to exist as a medium, like radio,independent of any visual image. In a similar way, it is possible for myth toform its own world independent of ritual.
I also want to introduce feminist perspectivesand concerns as part of my response to this problem. I do this out of a beliefthat the "generation" of the imperial goddess Amaterasu forms an importantguide to the discovery of the Kojiki'score ideology, the matrix integrating and systematizing the various mythicelements. As a myth of kingship, the Kojikisets up Amaterasu as the chief deity in the heavenly pantheon while making herdescendants the emperors who rule here on earth. If so, then it is important tointroduce the ideological nature of men's view of women if we are to understandthe nature of the Kojiki. Based onthat perspective, I then want to expand my discussion to a consideration of thesocial perceptions of the class responsible for establishing the mythos of the Kojiki and Nihongi.4
1. The Goddess as an Ideal Projection ofMen
In the process of its emergence, a social grouprelies on monotheistic doctrines or polytheistic myths as an explanation forthe group's origins and as legitimation for the group's various social institutions --- includingthose of political control.
The mythic systems found in polytheisticreligions are explained as networks of relationality, extending from thegods --- both male and female --- to the relations between nature, culture and humans --- andto those relations existing between the classes of rulers and ruled. And themeaning of myth cannot be correctly understood except as the structure of thiscluster of relationalities.
Members of the society who particularly requirea systematic body of myth are the males occupying positions responsible for theestablishment and administration of the media of social power. Due torestrictions on the length of this paper, I must begin my discussion without providingan adequate introduction to the results of feminist studies which describe howauthoritarian male rule existed widely in both space and time, and how it wasalso expressed in myth. Such research, however, is important in helping usunderstand the mythic system of the Kojikiand Nihongi as a kingship myth --- a mythwith political design.5
Whether such male-domininated agencies of powerwere at work in the period in which the ideology of the Kojiki and Nihongi wasestablished is an issue that must be judged based on the relevance of thediscussion that follows. If it is indeed found that such was the case, it willhenceforth be necessary to analyze the depiction and status of women within thebody of myth as a product of male self-legitimation.
As a result, I will not assume here thesubstantialist perspective that interprets the status of mythic women andgoddesses as direct reflections of actually existing social conditions. Inother words, the fact that Kojiki andNihongi depict the goddess Amaterasuas imperial ancestral deity should not be taken as indicating a historical periodin which women held greater power than men. Rather, I want to advance mydiscussion under the assumption that menwere responsible for creating Amaterasu as a particular, symbolic type of goddess,and that they installed her at the center of the mythos as a means of legitimatingtheir own structures of power.
In other words, the purpose of this paper is todocument the process whereby a mythologiqueswas formulated by males, focused on the goddess Amaterasu.
2. The Distinctiveness of the "VirginMother" Amaterasu
Amaterasu was ancestral deity solely of the clanof the ruler known as tennô. This goddess was ancestral deity of the patrimonial lineageextending from Ho no Ninigi and Ugaya-f*ckiahezu, in other words, deity of theemperors transmitting (or so it was claimed) this lineage, who were mostlymale, women being the rare exception. In other words, she was not consideredancestral goddess of the entire Japanese nation, but mother goddess acting asancestral deity to a specially privileged male group. To begin, let us considerhow the Kojiki describes Amaterasu'sbirth and transformation into a mother deity.
Following the death of his wife Izanami, thedeity Izanagi proceeded to the underworld of Yomi inhopes of bringing her back. Failing in that attempt, Izanagi returned to theworld, and bathed at Awagiharain Tachibana of Hyûga [inpresent-day Kyushu], so as to purify himself from the pollutions of Yomi. The Kojiki states that Amaterasu was bornwhen Izanagi bathed his left eye. As a result, Amaterasu was given birth notfrom her mother, but from her father Izanagi. In short, Amaterasu is dissociatedfrom natural birth by woman; rather than representing the equation"woman=nature," Amaterasu is presented as a product of the equation"man=culture." As a means of asserting their own superiority, men protray womenas an inferior sex easily subject to pollution --- beings linked more closely tonature than to culture --- but here, Amaterasu is free from such negative valueimposed by men on women.
Further, Amaterasu is portrayed, withoutnegative femininity, as becoming pseudo-mother to the original male ancestor ofa specific kinship group. When Susanoo ascended to the Plain ofHigh Heaven, Amaterasu feared that his intention was to deprive her of herkingship, with the result that she appeared in martial array when going out togreet him, but Susanoo protested his innocent intent, and to prove hissincerity, Susanoo suggested that the two deities undergo trial by pledge (ukehi), with the object of producing offspring.
As the two deities stood astride the Ame noYasukawa["easy river of heaven"], Amaterasu broke Susanoo'ssword and chewed it in her mouth, then blew out a mist, thus producing thethree goddesses of Munakata. On the other hand, Susanoo chewed up Amaterasu'scurved jewels and blew out a mist from which were produced the five maledeities Oshihomimi, Amenohohi, Amatsuhikone, Ikutsuhikone, and Kumanokusubi.Since the five male children were produced from Amaterasu's "essence" (monozane),while the three goddesses were produced from Susanoo's, Amaterasu claimed thefive male deities as her own children.
In thisway, Amaterasu claimed Oshihomimi --- ancestor of the imperial family --- as her ownchild, even while remaining untouched by the activities of sexual congress,conception, and childbirth. The result was that she became a mother goddesswhile remaining innocent of a woman's natural physical experience. Amaterasuthus became imperial ancestral deity, but one who remained in a state ofeternal virginity, untouched by the pollution which men imputed to women as aresult of the normal process of giving birth. The resulting "virgin mother"goddess can be understood as the product of a compromise, wherein theinescapable reality that descendants are born only from women was synthesizedwith the ideal of men's cultural superiority. In other words, Amaterasu wasnone other than an imperial ancestor deity produced by the elimination of pollution --- whichmen had made the rationale for women's inferiority --- from the necessary evilrepresented by a mother goddess.
Needless to say, this is not the only kind ofmyth that could have been conceived as a means of eliminating "woman's stigma"from a high deity representing the root source of a ruling lineage. For example,just as Izanagi produced Amaterasu by himself, it should be possible to imaginea myth in which a male deity, himself born from a male deity is, in turn, madesolely responsible for giving birth to the male ancestor of the earthly rulinglineage.
But such a myth would involve two problems.First of all, such a setting would weaken the impact of the unique motif of amale deity's giving birth alone to children. The story of Izanagi's givingbirth alone has mythic importance precisely because it occurs only once, justat the decisive moment masculine culture takes on independent existence out ofthe preceding chaos. But if such parthenogenetic birth were repeated twiceagain, the motif's original significance would be attenuated. Second, even ifthe female stigma had been eliminated by proposing that the ruler was producedthrough male parthenogenesis, it would have remained impossible to provide amythic basis for the undeniable existence of women in real society, and thus tolegitimate the relations between the two sexes. In order to indirectly join theexistence of the necessary evil of women as "negative" beings with the rulingclass of men, and to recognize the necessity of women even while insisting onthe superiority of men, it was important to characterize the imperial ancestraldeity as the common meeting point between men and women.
3. Susanoo
It is also necessary to consider Amaterasuwithin the framework of her relationship to other deities, based on the natureof each deity's sphere of influence or authority. The first deity that shouldbe considered within that framework is Susanoo. Amaterasu was produced fromIzanagi together with her sibling deities Tsukiyomi and Susanoo. Despite thefact that Tsukiyomi is included within Izanagi's "three noble children,"however, he is given extremely brief treatment within the pages of the Kojiki and Nihongi. Susanoo, by contrast, plays a crucial role in relation toAmaterasu's status.
First, Susanoo is given the opportunity toprovide Amaterasu with children through their trial by pledge. Amaterasubecomes the mother of Oshihomimi without engaging in sexual union, but itnonetheless occurs within the context of an exchange of "essences" withSusanoo, and on the level of myth, is is recognized that neither Oshihomimi norhis descendants the emperors could exist without Susanoo.
Further, Susanoo engages in violently disruptiveconduct toward Amaterasu on the Plain of High Heaven, provoking Amaterasu tohide away in the Rock Cave of Heaven. In turn, it is by her reappearance fromthe rock cave that Amaterasu ultimately achieves her sure status in Heaven,making it necessary to recognize Susanoo's indispensible --- even though in anegative sense --- role in establishing Amaterasu as supreme deity. Susanoo is arival who threatens Amaterasu's status by engaging repeatedly in violentbehavior that represents a state of disorder and chaos. The fact that Susanoois deliberately portrayed in this way appears to have the purpose ofreinforcing the sacred order embodied by the imperial ancestral deityAmaterasu.
Similarly, by portraying the deity Ônamuchi,central figure in the Izumo line of deities, as a descendant of Susanoo, thelatter was linked to the Izumo region. By associating Izumo with Susanoo inthis way, the region --- which was opposed to Yamato hegemony --- could be portrayed asbeing in conflict with legitimate order.
But Susanoo's antinomian character was notsomething to be absolutely rejected, since it represented a negative elementthat was nonetheless indispensible for the creation and completion of the orderembodied by Amaterasu. What kind of mental processes operated in the backgroundto the demand for a relationship with the "villain" Susanoo that would makethat relationship a "creative" element within the Amaterasu myth?
First, it is noteworthy that as the mythic timeframe unfolds from divine age to human age, the generation beginning withAmaterasu and her sibling offspring of Izanagi no longer demonstrates the earlierunusual motifs of giving birth. Namely, the first seven generations of deitiesthat appeared earlier are described as "becoming" through a process resemblingspontaneous generation, and following the death of the kami Izanami and Kagutsuchi, other deities are generatedspontaneously from their corpses. Izanagi likewise produces his "three noblechildren" through a process of parthenogenesis while undergoing lustration. Butbeginning with the appearance of Amaterasu, the earlier kinds of spontaneousgeneration and parthenogenesis --- namely, a-human means not requiring the participationof two parents --- are no longer in evidence.
In the case of that embodiment of ideal order,Amaterasu, monosexual reproduction is not mythically desirable. But at the sametime, portraying her as engaging in the conceptually inferior activity ofsexual congress like ordinary women was also likely thought to represent anundesirable blot on her transcendence. As a result, her feminine elements wereattenuated, and she was depicted in the refined status of a "masculine"goddess. Even so, however, given the necessity of mythically linking Amaterasuto descendants culminating in the historical emperors, it was unavoidable thather sexual features as a female be left minimally intact. The device of bearingchildren via an exchange of "essences" (monozane)with a male deity was probably conceived as a means of giving Amaterasu thequalities of both sexes, namely the ability to produce offspring as a woman,together with freedom from the pollution thought by men to be an attribute ofwomen.
But at the same time, no matter howtranscendental a female she might be, and no matter how she was freed from thepollution of women, it remained finally impossible for Amaterasu to bear offspringwithout the participation of a male. And from the perspective of males, such aconcept was actually welcomed. In other words, we have here once again thepattern of male-superiority wherein the equation "female="nature"" could notdemonstrate its force without the simultaneous acceptance of the equation"male="culture.""
This consideration leads us to threeconclusions: (1) the power of the male is indispensable for producingoffspring; (2) elements at opposition with the Plain of High Heaven aredepicted in a negative light; and (3) by eliminating the opposition, finalemphasis is given to the order established on the Plain of High Heaven. In sum,it is the fusion of these three elements in a single mythic cycle that is depictedin the the Plain of High Heaven of the Susanoo myths.
4. Izanami
Another problem involves the issue of howvarious female characteristics are expressed and portrayed in the medium of thegoddess, and our understanding of the issue may be enhanced by comparingAmaterasu with Izanami. As a result of sexual union with Izanagi, Izanamiproduced numerous offspring kami. Inother words, she was unable to escape from the pollution of birth, one of thecontaminations men had attributed to women, and she ultimately died as a resultof burns suffered while giving birth to the kamiof fire, Kagutsuchi. As a result, she was also fouled with the pollution ofdeath. Further, when her husband Izanagi arrived in Yomi to take her back, shewas humiliated because he witnessed her putrid appearance, chasing him away andterminating her marriage relationship with him, then vowing to extractvengeance by depriving the world of life.
This depiction of Izanami simultaneouslyreflects men's understanding of the need for females in producing descendants,and the pollution which men associated with women by virtue of their being thesex that gives birth, together with the dangerous tendency toward rebellionthought by men to be a trait of women. When limited to the myths of the Kojiki and Nihongi in contrast to concrete ritual behavior at shrines, ifAmaterasu is situated at the pole of an ideally "masculine" female, then it isIzanami who is situated at the opposite extreme, as a caricature of the real female.
5. The Hainuwele-Type Goddess
The Kojikiand Nihongi state that rice and othergrains, horses, oxen and other livestock, and the silkworms responsible for producingsilk were all produced by goddesses. Of these goddesses, only one,Wakubumusubi, is described in a single, isolated episode not woven into theremainder of the mythic cycle. According to the second alternate version ofthis episode as recorded in the Nihonshoki,
Upon this, Kagutsuchi took to wife Haniyamabime and they hada child named Wakumusubi. From the top of this kami's head were born the silkworm and the mulberry, while the fivegrains were produced from her navel."II
By contrast, the stories describing thegoddesses Ôgetsuhime and Ukemochi relate that the aforementioned culturalproducts were produced from the corpse of the respective slain goddess. As recordedin the Kojiki, Ôgetsuhime wasmurdered by Susanoo upon the latter's return to earth after being banished fromthe Plain of High Heaven:
Again, [Susanoo] asked foodof Ôgetsuhime no kami. Then Ôgetsuhime took various viands out of her nose, hermouth, and her rectum, prepared them in various ways, and presented them tohim.Thereupon Haya-Susanoo no mikoto, who had been watching her actions,thought that she was polluting the food before offering it to him and killedÔgetsuhime no kami. In the corpse of the slain deity there grew [various]things: in her head there grew silkworms; in her two eyes there grew riceseeds; in her two ears there grew milet; in her nose there grew red beans; in hergenitals there grew wheat; and in rectum there grew soy beans. Then Kamimusubimioya no mikoto had these taken and used as seeds.
While the Kojiki here links the first generation of rice to the death ofÔgetsuhime, it has already recorded in an earlier passage that Amaterasu'sheavenly rice paddies were desecrated by Susanoo, thus producing acontradiction in the mythic sequence. In contrast, the eleventh alternateversion related by the Nihon shokisuggests a more logical sequence, recording that Susanoo's rampage throughAmaterasu's heavenly rice fields took place afterthe generation of rice and silkworms from the corpse of the goddess Ukemochi.Further, all the things produced from Ukemochi's corpse --- grains, livestock, andsilkworms --- were presented to Amaterasu, and thus used for the first time as seedin Amaterasu's heavenly fields:
Now when Amaterasu no ôkami was already inHeaven, she said, "I hear that in the Central country of reed-plains there isthe Deity Ukemochi no kami. Do thou, Tsukiyomi no mikoto, go and wait uponher." Tsukiyomi no mikoto, on receiving this command, descended and went to theplace where Ukemochi no Kami was. Thereupon Ukemochi no kami turned her headtowards the land, and from hermouth there came boiled rice: she faced the sea, and again there came from her mouth things broad of fin andthings narrow of fin. She faced the mountains and there came from her mouththings rough of hair and things soft of hair. These things were all preparedand set out on one hundred tables for his entertainment. Then Tsukiyomi nomikoto became flushed with anger, and said, "Filthy! Nasty! That you shoulddare to feed me with things disgorged from your mouth." So he drew his swordand killed her, then returned and made his report, relating all the circ*mstances. At this, Amaterasuno ôkami was exceedingly angry, and said, "You are a wicked deity. I must notsee you face to face." So they were separated by one day and one night, andlived apart. After this, Amaterasu no ôkami sent a second time Amekumabito togo and see her. At this time, Ukemochi no kami was truly dead already. But on the crown of her head therehad been produced the ox and the horse; on the top of her forehead there hadbeen produced millet; over her eyebrows there had been produced the silkworm;within her eyes there had been produced panic; in her belly there had beenproduced rice; in her genitals there had been produced wheat, large beans andsmall beans. Amekumabito carried all these things and delivered them toAmaterasu no ôkami, who was rejoiced, and said, "These are the things which therace of visible men will eat and live." So she made the millet, the panic, thewheat, and the beans the seed for the dry fields, and the rice she made theseed for the water fields. Therefore she appointed a Muragimi of Heaven, andthus sowed for the first time the rice seed in the narrow fields and in thelong fields of Heaven. That autumn, drooping ears bent down, eight span long,and were exceedingly pleasant to look on. Moreover she took the silkworms inher mouth, and succeeded in reeling thread from them. From this began the artof silkworm cultivation.III
When one compares the myths ofWakumusubi, Ôgetsuhime, and Ukemochi, the above sequence presents the greatestsystematic uniformity and internal consistency. In the most complete version ofthe myth of Ukemochi, the goddess presenting foods is killed, and from her bodyare produced grains, livestock, and silkworms, which are then offered toAmaterasu. It is not strange to find a goddess --- belonging to the female sex thatgives birth --- made responsible for producing things like grains, livestock, andthe silk material for clothing. But here, these goddesses are violentlymurdered by men who consider them polluted beings. In sum, they are exploitedsolely as material objects, and do nothing more than provide materials fromtheir dead bodies. In contrast, it is to the "masculine" goddess Amaterasu thatgoes the honor of jurisdiction over these valuable materials, of making themusable, sanctifying them and providing them to the world through her offspringthe imperial ancestors.
The motif of the generation of food from thebody of a "slain goddess" is a common feature of the so-called "Hainuwele-typemyth," a myth of food origins transmitted by early agricultural peoples. Astransmitted by the Kojiki and Nihongi, however, the myth places lessemphasis on the sacralization of the goddess than on her material exploitation,and the honor of bestowing the cultural materials produced from her corpse goesinstead to the masculine Amaterasu, thought to be a product of the maleimagination. Here, too, one can recognize the pattern wherein the female isequated with nature and the male with culture. Namely, Amaterasu Ômikami onceagain is made --- for the convenience of men --- to play the role of standing betweenand mediating the female sex which gives birth and the male sex which exploits.And while the role itself could likely have been played equally by a femininemale or a masculine female, the deity's status as imperial ancestral deity madeit imperative, as noted earlier, that she be a female, with the result thatAmaterasu came to be depicted as a "masculine" goddess.
6. Rice
The Kojikicalls the earthly world "Toyoashihara no chiaki no nagaihoaki no mizuho nokuni," while the Nihon shoki calls it"Chiihoaki no mizuho no kuni," IV appelations idealizing it as anideal land where forever ripen bountiful ears of rice. Further, the Kojiki and Nihongi include the motif of rice within both names and attributesof figures in the lineage from Amaterasu to the first emperor Jimmu, thusindicating how closely rice cultivation was linked to kingship. For example,Amaterasu cultivates rice in her sacred paddies on the Plain of High Heaven.And the names of her child Oshihomimi and his younger brother Amenohohi --- who wassent on the first mission to Izumo in preparation for the "transfer of theland"V --- both include the character ho, which means "rice ears." Oshihomeans "stalwart rice ears" or "teeming rice ears," while hohi means the "spiritual power of the rice ears".
The child of Oshihomimi was Ho no Ninigi, thegrandchild of Amaterasu who finally descended to Japan, and his name likewisemeans something akin to "luxuriantly ripening ears of rice." The place where Hono Ninigi descended was called Takachiho-mine, or "high-thousand rice-earspeak," with the similar meaning of a place where innumerable ears of rice arepiled up. Finally, the three children produced by Ho no Ninigi andKonohanasakuya-bime (Kamuatakash*tsu-hime), namely, Hoderi, Hosuseri, and Hoori(also called Hikohohodemi), all contain the common "ho," which originally did not mean "fire,"VIbut "rice ear," with the result that their three names mean "rice-ear-shining"(hoderi), "rice-ear advancing" (hosuseri or hosusumi), and "rice-ear breaking" (hoori, from being so heavily weighted down with the ripe ricegrain).
Further, the child of Hoori (Hikohohodemi) wasUgayaf*ckiahezu, whose offspring were named Itsuse, Inahi, Mikenu, and Wakamikenu(also called Toyomikenu). These deities' names all contain elements related torice and foodstuffs; for example, the seof Itsuse came from the primitive word sawhich meant the spirit of the rice grain, and thus indicated "divine rice." Thehi of Inahi, on the other hand, wasthe same hi (bi) of the word musibi,which referred to the creative power of becoming and thus indicated the ricespirit, while the mike of Mikenumeant "food," or "food offering."
Also, in the second alternate "one writing"relating the "descent of the heavenly grandchild" in the Nihon shoki,VII Amaterasu orders Amanokoyane andFutotama to "take the rice from my gardens in the Plain of High Heaven andpresent it to my offspring," thus indicating that the divine rice from heavenwas entrusted by Amaterasu to Oshihomimi. However, since it later came aboutthat Ho no Ninigi descended in place of Oshihomimi, it appears that in the end,rice was brought to the earthly world by Ninigi.
According to a fragmentary passage from the Hyuga no kuni fudoki, at the time Ho no Ninigi descended from heaven, the earth was in acondition of chaos, with "a darkened sky lacking any distinction of night andday, so that people lost their way and could not discriminate things." But Hono Ninigi plucked a thousand stalks of rice and scattered the unhulled grain inthe four directions, whereupon "the sky was brightened, and the sun and moonshone brightly," thus showing that rice and king were viewed as equivalent,both conceived as possessing the power to change darkness to light and chaos toorder.
Further, the third alternate "one writing"provided by the NihongiVIIIas a description of Ho no Ninigi's descent relates that Ho no Ninigi's wifeKamuatakash*tsu-hime "selected a field by divination, giving it the nameSanada. From the rice of that field she brewed sweet rice wine of heaven, whichshe gave [him] to drink. And using the rice of the field Nunata, she preparedcooked rice which she gave him to eat." In short, sake and steamed rice wereproduced from the rice grain and presented as offerings to the ruler of thedivine land, reflecting a concept similar to that evident in the previouspassage.
As the embodiment of the rice grain, Ho noNinigi thus represented not only the ancestor of the imperial family, but alsothe spirit of rice and grains presented from heaven to the world of human beings.In this context, it should be noted that the rice cultures around SoutheastAsia frequently treat rice as a sacred grain unique in status compared to otheragricultural products. Many of those cultures also personify the spirit of therice as a goddess, calling it "grain mother," or "mother of the rice."6
The divine genealogy from Amaterasu to Jimmu isintimately linked to rice, thus revealing a conceptual identification of ricewith kingship. Forming the basic structural motif of the kingship myths of Kojiki and Nihongi, this linkage identifies the king (i.e., tennô) with the rice spirit, thussuggesting one factor that motivated the identification of the imperial ancestraldeity Amaterasu with the goddess "rice mother."
7. Silkworm Cultivation
The silkworm was one of the culturally valuableproducts produced from the corpse of a goddess and then presented to Amaterasu.This fact indicates that silk was viewed as a sacred product originating in theheavenly world. The myth states that Amaterasu was an instructress in the artof taking thread from the silkworm, and also that she began weaving that silkthread on her loom. It further relates that the wife of Amaterasu's childOshihomimi (and thus the mother to Ho no Ninigi) was the daughter ofTakamimusubi, and possessed the alternate name Yorozuhata Akizushi-hime orTakuhata chiji-hime, names which mean "many-weaving" or "much cloth."
Finally, the sixth alternate version of theepisode related by Nihon shokiIXrelates that following his descent, Ho no Ninigi encountered Konohanasakuya-bime and her elder sister Ihanaga-hime, two daughters who are describedas "the maidens who have built an eight-fathom palace on the highest crest ofthe waves and tend the looms with jingling wrist jewels." This passage thusonce again demonstrates the deep relationship between Amaterasu, silkworms,silk cloth and weaving.
In actual practice, weaving was prototypicallywoman's work, and in the myths it is placed under the jurisdiction ofAmaterasu. The fact that this most important of women's roles and economicallyvaluable of activities was placed under the direction of a "masculine" goddesscan be interpreted as an indication of men's determination not to grant womenthis area of independence, and to keep all such activities under the control ofmen.
As Amaterasu was weaving divine garments in hersacred hall, Susanoo broke open the roof and threw in a backwards-flayed colt.But the Kojiki and Nihongi are not entirely in agreementregarding the direct results of this profane behavior. According to the Kojiki, Amaterasu's servant, theheavenly weaving maiden, was surprized and stabbed herself in the genitals withthe loom's shuttle, thus dying. According to the main text of the Nihon shoki, Amaterasu injured herselfwith the shuttle; and according to an alternate version related by the Nihon shoki,X Wakahirume fellfrom the loom, wounded herself with the shuttle, and died. In order to maintainthe purity situated at the opposite pole from death, Amaterasu is not depictedas dying herself, but characters playing the role of what might be called herspiritual offshoot or "scion," namely, the heavenly weaving maiden andWakahirume, do die as a result of this incident. Within the myths relating thegenesis of the silkworm and of the divine garments woven from that silk, twoimportant elements are the death of a goddess (Ôgetsu-hime, Ukemochi, theheavenly weaving maiden, or Wakahirume) and the death of a horse. The importanceof these two deaths derives from the fact that both are also elements found inthe "tale of the marriage of the horse and the girl."
The best-known source for the "tale of themarriage of the horse and the girl" is the story of the origin of the o-shirasama (no. 69) found in YanagitaKunio's Tôno monogatari as related to Yanagita by Sasaki Kizen ofthe town of Tônoin Iwate Prefecture. But a taledemonstrating even greater resemblances to the myth is the story "oshirakami,"XI included asstory number 115 in Kikimimi sôshi [The listening ear story book, 1931] published by Sasaki himself.In brief, the story relates that "the horse and maid were of the same mind andlove, and at last became united as husband and wife. When the horse's ownerlearned the awful truth, he killed the horse by hanging it from a mulberrytree. But when he skinned it, the hide wrapped itself around the young womanand flew away. The young woman appeared in a dream and said she had become ahorse-headed silkworm, and that her parents should feed it mulberry leaves toraise it, then sell the silk to live on. And in this way, the horse and theyoung woman became the oshirasama whois the god of silkworms."7
Here too, the two elements --- death of a woman anddeath of a horse --- are depicted within the context of the origin of silkworms andsericulture. It goes without saying that the model for the legend of themarriage of the maid and the horse, and the origin of sericulture goes back tothe fourteenth volume of the Soushenji (Jp. Sôshinki compiled byGan Pao (Jp. Kan Pô) in the fourth-centurystate of Chin. The story relates that a certain woman's husband went away towar as a general and did not return. In her grief, the woman murmured toherself that she would even give her daughter as bride to anyone who couldbring her husband back. With that, the horse being raised by the family leftthe home, later returning with the woman's husband. The couple killed the horseand skinned it, leaving the hide to dry. But when the young daughter carelesslyapproached the drying hide, the hide wrapped itself around the girl and flewoff. The horse's hide came to light on a mountain top, where it disappeared,while the girl alighted in a mulberry tree and was transformed into a silkworm.This was the beginning of silkworm cultivation, and people called this girl the"horse maid," revering her as the silkworm god.8
In China, the sinuous body of the silkworm wascompared to that of a woman, while the head was thought to resemble that of ahorse, a comparison which had already been established in the Warring Statesperiod (4th-3rd C., B.C.E.); Hsun Tzu's ode to the silkworm suggests that itsbody resembled that of a woman, and it's head that of a horse. The phenomenonof a silkworm's producing silk thread and weaving a cocoon around itself can beunderstood in the legend as the motif of the horse's hide wrapping itselfaround the girl, who was then transformed into the silkworm.
When interpreted in this way, the myth suggeststhe following three points: (1) the Kojikiand Nihongi's story of the generationof silkworms from the corpse of a goddess achieves the full form of the myth ofthe origin of sericulture only when it is combined with the separate episode ofAmaterasu and Susanoo in the former's sacred weaving hall; (2) the origin ofthat myth goes back to the fourth-century Chinese myth of the origin ofsericulture; (3) what Susanoo threw into the weaving hall was not the body ofthe horse, but its skinned hide.9
The Kojikiand Nihongi's myth of the origin ofsericulture, however, omits the motif of the mulberry tree, which is prominentin both the myths of the origin of the oshirasamaand the aforementioned Chinese legend. Since mulberry leaves are crucial forthe raising of silkworms, it would seem only natural that they appear in anylegend relating the origins of sericulture, but they are strangely absent fromthe versions found in the Kojiki and Nihongi.
This lack of the mulberry tree may be compensatedfor, however, by the presence of the sun. For example, in the early Chinesework Shanhaijing (Jp. Sengaikyô), thechapter called Dahuangdong-jinging (Jp. Daikôtô-kyô) includes a description stating that "above the valleyof steam is a mulberry tree, and when one sun reaches it, another sun comes outfrom it." This legend thus reflects an ancient belief in the mulberry as asacred tree in which the sun resided.
In addition, in China, the "heavenly horse" wasan animal on which the sun rode, making it a symbol for the sun itself.10Several wall paintings from tombs of the Han period likewise portray a horsestanding beside a fruit-bearing mulberry tree.11 In short, both thehorse and the mulberry tree were thought to be closely related to the sun, sothat the three can be thought of as forming a single set, horse --- mulberrytree --- sun.
Considered in this way, one can interpret themulberry tree and sun in a relationship of mutual complementarity; bymentioning one, implicit reference was made to the other. As a result, whilethe sun does not appear in the legend of the origin of the oshirasama or the Chinese legend of sericulture, the central roleplayed by the "sun goddess" Amaterasu in the Kojiki and Nihongi'ssericulture myth makes it unnecessary for the mulberry to appear there.
Further, the weaving of silk was apparentlylinked to sunlight and moonlight in the Korean peninsula as well.
For example, in the Korean historical work knownin Japan as Sangoku iji [Former events of the three countries], the thirteenth-century monkIchinen recorded the legend of En'o and Saio of the land of Silla. According to the legend, this married couple came to Japan,whereupon the light of the sun and moon disappeared from their home country. InSilla, the government minister in charge of climatic phenomena declared thatthe darkness resulted due to the loss of the spiritual essence of the sun andmoon, with the result that the king of Silla sent a messenger to Japan insearch of the couple. When he was found, En'o presented the messenger with finesilk cloth woven by his wife Saio, and told the messenger that all would berestored to normal if the cloth were made an offering to Heaven. When themessenger returned to Silla, the cloth was offered in worship, and the sun andmoon returned, with the result that the cloth was thereafter considered anational treasure and stored carefully in the royal warehouses, while the placewhere the offering had been made was called the province of "greeting-sun" or"sun-rise" 12
8. Rice and Silk
As we have seen thusfar, the myths of the Kojiki and Nihongi portray the high goddess Amaterasu as the origin both ofrice and of the silk cloth woven from the cocoons of the silkworm; this waslikely because these two items were the most highly valued among all food andclothing products. The emperors said to be descendants of Amaterasu observedthe annual first-fruits rituals called Niinamesai, as well as the enthronementceremonies of Daijôsai, which were an expanded form of the Niiname rites. Thesewere basically festivals of rice. As part of the Daijôsai, a divine garmentwoven from raw white silk was placed on the divine seat, while silk was alsoplaced in the bamboo baskets located to either side of the seat. The ceremonialclothes worn by the emperor himself were likewise made of silk. The importanceof rice and woven silk in the imperial rites thus coincides with the image ofthat earlier cultivator of rice and weaver of silk, the imperial ancestraldeity Amaterasu.
As a practical issue, rice and woven silk playedthe role of currency in ancient Japan. The earliest minted coins in Japan werethe eighth-century coins called Wadô Kaichin,and minting of other coins in the series known as the kôchô jûnisencontinued until around the mid-tenth century. But thesecoins were strongly influenced by imitation of Chinese practice. They weremeant to impress both domestic and foreign audiences with the authority of theemperor as the ruler in charge of issuing and managing such currency. In fact,however, the circulation of currency was poor, and limited almost exclusivelyto the capital provinces. As the emperor's direct power waned from the tenthcentury on, the minting of currency also ceased. While Japan reached the stageof a genuine currency economy from the latter part of the thirteenth into thefourteenth centuries, no currency backed by imperial authority was minteddomestically. Instead, the metallic currency that circulated in Japan wasimported to Japan from China.
Before Japan entered the period of a genuinecurrency economy, the role of currency was played by rice and silk. Forexample, it is now known that rice and silk were used as mediums for the saleand purchase of land until the mid-twelfth century.13 In short, weshould note that the myths claim that Amaterasu and the emperors are responsiblefor the generation of rice and silk, products which formed both standards formeasuring value and symbols of wealth within ancient Japanese society. TheAmaterasu mythos incorporates the concept that the emperors are the sources ofwealth, or the dispensers of wealth, and thus they naturally demonstrate astrong aversion to any disorder concerning rice and silk.
9. The Sun
The Japanese emperor was called variously Amatsuhitsugi ["heavenly sun-heir"] (Nihonshoki, Emperor Ingyô); Sumera Mikoto no Hitsugi" ("imperial sun-heir") [intro-duction to Kojiki]; and simply Hitsugi ["sun-heir"] (Nihon shoki, Empresses Kôgyoku and Jitô XII),all names indicating that he or she was the descendant of the sun. As indicatedby the following examples as well, the emperor's rule was frequently describedby means of metaphors involving light: "I humbly pray that your majesty respondreverently to the divine spirits of heaven and earth, promulgating broadly theimperial mandate, and thus casting light upon Japan. . ." (Emperor Buretsu, in Nihon shokiXIII);"I beg you ministers to have him rise quickly and assume the imperial dignity,and illuminate the land" (Emperor Kinmei, in Nihon shokiXIV); "may youperpetuate the imperial succession, and shed light on the manifold subjects ofthe realms" (Emperor Jomei, in NihonshokiXV).
On the other hand, a period of funerary mourningwas called "complete darkness" (ryôan), and when Shôtoku Taishi died, people said that "the sun and moonhave lost their brilliance, and heaven and earth have fallen" (Emperor Suiko inNihon shokiXVI). In sum,within the mythos of the Kojiki and Nihongi, kingship and the light of sunwere viewed as equivalents.
But there is also much evidence that sun deitiesother than Amaterasu were worshiped. In the section of the Engishikiknown as the "directory of names of kami" (Jinmyôchô), shrines with names like"Amateru-mitama Jinja" and dedicated to a variety of sun-deity were foundthroughout the capital region. Some commentators also hold the view that at thestage before Amaterasu became the imperial ancestral deity, the male solardeity Takamimusubi had that role, but that for a variety of reasons, he passedthat status to the goddess Amaterasu.
Much research has already been done on thereasons for the substituion of a female solar goddess for male solar deity inthe supreme position of imperial ancestral deity, and there should be no needto repeat a discussion of that research here.14 The focus of thispaper is on analyzing what kind of ideological message the Kojiki and Nihongiimpressed on Amaterasu, and it is from that perspective that I have beenconsidering the attribution to Amaterasu of such traits as imperial ancestraldeity, virgin mother, rice and silkworms, as well as her characteristics as asolar deity. Now, however, the issue I want to consider in a somewhatsupplementary way is one which has not been previously debated, namely, if thesolar deity changed in status from a male deity to a female goddess, was anyresistance expressed to that change?
Ethnological studies of the myth of Amaterasu'shiding away in the Rock Cave of Heaven have frequently taken the form of a comparisonwith other similar myths of the disappearance and reappearance of the sun, andsuch research has confirmed the existence of such myths around the Pacific-rimregion. Among those, the myths originating in the agricultural cultures ofCambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of South Asia are viewed asbelonging to the same mythic lineage as the Japanese tale of the rock cave.15But in many of these other mythic examples, the sun is viewed either as a mereheavenly body, or else deified, but not clearly identified as male or female.Many ethnic groups possess no unified perspective regarding the issue ofwhether the sun is a deity or not, of whether it is a male deity or female, orelse they express no apparent interest in the issue itself, and it is difficultto make an accurate assessment of the distribution of female solar deities, butas shown by the following examples, the concept of a female solar deity can atleast be recognized extending from northeast Asia into Siberia.16And it would seem difficult to believe that the ancient Japanese likewisepossessed a firm attitude of limiting the solar deity to a male alone and of rejectingthe concept of a solar goddess:
(1)Among the Ainu, with the exception of the great male deity of heaven, the sungoddess is the only one of the heavenly deities who is offered worship. All theother deities are merely figures appearing in the mythos.
(2)Most Turkish ethnic groups consider the sun to be a goddess (the mother sun),and the moon to be male (father moon, or the moon uncle).
(3)Among the Yukagir of northeastern Siberia, the sun is rather vaguelypersonalized and offered prayers as "mother sun." She is considered to abhorevil and deliver punishment.
(4)The Samoyed people along the Yenisei river region call the sun the "mother ofthe world," and they state that the sun was born from the right eye of thecreater god Num.
(5)The Cheremis of northern Europe and Russia know of a sun goddess which theycall "mother sun."
Examples such as these demonstrate thesun perceived as a female, a "mother," although the trait of motherhood shouldprobably not be overemphasized, since the use of kinship terms to expressrespect for heavenly bodies superior to and longer-lived than humans is a characteristicof many socieites. But even so, when a strong need existed to make the sundeity a female as the result of reasons like those I have adduced, it appearsthat a supreme sun goddess could be accepted without a great deal ofresistance.
10. Conclusion: Amaterasu and Athena
In conclusion, I want to compare the imperialancestral deity Amaterasu with Athena, tutelary deity of the ancient city-stateof Athens, and consider the significance of the following shared traits:
(1) Just as Amaterasu was produced from her fatherIzanagi, Athena was produced from the forehead of her father Zeus. (Apollodorus1.3.6). With respect to this point, the drama Eumenides (The Furies) bythe Greek poet Aeschylus portrays Athena describing herself in the words, "Notso much as nursed in the darkness of the womb" (line 665) and "Mother have Inone that gave me birth, and in all things, save wedlock, I am for the malewith all my soul, and am entirely on the father's side" (lines 735-7).XVII
(2) By exchanging "essences" (monozane) as part of her pledge withSusanoo, Amaterasu became a mother while remaining a virgin untouched by directsexual contact. In the same way, Athena remained a virgin while giving birth toa future king: filled with lust, Hephaestus attempted to violate Athena, but hisadvances were rebuked, and his seminal fluid fell upon the goddess's leg. Thegoddess was enraged and wiped up the fallen sem*n with a piece of sheep's wool,throwing it upon the ground. The earth thus became pregnant and produced themale child who was raised by Athena as her own. When he became an adult,Erichthonius became king of Athens (Apollodorus 3.14.6).
(3) Athena became the tutelary deity of thecity-state of Athens --- which came to bear her name --- as the result of a contest:originally, the gods themselves chose the cities from which they would receiveworship, but Poseidon and Athena argued over Athens. The two deities presentedgifts to the city as a means of deciding the issue of which of the two wouldreceive worship from Athens. The sea god Poseidon made a spring of salt waterappear, while Athena presented an olive tree, so the city became Athena's andtook on her name (Apollodorus 3.14.1).
Athena thus became known to the Greeks as thebenefactor who had provided the olive, an important foodstuff, another way inwhich she corresponds to Amaterasu, who was responsible for furnishing rice tothe world through Ho no Ninigi. Further, the antagonists of the respectivegoddesses in their competition for chief deity were Poseidon and Susanoo, godswho shared numerous traits in common, including their identity as deities ofthe sea, characteristics as fearsome destroyers, and their connections tohorses and the underworld.17 As part of the process whereby the twovirgin goddesses establish order, the two myths deliberately describe thegoddesses juxtaposed against male deities who possess traits of disorderlinessand chaos. And insofar as salt water and storms are natural elements harmful toolives and rice, it is to be expected that the two males resemble each other intheir depiction as gods in conflict with the goddesses.
(4) Athena is described as the goddess whotaught weaving to women, and she is depicted as weaving herself,18 atrait she also holds in common with Amaterasu.
Just as the myths of the Kojiki and Nihongisituate Amaterasu as imperial ancestral deity, the myth of Athens depictsAthena as the tutelary goddess of the city-state and the ancestral deity of itsmale citizens. Both myths form integrated systems designed to legitimate lineage,ruling relationships, and relations between men and women. These myths thus notonly provide the basis for political arrangements, but also for the superiorplace of men in male-female relations. If that common social purpose were notpresent with the political, it is unlikely that the two myths would show such astriking degree of congruity. It was groups of men seeking power who wereresponsible for using de-feminization to produce the "ideal type" representedby the virgin goddess. That virgin goddess, in turn, became a symbol ofabsolute transcendence mutually contradictory to --- and thus estranged from --- realwomanhood, existing at the core of a mythic system created by males, andserving to legitimate their aims.
Notes
1.I have borrowed this expression from the eulogy to Mary in the Paschale Carmen by the fifth-centuryChristian poet Caelius Sedulius: "She differed from the first mother of us all,and from all mothers thereafter. She, alone among women, was pleasing to theLord" (Nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem: Sola sine exemploplacuisti femina Christo), PaschaleCarmen II, 68-69.
2.Some works providing a general introduction to ethnological research on Japanesemyth, and the academic appraisal of those interpretations include Ôbayash*taryô, "Matsumura shinwagaku no tenkai" [The development of Matsumura's theory of myth],Bungaku, 39 (November, 1981); Ushijima Iwao, "Matsumoto Nobuhiro, Mishina Shôei, Oka Masao niokeru Nihon shinwa kenkyû" [The study of Japanesemyth by Matsumoto Nobuhiro, Mishina Shôei, and Oka Masao]; Nakamura Setsu, "Sengo ni okeru Nihon shinwa kenkyû no dôkô [Trends in the postwar study of Japanesemyth]; and Ôbayashi Taryô, "Kaisetsu" [Commentary]; thepreceding three works are found in Kokubungaku,kaishaku to kanshô: 460, Nihon shinwano sekai, (Shibundô, January, 1972);Takagi Toshio, ZôhoNihon shinwa densetsu no kenkyû No. 1 [Research on Japanesemyth and legend, revised edition, No. 1], Ôbayashi Taryô, ed, Tôyô bunko 241 (Heibonsha, 1973); Ueshima Keiji, "Matsumura Takeo-ron" [On Matsumura Takeo] Kikan Yanagita Kunio kenkyû No. 8 (April, 1975);Tamura Katsumi, "`Nihon shinwa no kigen'shi", Nihonshinwa bunken shiryô , Gekkan gengo 5:1 (1976); Ôbayash*taryô, "Nihon minzoku kigen-ron to Oka Masao gakusetsu" [The debate over theorigin of the Japanese people, and the theories of Oka Masao], in Oka Masao, Ijin sono-ta (Gensôsha, 1979); Kônoshi Takamitsu, "Nihon shinwa kenkyû bunken annai" [An introduction toresearch on Japanese myth], in Inaoka Kôji, ed., Nihon shinwa hikkei [Essential manual of Japanese myth], Bekkan Kokubungaku No. 16 (Gakutôsha, October, 1982).
3.Examples of the results of structural analysis of would include Ôbayashi Taryô,Nihon shinwa no kôzô [The structure of Japanese myth] (Kôbundô, 1979); Kitazawa Masakuni, Ten to umikara no shishin [Missives from the skyand sea] (Asahi Shuppansha, 1981), Ôbayash*taryô, Higashi Ajia no ôken shinwa [East Asian myths ofkingship] (Kôbundô, 1984); Yoshida Atsuhiko, Nihon shinwa no tokushoku [Features of Japanese myth] (Seidosha, 1985); Macé François, Kojiki shinwa no kôzô [The structure of mythin the Kojiki] (Chûô Kôronsha, 1986). For moredetails, see my "Nihon shinwa: kôzô to shinsô" [Japanese myth:structure and deep structure], Yûzankaku Shuppan,, ed., Kodaishikenkyû no saizensen [The latest researchin ancient history] Dai-san Bunka-hen [1] (Yûzankaku, 1987).
4.In writing this paper, I availed myself of viewpoints from the following works:(1) With regard to the concept of the virgin mother goddess and the comparisonof Amaterasu and Athena, see "Shojo boshin no shin(wa)gaku" [The myth(e)ology of the virgin mother], WakimotoTsuneya and Yanagawa Keiichi, eds., Gendaishûkyôgaku 4: Ken'i no kôzô to hakai (Tôkyô Daigaku Shuppankai, 1992); (2) with regard to the way in which thelinkage of rice cultivation and kingship demands a supreme goddess, see"Amaterasu ômikami to ôken" [Amaterasu ômikami andkingship], Bekkan rekishi dokuhon: Tennôto Nihon o kigen kara kangaeru (Shin-Jinbutsu Ôraisha, 1993); (3) with regard to sericulture myths andAmaterasu, see "Kodai to kataru" [Ancient tales]387-392, Sankei shinbun , Nara Edition, (October-November, 1993).
5.With regard to the feminist analysis of myth, I have benefited much from thefollowing works: Peggy Reeves Sanday, FemalePower and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1981); Nicole Loraux, Lesenfants d'Athéna (Editions La Decouverte, 1984); Edouin Aadonaa et al.(Yamazaki Kaoru, trans.), Otoko ga bunka de, onna wa shizenka? [Are men culture andwomen nature?] (Shôbunsha, 1987) [This volumeis a compilation of essays translated into Japanese, mostly dealing withfeminism and nature; the volume's title is taken from the included essay,"Homme-Culture et Femme-Nature?" by Nicole-Claude Mathieu, originally publishedin L'Homme 13:3 (1973)]; Eva C.Keuls, (Nakatsukasa Tetsuro, et al., trans.), Fuarosu no ôkoku (Iwanami Shoten, 1989) [originally published as Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens (Harper& Row, 1985)].
6.Mishina Shôei, Kodai saisei to kokureishinkô [Ancient ritual stateand religion of the grain-spirit], MishinaShôei Ronbun-shû , v. 3 (Heibonsha, 1973); Ayabe Tsuneo, "Tai no kokuborei to sono girei" [The Thaimother-spirit of the grain, and its rituals], in Niiname Kenkyûkai, ed., Niinameno kenkyû 2: Ine to saigi (Gakuseisha, 1978).
7.Yanagita Kunio, Tôno monogatari [Tales of Tono].Teihon Yanagita Kunio-shû [The collected worksof Yanagita Kunio, standard edition], vol. 4 (Chikuma Shobô, 1968); Sasaki Kizen, Kikimimi sôshi [The listening earstory book] (Chikuma Shobô, 1964).
8.See story no. 350 "Uma no koi" [The horse lover], infascicle 14 of Gan Pao, Sôshinki (trans, Takeda Akira). Tôyô bunko 10 (Heibonsha, 1964). Also see KonnoEnsuke, Bajôkon'in-dan [The tale of the girlwho married the horse] (Iwasaki Bijutsusha, 1956); Itô Seiji, Nihon shinwato Chûgoku shinwa [Myths of Japan andChina] (Gakuseisha, 1979).
9.Nelly Naumann, (Hieda Yôichirô and Tajiri Mariko, trans), "Sakahagi: Ama no buchikoma o sakasa ni hagukoto," in Nagekiisachiru kami: Susanoo [The wailing deitySusanoo] (Gensôsha, 1989) [ originally published as"Sakahagi: The `Reverse Flaying' of the Heavenly Piebald Colt," Asian Folklore Studies XLI (1982)].
10.Itô Seiji, Nihon shinwa to Chûgoku shinwa,104.
11.Polychrome tomb wall illustrations depicting a horse and mulberry tree can beseen in the collection of Tenri Library. They are reproduced in Naumann, Nagekiisachiru kami: Susanoo, Figure13-b on page 124.
12.Ichinen (Kim Shiyu, trans.), Kan'yakuSankoku iji (Rokkô Shuppan, 1980).
13.Amino Yoshihiko, Nihonno rekishi o yominaosu [Re-reading Japanesehistory] (Chikuma Shobô, 1991), particularly chapter 2, "Kahei to shôgyô,Kin'yû"[Currency, industry,and finance].
14.With regard to the shift from a male to female solar deity, see Okada Seiji, Kodai ôken nosaishi to shinwa(Hanawa Shobô, 1970), Matsumae Takeshi, Nihon shinwa to kodai seikatsu[Japanese myths andeveryday life in ancient times] (Yûseidô, 1970); MishinaShôei, Kenkoku shinwa no shom*ondai[Issues regarding the Japanesenation-founding myths]. Mishina Shôei Ronbun-shû,v. 2 (Heibonsha, 1971); Matsumae Takeshi, Kodai denshô to kyûtei saishi [Ancient legends andcourt rituals] (Hanawa Shobô, 1974); and Okada Seiji, Kodai saishi no sh*teki kenkyû [Historical researchin ancient rituals] (Hanawa Shobô, 1972).
15.Regarding the Pacific-rim distribution of myths depicting the disappearance andreappearance of the sun, see Matsumoto Nobuhiro, "Warai no saigi to shinwa" [Laughing rituals and myth], Nihon shinwa no kenkyû (Heibonsha, 1971); Ishida Eiichirô,"Kakusareta taiyô: Taiheiyô o meguru Ama no Iwado shinwa" [The hidden sun: mythsof the rock cave of heaven in the Pacific region] Ishida Eiichirô zenshû 6: Momotaro no haha (Chikuma Shobô, 1971);and Ôbayashi Taryô, Nihon shinwa no kigen [The origin of Japanese mythos] (TokumaBunko, 1990).
16.Pierre Lévêque, Colère, sexe, rire: leJapon des mythes anciens (Les Belles Lettres), p.66-67.
17.Kobayashi Taichirô, "Poseidon to Susanoo no mikoto: hikakushinwagaku no ichi-hôhô no kokoromi" [Poseidon and Susanoono mikoto: toward a comparative mythology], in Itô Seiji and Ôbayashi Taryô,eds., Nihon shinwa kenkyû 2: Kuniumishinwa, Takamahara shinwa (Gakuseisha, 1977).
18.See Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (No. 5,lines 14-15); Odyssey 7.110; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1-140; Iliad 14.178. The story of the weavingcompetition between Athena and Arachne, is transmitted by the Roman poet Ovid,who lived from the first century B.C.E to the first century C.E., but the mythwas known already in the sixth century B.C.E., based on evidence from urns unearthedin Corinth. See E. J. W. Barder, PrehistoricTextiles (Princeton University Press, 1991), Fig. 3.24, p.106.
Translator's Notes
I. Originally published as "`Josei no nakade tada hitori': Amaterasu shingaku seisei no hikaku shinwagaku-teki kôsatsu" in Kojiki Gakkai, ed., Kojiki nosekai: v. 1. Kojiki kenkyû taikei, v. 11. Tokyo. Takashina Shoten, 1996.
II.Adapted from W.G. Aston, Nihongi:Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 (London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin, Ltd., 1896, 1956), I:21.
III.Adapted from Aston, I:32-33.
IV."Land of plentiful reed plains and of thousand-autumn, long-five-hundred-autumnluxuriant rice ears" and "fifteen-hundred-autumn luxuriant rice-ear land." SeeDonald L. Philippi, Kojiki (Tokyo:University of Tokyo Press, 1968), 120, and Aston, I:77.
V.Referring to the mythic episode called kuniyuzuri,the turning over of control of the land of Japan to the first Yamato clanemperors. See Aston, I:80.
VI.The three deities were produced when Sakuyabime set fire to her partuition hut;as a result, it is typically thought that the ho of the names meant "fire." SeePhilippi, Kojiki, 144-147.
VII.See Aston, I:83.
VIII.See Aston, I:86.
IX.See Aston, I:90-91.
X.See Aston, I:45.
XI.The oshirasama is a folk-religiousimplement made from a wood stick about 30 cm. long, usually carved with a humanor horse's face at one end, covered in layers of cloths, and frequently usedwithin shamanistic rites.
XII.Found in episodes relating events of the 14th day of the 12th month of the 1styear of Empress Kôgyoku, and the 11th day of the 11th month of the second yearof Empress Jitô. --- Author.
XIII.Cf. Aston, I:404.
XIV.Cf. Aston, II: 37.
XV.Cf. Aston, II: 164.
XVI.Cf. Aston, II: 148.
XVII.Hugh Lloyd-Jones, ed., Herbert Weir Smith, trans., Aeschylus v. 2 (Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, Eumenides, Fragments).The Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press), 335-337, 343-345. Thespeaker of the first lines is Apollo, describing Athena.
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