JM - Japanese Mythology Background Lesson

Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally-based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami  (Japanese for "gods" or "spirits").

Mainstream Japanese myths, as generally recognized today, are based on the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and some complementary books. The Kojiki, or "Record of Ancient Matters," is the oldest recognized account of Japan's legends and history. The Shintōshū  explains the origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective, while the Hotsuma Tsutae  records a substantially different version of mythology.

One notable result of Japanese mythology is that it explains the origin of the imperial family, and assigned them godhood. The Japanese word for the Emperor of Japan, tennō  ( 天皇 ), means "heavenly emperor".

Overview of Buddhism and Shinto

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha ( Pāli /Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.

Shinto ( 神道 Shintō) or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified "Shinto religion", but rather to disorganized folklore, history, and mythology. Shinto today is a term that applies to public shrines suited to various purposes such as war memorials, harvest festivals, romance, historical monuments, as well as various sectarian organizations.

The Japanese Creation Myth

At the beginning the universe was immersed in a beaten and shapeless kind of matter, sunk in silence. Later there were sounds indicating the movement of particles. With this movement, the light and the lightest particles rose but the particles were not as fast as the light and could not go higher. Thus, the light was at the top of the Universe, and below it, the particles formed first the clouds and then Heaven, which was to be called Takamagahara  ( 高天原, "High Plain of Heaven"). The rest of the particles that had not risen formed a huge mass, dense and dark, to be called Earth.

When Takamagahara was formed, the first three gods of Japanese mythology appeared:

• Amenominakanushi (Master of the August Centre of Heaven)
• Taka-mi-musuhi-no-kami (August Producer or High August Producing Wondrous Deity)
• Kami-musuhi-no-kami (Divine Producer or Divine Producing Wondrous Deity)

Subsequently two gods emerged in Takamagahara from an object similar to a reed-shoot:

• Umashi-ashi-kabi-hikoji-no-kami (Pleasant Reed-Shoot Prince Elder Deity)
• Ame-no-toko-tachi-no-kami (Heavenly Eternally Standing Deity)

These five deities known as Kotoamatsukami appeared spontaneously, did not have a definite gender, did not have a partner (hitorigami), and went into hiding after their emergence. These gods are not mentioned in the rest of the mythology.

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