JAPANESE CONCEPT OF LEGEND

The concept of legend is the Japanese Mythology story about the creation of Japan, Folklore, and
Japanese urban legend. The lives and beliefs of ancient people are revealed to us through myths, which
also give modern rites and ceremonies considerable meaning[1]. The Kojiki[2] contains the earliest
known written account of Japanese myths in the form of a manga so that students can access it using basic
Japanese.

Once Upon a time, the ancient gods gave the two gods Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto the task
of creating the land and fixing it in place back when the planet was still young and floating like oil [1].
The heavenly gods asked Izanami and Izanagi to descend to the earth to solidify the earth together.
Through the floating edge, which links heaven with the ground, the couples traveled to the earth by
dipping a jeweled spear into the filmy fog water and stirring[3]. They created an island where they
descended and constructed a great heavenly august pillar and a great place for their wedding. The two
agreed to meet on the other side of the pillar; each walking in the other direction (the male deity to the left
and the female deity to the right). When they met on the other side, Izanami made a mistake by spoking
first, therefore, their first-born child was weak and without bones[1]. Narrations suggest they went back
to heaven and then came back to earth and went around the pillar once more, this time Izanagi spoke first.
They gave birth to a lot of babies. Which arises the birth of 8 main Islands of Japan and 6 minor
Islands[4]. Then, they gave birth to a variety of deities to inhabit those islands including the sea deity, the
deity of the river, winds, trees, and mountains.

In the end, Izanami gave birth to the fire deity which burned her genitals causing her death, and in her
agony, more gods were born from her pain. Izanagi mourned after Izanami's death and from his tears,
another deity was born and angrily killed the fire deity who was responsible for Izanami`s death. From
the blood of his sword and the corpse of the slain, son arose several deities as well.

Longing for his deceased wife, Izanagi looked for her at the land of Yomi[2] asking her to return with him
to the land of the living. As it was too late to return she consumed all the food on the land, however, she
will the gods of the underworld for permission to leave. She informed Izanagi not to look at her, but
Izanagi was impatience and decided to look for her. He lights up a fire from the comb of his hair. He was
shocked to see his beautiful wife in a rotting corpse shape. Izanami was ashamed to be seen in this state,
so she chased him out of the underworld, sending 8 deities of thunder; which were born from her body
after him. As he reached a huge rock to close the passage of the underworld, she yelled in anger; “if you
behave in this way, I will strangle and kill 1000 men from your land in one day. Izanagi replied: “if you
do this, I will in one day set up 1500 parturitions houses”[5]
Izanagi returned home and bathed to clean himself from all the uncleanliness through a purification
ceremony by the river. While Izanagi was washing his left eye, Amaterasu-Omi kami (God of the sun)
was born, from his right eye Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto (God of the moon) was born, and from his nose,
Takehayasuusanoo-no-Mikoto (God of the sea) was born[6]. Amaterasu, whose name means “shining in
heaven” sent Japan's first ruler from heaven to Japan. So, the Emperors of Japan are considered divine
and direct descendants of Amaterasu. This forms the mythological story of Japan's creation.

REFERENCES

[1] “Japan Foundation, Sydney,” Creation of Japan: Myth.

https://jpf.org.au/classroom-resources/resources/creation-of-japan-myth/

[2] “The Kojiki: an account of ancient matters,” Choice Rev. Online, vol. 52, no. 09, pp. 52–4605–52–
4605, 2015, doi: 10.5860/choice.187802.

[3] M. Cartwright, “Izanami and Izanagi,” World History. [Online]. Available:

https://www.worldhistory.org/Izanami_and_Izanagi/

[4] F. Kobayashi, Japanese animal-wife tales: Narrating gender reality in Japanese folktale tradition,
vol. 9. 2015. doi: 10.3726/978-1-4539-1344-4.

[5] R. Borgen and M. Ury, “Readable Japanese Mythology: Selections from Nihon shoki and Kojiki,”
J. Assoc. Teach. Japanese, vol. 24, no. 1, p. 61, 1990, doi: 10.2307/489230.

[6] R. Harkins, “Language Humanities.org,” What is the Japanese Creation myth?

https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-japanese-creation-myth.htm