The founding myths of a civilization reflect the cultural and political morals of a civilization. Japan’s mythic tradition in Shintoism is a striking example of this. The Shinto creation myth presents a Japanocentric cosmos, the divine heritage of all Japanese, and the especial divine lineage that Japanese emperors inherited from Amaterasu. This explains how such a small nation can play profound leadership rolls throughout history.
Though Shinto traditions are very ancient, they were not formalized until 700 CE. This formalization of the myth established very early in Shintoism the political and national grandeur within the Shinto religion. The earliest historical texts in Japanese are the Kojiki or “Record of Ancient things” and the Nihon Shoki or “Chronicles of Japan.” These were commissioned by the emperor of the day Emperor Temmu. We will never know with what verisimilitude these texts reflect the original myths, but as produced in this era both records are rhetorically constructed to defend the dynastic succession of the Emperial line. Evocative of Homeric hero stories, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki tell the story of the gods Izanagi and Izanami who create the Islands of Japan and procreate to produce many gods. Preeminent among them are the beautiful Amaterasu or sun goddess and Susano-o or the storm/sea god. Amaterasu is benevolent and kind, but Susano-o is reckless. He is banished by his father, but disobeys him. He seeks out Amaterasu, his sister, and they have several children together.
The descendants of Amaterasu and Susano-o compose the inhabitants of the Japanese Islands. After propagating a line with Amaterasu, Susano-o torments her ruthlessly. Eventually they separate and each begin a new line. Susano-o conceives a son named Okuninushi, who opposes his father’s wildness and tames Japan. He crusades against many monsters and is redeemed from various treacherous machinations against him, including being killed many times by his father Susano-o, only to be restored to life by various allies. Okuninushi’s descendants unite and ask of Amaterasu the right to be ruled, and for all of Japan to be ruled, by her descendants. Thus was installed the first Emperor of Japan, Amaterasu’s great-great grandson Jimmu, from whom Japanese Emperors traced their lineage for millennia.
Several implications of this myth are informative as one interprets the character of Japanese civilization and its history. One is the grand centrality of Japan with the myth. The primeval, supreme, gods in Takamagahara, or the Plain of High Heaven, are solely interested in the creation of Japan. All other aspects of the cosmos are secondary actions that in some instances happen by accident in an almost Darwinian descent. Izanagi and Izanami were not attempting to give birth to the sun or storm gods, they simply procreated and their coitus resulted in these gods. So it was with the stars and the moon. This supernatural naturalism is pervasive throughout this origin story. The character, capacities, and lineage of the Japanese is indistinguishable from that of the gods. Basically Shintoism maintains that all Japanese are demigods, and that the dynastic succession of the emperors was a primeval act of political installation that remains perpetually in force. One can see that such a mythology would instill a sense of national pride and leadership in the Japanese. That Shintoism has survived without significant schism or splintering to this day as a thriving religion, in spite of the fact that it has no application outside of Japan, testifies to the Japanocentrism of this myth, as well as the powerful force it has always had and continues to have upon Japanese culture.
Also reflective of the Japanese character is the strange utilitarian morality within Shinto mythology. Through the person of Susano-o especially, but throughout the Shinto pantheon, brutal acts of cruelty are presented. The episodes in which Susano-o torments Amaterasu are frightening and queer. He covers the walls of her palace with his excrement, destroys the damming ridges between her rice paddies, and tosses a flayed pony through the thatched roof of her weaving shed. As stated previously, however, this cruelty was not limited to the exploits of Susano-o. In one of the many episodes in which Okuninushi died, his brothers split open the trunk of a tree, placed a wedge in it to hold it open, forced Okuninushi into the void created, and then removed the wedge. This crushed him to death. Soon after this event there follows the bizarre and cruel tale of a skinned rabbit who is tricked by Okuninushi’s brothers into bathing in saltwater and then drying out in the sun and wind. One might be tempted to see tribal violence and vitriol in such myths, similar to the terror passages in the Old Testament. Notably absent from this account, however, are the endless nuances of moral law and prohibitions of the Old Testament. The cruelty and unusual character of these episodes seem to serve two purposes. First, they establish the Susano-o line, Okuninushi excepted, as an undesirable ruling family. Second they compose a case for the finding of one’s own morality and purpose based on the utility of one’s actions. For example, Susano-o is not banished because he violated some specific injunction of his parents. He is banished when his wildness interfered with the orderly conduct of a thriving cosmos. When he violates this banishment, there is no tribunal or ritualistic consequence. His actions in violation of this banishment are tolerated until his prank with the flayed pony forces Amaterasu into her cave in self-imposed exile. Obviously the sun goddess serves a very important function and so the powerful were forced to intervene.
This of course simplifies the complexities of the question of the influence of Shinto mythology upon the development of the Japanese character. The influences of Buddhism, Confucianism, and eventually western empiricism were also extremely important in this development. The important point to be made here, however, is that the foundational myths of Shintoism established three Japanese characteristics that made the adoption of these influences in Japan unique among all nations. First was the concession that the order of Japanese society was a natural continuation of the order established at the foundation of the world and moral laws were to be assessed on their own merits, and not against an absolute moral code. Second was the installation of the Imperial Dynastic Succession. Third was the belief that Japan was the focus, the most important element, of the world and its people were the descendants of the gods, led by the preferred family of the gods.
Bibliography
Henshall, Kenneth. A History of Japan from Stone Age to Superpower. Third. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Sayre, Henry M. Discovering the Humanities. Second. New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2013.
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