Hello! How are you, everybody? It is the blog How Unique Japan!
On this page, I would like to write about a unique Japanese religion, Shinto.
You might think Oh? Their religion should be Buddhism.
Yes, that is correct, but it belongs to one of the Japanese religions.
Before the religion came from India and China, Shinto was the local religion in Japan.
So, Buddhism is occasionally not original in Japan.
Therefore, Shinto precisely explains our Japanese character/habits well.
No founder, No scriptures, How?
The feature of the religion is that it has no founder, not even scriptures (that is why I thought the Shinto is more of an acknowledgment perspective than a religion) because the Shinto religion is from nature worship.
Thus, the main subject of the religion is polytheism.
Please come to think about the environment of nature. Plenty of objects are around us. It is, for example, rivers, mountains, and stones (rocks).
How many gods would there be, according to ancient Japanese thought? It would be a good example. They assumed just one grain of the rise would have a god.
So, the ancient Japanese believed each object had its soul/spirit, called it Yaoyorozu.
That means Eight million gods (which means uncountable). It is serious. If we count all Gods from any legend/fairy tale in Japan, we shall give it up due to the amount. COUNTLESS.
Why did the ancient Japanese believe this way?
It is where the perspective of nature worship comes in. The country has changeful and beautiful seasons. However, nature never shows only a good face. You may know Japan has many kinds of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and sometimes droughts.
So, nature worship (with respect and fear) is knowing how to keep good relationships with them (nature objects/phenomenon).
The first part of the Shinto story (Birth of Japan)
Before starting the story, we shall ensure again that there are uncountable gods around Japan they (ancient Japanese) believed.
Due to this perspective, some gods are violent and brutal. It is like a villain (named Aragami). However, they worked together to create the country Japan and us.
So, how did they work?
Firstly (once upon a time), three main gods had a great power to create anything living in heaven, Takamagahara (High ground in straight translation).
Strangely, they disappeared after they gave birth to many gods.
Around them, Izanami (a female god) and Izanagi (a male god) were there, getting orders from other gods to create a land with a magical tool/weapon formed into a spear, Amenonuboko. (Bo(ho)ko means a spear.)
They willingly accepted the order, standing up a bridge between the islands of Takamagahara where they could look down at the world.
Then, they stabbed the spear into the sea and stirred.
When they pulled it out, a drip fell from the spear. That became the first island of Japan, Onogoro-tou(island).
Surprisingly, the island exists in Japanese sea territory.
It is a worthy story to televise everyone how the gods created Japan at that time (ancient).
But the religious story is not over yet. There are also some dark sides.
After Izanami and Izanagi created the Islands of Japan, they also gave birth to many gods. Each one (God) ruled/idolized stone, land, sea, wind, mountain, etc. So, their family was becoming rich.
However, one God they made caused trouble. He accidentally killed his mum, Izanami with his power because his power was FIRE.
His name is Kagutsuchi (one of the Aragami).
He could not control his power while his mum, Izanami, was trying to give birth. Sadly, she died from burns.
The dark story then began. The father, Izanagi got so angry at him. Then, he cut his head off with his sword!! That was terrifying.
Please hold on.
The story still doesn’t end.
Yes. Izanagi killed his son. After the incident, the blood scattered on rocks and stones.
Surprisingly, there were even some gods born from those objects (that got blood).
They are Iwasakuno-kami (a female god) and Nesaku-kami (a male god).
In the Shinto story, the pair of gods power the human activity concerned with our evolution. It is BLACKSMITH.
Thus, the previous Japanese idolized Iwasakuno-kami and Nesaku-kami with any agricultural tool or weapons because they were from the blacksmith.
The death of the fire god is concerned with the blacksmith god. It sounds deep.
So, from those stories, you might understand how ancient Japanese respected (and feared) every natural phenomenon and product from that. It also leads to the idea that every incident from nature could get deified.
The second part (increasing in population)
The Shinto story still lasts. The second part is about how the human (Japanese) population got large.
After Izanagi slashed his son’s neck, he deserved to get Izanami back from the country where dead people belonged. That is Yomi.
So, he followed her over the board between the society of the dead (Yomi) and the living world.
He did it. He managed to enter the country belonging to the dead, Yomi, and met her in darkness (no light, he could see nothing. It will be essential later). It was a romantic reunion.
However, his wife said she can’t get back to the living world because she ate the food from Yomi, which means she is already on the side of the dead world.
Izanagi did not accept it and persuaded her to come back. Then, she replied that she would need to talk with the god ruling Yomi for permission to leave. But she added one prohibition. It was “Do not see the meeting.”
Before we go to the last section, please remember. Izanagi and Izanami met in the darkness, and she needed to talk with the god of the Yomi world. That negotiation would be tough.
Izanami and Yomi god started the meeting that took so long due to its hardness.
He waited. It took him feeling years.
Then, He finally did it. He took a peek at the meeting.
That was a shock.
Izanami looked like a monster (zombie). Some maggots were crawling around her body, and her skin was grey.
Izanagi reflexively turned his feet and started to run. It was the wrong decision. She noticed his escape and thought it was a betrayal.
So, she got furious and chased him afterward.
That runway was chaotic. Many dead/monsters were trying to stop Izanagi, and even Izanami almost grabbed him.
However, he was barely back to the border between the two worlds, but she was just behind him.
He called/summoned a thousand people to block the border with a huge rock.
That was a close call.
They sealed the way to the Yomi. She screamed, How dear you! How dear you!! I am going to kill the thousand to pay back each day!
He responded.
Fair enough! I will give birth to a thousand and five hundred people each day!
It is the second part of the Shinto story about the increasing population in Japan.
It makes no sense? Please. It is just a legend/fairy tale.
The close and what is more?
It is a few parts of the Shintoism story. I apologize that this article became long. There are also some side stories and fairy tales from almost every god.
Indeed. It is countless!
If you are still interested in another Japanese culture, why don’t visit the front page of my blog? So, it has many different and varied topics. They are about food, activity and antient spots – for example, Sumo Westling. Please try it!
It is all for this time! Thank you so much for reading this article!
SEE YOU FOR THE NEXT UNIQUENESS IN JAPAN!