Japan - a country that is full of mysteries.For many years it has been isolated from the outside world, and this isolation has created a unique culture.A striking example - rich Japanese mythology.
Religion Japan
Despite the long centuries of isolation from European and other countries, Nippon (the Japanese call their homeland) surprising variety of religious teachings.Among them is dominated by Shinto, which professes more than 80% of the population.The second place in importance is Buddhism, which came to Japan from neighboring China.There are in the country and representatives of Confucianism, Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Islam.
Feature religion Nippon - syncretism, when the overwhelming majority of residents profess several religions.This is considered normal practice and is a fine example of tolerance and tolerance of the Japanese.
Shinto - the way of the gods
rich Japanese mythology has its roots in Shintoism - the main religion of Japan.It is based on the deification of natural phenomena.The ancient Japanese believed that any object has a spiritual essence.Therefore Shinto - the worship various deities and spirits of the dead.This religion includes totemism, magic, the belief in the miraculous power of amulets, talismans and rituals.
greatly influenced by Buddhism, Shintoism had.This principle is shown in the main religion of Japan - to live in harmony and unity with the world.According to the beliefs of the Japanese, the world - is the environment in which people coexist with the spirits and deities.
Shinto feature is that there are no strict boundaries between concepts such as good and evil.The rating action is what sets the target people.If he respects older, it maintains friendly relations with others, capable of compassion and care, he is a good man.Evil is in the understanding of Japanese - it is selfishness, hatred, intolerance, violation of social order.Since Shinto is no absolute good and evil, is able to distinguish them only the man himself.To do this, he must live well in harmony with the environment, purifying the body and mind.
Japanese mythology: gods and heroes
Nippon has a large pantheon of deities.As in other religions, they have ancient origins and myths about them are connected with the creation of heaven and earth, the sun, the human and other living beings.
Japanese mythology, the gods whose names are very long, describes the events that took place since the creation of the world and the era of the deities to the period of the beginning of the reign of their descendants - emperors.At the same time frame of the events are not listed.
first myths, as usual, talk about the creation of the world.First, everything in chaos, which at one time was divided into Takama-hara but Akitsusima and islands.Began to appear other deities.Then came the divine pair, consisting of brothers and sisters, embodying any of the phenomena of nature.
most important ones for the ancient Japanese were Izanagi and Izanami.This divine couple from marriage where there were a lot of new islands and Kami (divine beings).Japanese mythology on the example of these two gods shows very clearly Shinto idea of death and life.Izanami became ill and died after the birth to the god of fire.After his death she went to the land of darkness Yomi (the Japanese version of the underworld), from which there is no turning back.But Izanagi could not come to terms with her death and his wife went to get her back to the upper world of the living.Found her in a terrible state, he fled the country darkness, and it blocked the entrance.Izanami was furious from the act who had abandoned her husband and promised that the day will take the lives of thousands of people.Myth says that all mortal, and the gods are no exception.Therefore pointless to try to recover the dead.
following tales tell of how returned from Yomi Izanagi washed away the filth of the whole country visit the Darkness.From clothes, jewelry and drops of water flowing from the body of God, were born new kami.Chief among them and most revered Japanese - Amaterasu, the sun goddess.
Japanese mythology could not do without the stories of the great heroes of the number of people.One of them - the legendary Kintaro.He was the son of a samurai and a child possessed unprecedented power.His mother gave him an ax, and he helped the loggers cut down trees.Amused himself broke the rocks.Kintaro was kind and made friends with the animals and birds.He learned how to talk to them in their language.Once one of the vassals of Prince Sakata saw the Kintaro one stroke of the ax felled tree and invited him to serve with his master.The boy's mother was very happy, because it was the only way to become a samurai.The first fight of the hero in the service of the prince was to destroy the monster-cannibal.
Myth of the Fisherman and the tortoise
Another interesting character myths of Japan - young fisherman Urashima Taro.Once he saved a turtle, which proved to be the daughter of the ruler of the seas.In gratitude, the young man was invited to the underwater palace.A few days later he wanted to go home.In parting, the princess gave him a box and asked never to open it.On land the fisherman learned that 700 years have passed and, shaken, opened the box.To break out of her smoke instantly grow old Urashima Thoreau, and he died.
Legend of Momotaro Momotaro
or Peach boy - a famous hero of traditional Japanese myths that tell the story of its emergence from a huge peach and freeing them from the demons of the island Onigasima.
Unusual characters
many interesting and unusual fraught Japanese mythology.Being played a big role in it.These include bakemono and yokai.Broadly speaking, the so-called monsters and ghosts.This is a live and supernatural creatures that can temporarily change their shape.Usually these creatures, or pretend to be men, or take a terrible appearance.For example, noppera-bō - faceless monster.During the day he appears in human form, but at night you can see that instead of his face purple ball.
Animals Japanese mythology also possess supernatural powers.They are a kind of youkai and bakemono: raccoon dogs (tanuki), badgers (mujina).
Tanuki - animals, bringing luck and prosperity.They are big fans of sake, and deprived of their way of negative connotation.Mujina - typical werewolf and a deceiver of people.
But the most famous fox in Japanese mythology, or kitsune.They have magical powers and wisdom, can be converted in seductive women, and in men.Great influence on the image of the kitsune had Chinese beliefs, where the fox is negotiable.Their main feature - the presence of nine tails.This creature gets fur silver or white and gives unprecedented insight.Species kitsune lot and there among them not only the insidious and evil, but good fox.
dragon in Japanese mythology is also not uncommon, and it can also be attributed to supernatural beings.He - one of the main characters of Eastern religion in countries such as Japan, China and Korea.In appearance, easy to determine where a particular dragon.For example, the Japanese three toes on their paws.
Vosmigolovy Yamata no Orochi - one of the most famous Shinto.He's got tremendous power of the demons.Each of his head symbolized the evil betrayal, hatred, envy, greed and destruction.God Susanoo, exiled from the heavenly fields, able to defeat the terrible dragon.
Japanese mythology: the demons and spirits
At the heart of Shinto is the belief in the deification of natural phenomena and the fact that any object has an entity.Therefore, monsters and spirits in Japanese mythology is particularly varied and numerous.
Residents of Japan is very confusing terminology with regard to supernatural beings.They use the name and obake yokai.They can be animals, change their appearance or spirits that were once human beings.
yūrei - the ghost of the dead man.This is a classic kind of perfume.Their feature - no legs.On notions of Japanese yūrei is not tied to a particular place.Most of all they love abandoned houses and temples, where waiting for travelers.If youkai can be kind to the man, the ghost - scary characters of myths and fairy tales.
Perfume - this is not all, what may surprise Japanese mythology.Demons - another kind of supernatural beings that play a big role in it.They called them.This great horned and fanged humanoid creature with red skin, black or blue.Armed with an iron mace with spikes, very dangerous.They are hard to kill - the severed body parts grow back immediately.They are cannibals.
Characters Japanese mythology in art
first written monuments in the country of the rising sun is a collection of myths.Folklore of Japan - is a huge storehouse of scary tales about yūrei, youkai, demons and other characters.Bunraku puppet theater, often uses in his performances of traditional myths and legends.
Nowadays characters Japanese mythology and folklore have become popular again thanks to cinema and anime.
sources explore the mythology of Japan
The largest and most well-known are the cycles of myths and legends "Nihongi" and "Kojiki".They were drawn up almost simultaneously, in the XVIII century, at the behest of the rulers of the genus Yamato.Part of the myth can be found in ancient Japanese poetry and religious hymns norito.
