The Jomon
Period
10,000-300 BCE
The Yayoi
Period
300 BCE-250 CE
Rice Cultivation
Rice Storage “Kura”
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Pit Dwelling
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The Kofun
Period
250-552 CE
Map of Various Kofun or “Tumuli”
Typical “Keyhole” Shape of the
Tumuli
Japanese Religion
Shinto & the State ~ Part I
 The ruling clan (uji)
of a particular region claimed descent from powerful deities (kami), which served as the “tutelary”
(protective) deity of the clan/region. When the first unified Japanese state was
established, the new “imperial” clan (Yamato) commissioned two
“official” histories that wove
together the myths of the various clans
that they had conquered. These two texts, the Kojiki and
the Nihongi (a.k.a. Nihonshoki)—both
written in the
8th century—provide the
first written records of Shinto mythology.
The
Birth of Japan
 Izanagi and Izanami
stood on the floating
bridge of Heaven and held counsel together, saying, “Is there not a
country beneath?” Thereupon they thrust down the jewel-spear of
Heaven and, groping about
therewith, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the
point
of the spear coagulated and became an island which received the name of
Ono-goro-jima. The two deities thereupon descended and dwelt in
this island. [Wm. Theodore de Bary, et al., Sources of Japanese
Tradition (SJT), Volume 1, Second
Edition (New York Columbia University Press, 2001), p. 14.]
Izanagi no Mikoto and
Izanami no Mikoto consulted
together saying, “We
have now produced the great-eight-island country, with the mountains,
rivers,
herbs, and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be
lord of the universe? They then together produced the Sun
Goddess,
who was called O-hiru-me no muchi [a.k.a. Amaterasu]....The resplendent
luster of this child shone throughout
all the six quarters. Therefore the two deities rejoiced saying,
“We have had many children, but none of them have been equal to this
wondrous
infant. She ought not to be kept long in this land, but we ought
of our own accord to send her at once to Heaven and entrust to her the
affairs of Heaven.” [SJT, 20-21]
.
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Susa-no
o
and the Great Sword
So, having been
expelled, Susa-no-o descended to a
place [called]
Torikami
at the head-waters of the River Hi in the land of Izumo. [Susa-no o
meets
an old male and an old female deity who are weeping because they’ve
lost
7 daughters to a serpent and now it’s about to take the 8th.  Susa-no
o leaves the serpent liquor so that it gets intoxicated.] Then
Susa-no
o drew the ten-grasp saber that was augustly girded on him and cut the
serpent in pieces, so that the River Hi flowed on changed into a river
of blood. So when he cut the middle tail, the edge of his august
sword broke. Then, thinking it strange, he thrust into and split
[the flesh] with the point of his august sword and looked, and there
was
a sharp great sword [within]. So he took this great sword, and
thinking
it a strange thing, he respectfully informed Amaterasu. This is the
Herb-quelling
Great Sword. [SJT, 25-7]
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The
Sacred
Mirror
After this Susa-no-o no
Mikoto’s behavior was exceedingly rude....Indignant of this, she
straightway entered the Rock-cave of Heaven and, having fastened the
Rock-door, dwelt there in seclusion. Therefore constant darkness
prevailed on all sides, and the alternation of night and day was
unknown.
Then the eighty myriad gods met on the bank of
the Tranquil River of Heaven and considered in what manner they should
supplicate her....Ame no Uzume no Mikoto, ancestress of the Sarume
chieftain, took in her hand a spear wreathed with Eulalia grass and,
standing before the door of the Rock-cave of Heaven, skillfully
performed a mimic dance. She took, moreover, the true Sakaki tree
of the Heavenly Mount of Kagu and made of it a head-dress; she took
club-moss and made of it braces; she kindled fires; she placed a tub
bottom upwards and gave forth a divinely inspired utterance.
Now Amaterasu heard this and said, “Since I
have shut myself up in the Rock-cave, there ought surely to be
continual night in the Central Land of fertile reed-plains. How
then can Ame no Uzume no Mikoto be so jolly?”
So with her august hand, she opened for a narrow space the Rock-door
and peeped out. Then Ta-jikara-o no kami forthwith took Amaterasu
by the hand and led her out. Upon this the gods Nakatomi no Kami
and Imibe no Kami at once drew a limit by means of a bottom-tied
rope...and begged her not to return again [into the cave]. [SJT, 24-25] |
Ninigi:
The August Grandchild
After “all
the
Central Land of Reed-Plains” had
been “tranquilized,” Amaterasu gave her grandson, Ninigi, the Three
Treasures
(a curved jewel, a mirror, and a sword) and sent him down to rule the
earth, saying: “This Reed-plain-1500-autumns-fair-rice-ear-Land
is the region which my descendants shall be lords of. Do thou, my
August Grandchild, proceed thither and govern it. Go! And may
prosperity attend they
dynasty, and may it, like Heaven and Earth, endure for ever.” [SJT, 28]
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According to
tradition, Ninigi’s Great Grandson,
Jimmu, went on to become the first “emperor” of Japan in 660
B.C.E. The present emperor of Japan is said to be a direct
descendant of this lineage, which is ultimately traced back to the kami
Amaterasu.
Additional
Resources
Craig,
Albert M. The Heritage of Japanese
Civilization.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2003.
•
Schirokauer, Conrad. A
Brief History of Japanese Civilization. Fort Worth, Texas:
Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
•
Morton, W. Scott. Japan: Its History and
Culture. Third Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
•
Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture. Third Edition.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.
•
Wm. Theodore de Bary, et al. Sources of Japanese Tradition.
Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
•
Links to “Great Japanese Websites”
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