Legends of Japan: ancient legends and modernity, interesting myths and fairy tales, the history of the country through the prism of legends

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Japan is an amazing, unique and still mysterious country, which seems to be on a small boat, far from the rest of the world. To many foreigners, the Japanese seem to be some kind of "freaks", which are sometimes really difficult to understand and correlate with their worldview. Nevertheless, interest in Japan is only growing, and its legends are gaining even more fame…

The legend of the dinosaur and the monster bird

Many legends of Japan can be seen thanks to the film adaptation. One such possibility is a film about a dinosaur and a bird, directed by Junji Kurata at Toei Studios in 1977.

Genre: kaiju eiga - monster movie.

Story. In the summer of 1977, fossilized eggs of ancient creatures - dinosaurs are found in the crevice of Mount Fuji. For millions of years they slept in a dead calm sleep, until natural disasters awakened them from their long hibernation. A series of terrible events followed: human deaths, decapitated horses, mass panic and,finally, a volcanic eruption.

"Legend of the Dinosaur" from Japan hit the screens of the Soviet Union in 1979 and was a surprising success with about 49 million views.

The Legend of Narayama

Like the example above, this title also belongs to a 1983 movie. Director and screenwriter Shohei Imamura set to work, based on the stories of Shichiro Fukazawa.

Genre: Drama.

Story. Famine reigns in a small primitive village - 19th century. Only the eldest sons are allowed to create families in the village, while the younger ones are used as workers. Girls are sold or exchanged for some things, such as s alt. Babies are sometimes killed, and a family that steals someone else's crops is buried alive.

The meaning of the legend of Narayama in Japan is that the village has a truly creepy custom. Elderly people who have reached the age of 70 should no longer get food, as they are considered "extra mouths". Therefore, the eldest son is obliged to take his father or mother on his shoulders and carry him to Mount Narayama, where the ancestor will remain to die of thirst and hunger.

Ancient legends of Japan

Japanese myths and legends contain features of Shinto and Buddhism religions, as well as folk tales.

The mythology of this Asian culture has the status of "a country of eight million deities", since Japan really has a very large number of gods.

"KotoAmatsukami" is a group of five kami (a god in the traditional religion of Japan - Shinto).

When heaven and earth were born, the three deities of Hitorigami descended to the earth's surface. These beings were:

• the presiding god - Ame no Minakanushi no Kami;
• god of domination and achievement - Takamimusuhi no kami;
• the god of creation or birth - Kamimusuhi no kami.

When the earth was filled with seas, the rest woke up:

• Hikoi no kami;
• Tokotachi no kami.

Further, according to the legend of Japan, after the Amatsuki came the divine era of seven generations called "Kamie Nanae", whose last representatives were Izanami and Izanagi - the creators of the Japanese islands.

The deities got engaged, and other islands of the Japanese archipelagos were born from them. When the fire god Kagutsuchi appeared, he crippled his mother Izanami, and she went to the underworld of Yemi. Izanagi, in a fit of anger, killed his son Kagutsuchi and went in search of his wife to the same underworld.

Izanagi found his beloved despite the pitch darkness. However, she had already tasted the food of the dead and became forever a slave to the underworld. When the husband completely refuses to leave his wife, she agrees to return with him, but before that she asks her lover to give her the opportunity to rest a bit. After waiting too long, Izanagi enters her bedchamber with a kindled torch and sees that his wife's body is already a rotting corpse, covered with maggots and other abominations. Izanagiin complete horror, he flees and closes the underworld with a large stone. Furious, Izanami promises to take 1,000 lives from him a day, but Izanagi replies: "Then I will give life to 1,500 people every day."

Thus, according to Japanese legend, death appears.

After being in the world of the dead, Izanagi decides to purify himself by taking off his clothes and precious jewelry. Every jewel and drop that falls from it transforms into a new deity. This is how they are born:

• Amaterasu (from the left eye) is the most famous goddess representing the sun, sky and agriculture;
• Tsukuyomi (from the right eye) - Lord of the night and moon;
• Susanoo (from the nose) - the god of the sea, ice, snow and storms.

Japanese Urban Legends: Onre

Traditionally, all the stories inherent in the cities of the country are most often devoted to creepy and terrible creatures that harm people as revenge or simply because of their sinister nature.

Most often, the main character is onre - an offended and therefore vengeful spirit. The very legend about him comes from Japanese mythology of the 7th century.

It is believed that most of the bodies that became onre were previously historical figures in Japan. The government of the state tried to fight them with various methods, the most ambitious of them was the construction of temples on the graves of onre.

Do you need legs?

The legend of Japan tells about a certain old woman who can come up and ask: do you need legs? Despite being initially comicalplot, it all ends badly. There is no correct answer. If the question is answered in the negative, the spirit tears off the person's lower limbs; if she agrees, she will sew him a third.

The only way out is to try to answer like this: "I don't need it, but you can ask him about this." The moment the enemy shifts his attention, the person will have a chance to run.

Kashima Reiko

Another scary legend in Japan is the story of Tek-tek, or Kashima Reiko, a girl whose body was run over by a train. From that moment on, the unfortunate wanders in the darkness, moving on her elbows, thus making a knock (hence the nickname Tek-tek).

If she notices anyone, especially a child, she will pursue the victim until she is finished with her. Typical methods of reprisal are either cutting a scythe in half, or remaking a person into the same creature as she is.

Kaori

A girl who entered high school wanted to commemorate this event by getting her ears pierced. To save money, she decided to do it herself and at home. A few days later, her ear began to itch. Looking in the mirror, Kaori found a white thread in the earring and immediately realized that it was because of it. When she pulled out the thread without a second thought, the light in front of her eyes immediately went out. It turned out that the cause of the high school student's illness was not just a thread, but the optic nerve, the tearing of which led to blindness.

After such a tragedy, the girl began to persecute others. If her question“Are your ears pierced?”, the answer was positive, then she bit off their unfortunate victim.

Hanako

In the legends of Japan, there is a whole separate topic about ghosts that live in schools, and most often in toilets. Why there? Perhaps this is due to the fact that in Japan the water element personifies the world of the dead.

Hanako is the most famous of all such ghosts. According to the myth, she appears on the 3rd floor in the 3rd booth when she is asked the question: "Is that you, Hanako?" If the answer is yes, you need to run immediately, otherwise you have a chance to drown in not the most pleasant and clean waters.

Aka Manto

Aka is the second most popular "toilet" representative, but this time the role of the spirit is a fabulously handsome young man who enters the women's toilets and asks the victims which cloak they would prefer: red or blue.

If they chose the first option, then the young man cut off the unfortunate head, thereby creating the appearance of a red cloak behind his back. If a person chose the second color, suffocation awaited him, thus acquiring a blue tint of the face.

If any neutral answer follows, then hell will open before the victim, into which deathly hands will carry her away.

Kushisake Ona

One of Japan's most popular creepy legends is the story of a girl with a torn mouth. According to the most common version of the prehistory, she committed such violence against herself, having escaped frompsychiatric hospital.

But if you listen to ancient beliefs, we can conclude: the woman's face was cut by her husband in a fit of jealousy, as she was one of the most beautiful girls in the country.

From then on, Japan's most interesting legend begins. The unfortunate, full of hatred, wearing a bandage over her scars, began to roam the streets and pester the victims with questions about her beauty. If a person rushed about, Kushisake took off her mask and showed her scar in all its glory, crossing the skin from ear to other, as well as a huge mouth with teeth and a snake tongue. After that, the girl asked again: "Am I beautiful now?" If a person gave a negative answer, then she tore off his head, but if she said that she was beautiful, then she drew the same scar on him.

The only way to avoid a terrible fate is a vague evasive answer like "You look average" or ask something before her.