CHAPTER XIX
RIVAL DEITIES OF LIFE AND DEATH, SUNSHINE AND STORM
Izanagi visits Hades—Origin of Thunder Deities—The Flight from Hades—Japanese Version of the “Far-travelled Tale”—The Sacred Peach Tree—Izanami as Goddess of Death—Births of Sun and Moon from Eyes of Izanagi—The Sun-goddess’s Necklace—Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous Male Deity”—Connection with Typhoon and Rain—A Japanese Indra—Vitalizing and Blighting Tears of Deities—Deities Born from Jewels and Sword—The Harrying of Heaven—Flight of Sun-goddess—How Light was Restored—The Sacred Mirror—Banishment of Susa-no-wo.
After Izanagi had slain his son, the fire-god, and brought into being new gods, including dragons, he was seized with longing to see Izanami once more. Accordingly he set out to find her in Yomi (“Yellow stream”), the dark Hades of the Underworld. “The orthodox Japanese derivation of Yomi,” says Chamberlain, “is from yoru, ‘night’, which would give us for Yomo-tsu-kuni some such rendering as ‘Land of Gloom’.” Another view is that “Yomi” is a mispronunciation of “Yama”, the name of the Aryo-Indian god of death.1
When Izanagi reached the gloomy dwelling of his sister, she raised the door, and he spoke to her, saying: “Thine Augustness, my lovely young sister! the lands that I and you made are not yet finished; so come back”. She replied out of the darkness: “It is sorrowful that you did not come hither sooner, for I have eaten of the food of Yomi. Nevertheless, it is my desire to return. I will therefore speak with the kami of Yomi.”2 She added in warning, “Look not at me!”
Izanami then went back to the place she had come from. She tarried there for so long a time that Izanagi grew impatient. At length he felt he could not wait any longer, so he broke off the end tooth of his hair-comb, which is called the “male pillar”, and thus made a light, and entered.3 He found his sister. Her body was rotting, and maggots swarmed over it. The Ko-ji-ki proceeds:
“In her head dwelt the Great Thunder, in her breast dwelt the Fire Thunder, in her belly dwelt the Black Thunder, in her private parts dwelt the Cleaving Thunder, in her left hand dwelt the Young Thunder, in her right hand dwelt the Earth Thunder, in her left foot dwelt the Rumbling Thunder, in her right foot dwelt the Couchant Thunder; altogether eight thunder deities had been born and dwelt there.”
Horrified at the spectacle, Izanagi drew back suddenly; whereupon his sister exclaimed, “You have put me to shame!” and became angry.
Here Izanagi has broken a taboo, as did the Japanese youth who married the dragon-maid, Abundant Pearl Princess, and as did the husband of Melusina in the French legend. It was an ancient custom in Japan to erect “parturition houses”. These were one-roomed huts to which women retired so as to give birth to children unseen. Ernest Satow tells that on the island of Hachijo, until comparatively recent times, “women, when about to become mothers, were … driven out to the huts on the mountain-side, and according to the accounts of native writers, left to shift for themselves, the result not infrequently being the death of the new-born infant”.4 It was taboo for a man to enter a “parturition house”. Apparently Izanami had retired to a “parturition house” in Yomi.
Enraged against Izanagi, because he had put her to shame, Izanami commanded the Ugly Females of Yomi to pursue and slay him.
At this point in the mythical narrative begins a version of the widespread folk-story about the young man who makes escape from his enemy or enemies, and in the course of his flight throws down articles that are transformed into obstacles, or into things which tempt the pursuers to tarry and eat.5
The first article that Izanagi cast down behind him was his wreath or head-dress, which was instantly turned into grapes. This is according to the Ko-ji-ki; the Nihon-gi makes the head-dress the second obstacle. His pursuer (Ko-ji-ki) or pursuers (Nihon-gi), having devoured the grapes, resumed the chase. Then Izanagi, as he fled, broke his hair-comb and threw it down; it instantly turned into bamboo sprouts. While these were being pulled up and eaten, he continued his flight.
The Ko-ji-ki (but not the Nihon-gi) here introduces another set of pursuers. Izanami, finding that her brother had outwitted the Ugly Female (or Females), “sent the eight Thunder-Deities with a thousand and five hundred warriors of Hades to pursue him. Izanagi, drawing the ten-grasp sabre that was augustly girded on him, fled forward, brandishing it in his back hand (brandishing it behind him); and as the demons still [36]continued to pursue him, he took, on reaching the base of the Even Pass of Hades,6 three peaches that were growing at its base, and waited and smote (his pursuers therewith) so that they all fled back.”7
Having thus rid himself of his pursuers, Izanagi addressed the peaches, saying: “As you have helped me, so must ye help all living people in the Central Land of Reed-Plains, when they are troubled and harassed”.
Here we have not only a native name of China (“Land of Reed-Plains”) applied to Japan, but also the sacred Chinese peach, a symbol of the Great Mother, the Western Queen of Immortals (Si Wang Fu). The story of a hero’s flight from the Underworld has not survived in China, if ever it existed there. It is, however, found in the myths of Scandinavia.
In the Nihon-gi (Aston) the comment is added to the peach incident: “This was the origin of the custom of exorcising evil spirits by means of peaches”.
The peach, like the bean, was in Japan a symbol of the mother-goddess, as was the shell in Egypt and the pig-shell in Greece.
Izanami herself was the last to pursue Izanagi. When he saw her coming, Izanagi blocked up the Pass of Yomi with a huge boulder of rock, which it would take a thousand men to lift, and he stood on one side of it, while she stood on the other to “exchange leave-takings” (Ko-ji-ki), or to pronounce the formula of divorce (Nihon-gi).
SUSA-NO-WO MAKING A COMPACT WITH DISEASE SPIRITS
From a Japanese painting (by Hoga) in the British Museum
In the Ko-ji-ki Izanami threatens to slay a thousand inhabitants in the land of the living, but Izanagi retorts [36]that he will arrange for the birth of one thousand and five hundred, so that the number born may exceed the number who must die.
Izanami became thereafter Yomo-tsu-oho-kami (Yomi’s Great Deity).8 The rock which blocks the Pass of Yomi became the “Great-Deity-of-the-Road-Turning-back”.
In the Nihon-gi (Aston’s translation) it is related that Izanagi flung down various articles on leaving Hades, as the goddess Ishtar in Babylonian mythology flung down her clothing and ornaments on entering the dread abode of Erish-ki-gal (Persephone). Having pronounced the divorce formula:
“He also said, ‘Come no farther’, and threw down his staff, which was called Funando-no-kami (pass-not-place-deity), or Kunado-no-kami (come-not-place-deity). Moreover, he threw down his girdle, which was called Nagachiha-no-kami. Moreover, he threw down his upper garment, which was called Wadzurahi-no-kami (god of disease). Moreover, he threw down his trousers, which were called Aki-guhi-no-kami. Moreover, he threw down his shoes, which were called Chi-shiki-no-kami.”
On returning to the land of the living, Izanagi exclaimed: “I have come from a hideous and polluted place. I will therefore perform the purification of my august body.”
He went to bathe at a river mouth on a plain covered with bush-clover, beside a grove of orange trees confronting the sun. It is here, according to the Ko-ji-ki, that he flings down his staff and the various articles of clothing that are transformed into deities. Two evil deities were born from the filth of Hades that fell from his person when he entered the water. He dived, and three sea-gods came into being. He washed his left eye, and thus gave origin to the goddess of the sun, Ama-terâsu-oho-mi-kami [36](The Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity). He washed his right eye, and there came into being the god of the moon, Tsuki-yomi-no-kami (Moon-Night-Possessor). He washed his nose, and from it was born Take-haya-susa-no-wu-no-mikoto9 (His-Brave-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness).
Izanagi took off his necklace of jewels or beads (tama), and, shaking it so that the beads jingled, bestowed it on Ama-terâsu, the sun kami or goddess, and set her to rule the “Plain of High Heaven”. He commanded the moon-god to rule the night, and Susa-no-wo to rule the “Sea Plain”.
“At this point,” as Chamberlain says, “the story loses its unity. The moon-goddess is no more heard of, and the traditions concerning the sun-goddess diverge from those concerning the ‘Impetuous-Male-Deity’ in a manner which is productive of inconsistencies in the rest of the mythology.”10
Chamberlain translates Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous-Male-Deity”, connecting his name with susama, “to be impetuous”. But, as Aston points out, the implied noun susa, “impetuosity”, does not exist. There is, however, a town named Susa in Idzumo,11 with which area the legends regarding the god are specially associated. Susa-no-wo may therefore have been simply “the god of Susa”. Aston, following Dr. Buckley, Chicago, regards him as a personification of the rain-storm. Japanese writers, on the other hand, have connected him with Godzu Tenno, an Indian Hades deity, and with the moon-god, or regarded him as a war-god, while some European scholars have referred to him as a “rotating-heavens god”. Having been born from the nose of [36]Izanagi, we should expect Susa-no-wo to have a connection with wind and “the air of life”, as well as with rain and the sea. It is of special interest to note in this connection that, as Aston says,12 “Japan is annually visited by destructive typhoons, accompanied by great darkness and a terrific downpour of rain”. Susa-no-wo is “continually weeping, wailing, and fuming with rage”, and is “a lover of destruction”, and he is associated with Yomi, the habitation of the deities that work evil against mankind. Susa-no-wo may be the Japanese Indra, who brings rain. Japanese wind-gods were givers of rain, as well as wind.13 Like Indra, Susa-no-wo is a dragon-slayer. A festival “celebrated in his honour at Onomochi in Bingo” is described by a Japanese writer in these words:14
“The procession is a tumultuous trial of speed and strength. Bands of strong men seize the sacred cars, race with them to the sea, and having plunged in breast-deep, their burden held aloft, dash back at full speed to the shrine. There refreshments are served out, and then the race is resumed, the goal being the central flag among a number set up in a large plain. Their feet beat time to a wildly shouted chorus, and they sweep along wholly regardless of obstacles or collisions.”
Indra, with Agni, the fire-god, was the winner in a race of the gods; he links with Vayu or Vata, the wind-god, and he wages war against the Danavas, the demons of ocean.15
In China dragon-boat races were held so as to cause rain. Imitation boats were likewise carried through the streets to the seashore, and there burned so as to take away evil influences. The boats represented fighting dragons, and these were rain-bringers. The Japanese [36]imitated these Chinese customs, but not, however, until about the eleventh century.16
As a trickster among the gods, Susa-no-wo bears some resemblance to the Scandinavian Loki; he is, like that deity, an ally of the powers of darkness and destruction, and he similarly suffers banishment from the celestial land. Susa-no-wo also recalls Nergal, the Babylonian warrior-god, who conquered Hades, and was “the death spreader” (Mushtabarrû-mûtanu).
The deities of the sun and moon proceeded to rule the day and the night as commanded by their parent Izanagi, but Susa-no-wo did not depart to the ocean, which had been committed to his charge; instead, he cried and wept until his eight-grasp beard reached the pit of his stomach. Says the Ko-ji-ki:
“The fashion of his weeping was such as by his weeping to dry up all the rivers and seas. For this reason the sound of bad deities was like unto the flies of the fifth moon as they all swarmed, and in all things every portent of woe arose.”
The reference to the god’s tears causing the green mountains to wither and the waters to dry up has greatly perplexed Japanese commentators. But there are statements in Asian and American mythologies regarding “evil” or “poisonous rain” distributed, to the injury of vegetation, by dragons that may be sick or badly disposed towards mankind. De Visser refers to a Buddhist legend about a poisonous Naga that guarded a big tree and killed all those who took a branch from it; when angry it sent thunder and rain.17 Central Asian legends tell that evil rains were sent out of season by disturbed and enraged dragons. A Chinese story tells of a sick dragon that, [36]having been roused by prayers, gave “a badly-smelling rain which would have spoiled the crops if a diviner had not discovered it in time and cured the dragon at the latter’s request”. Thereupon a fertilizing rain fell and a very clear spring dashed forth from a rock.18
In Ancient Egypt the deities wept vitalizing tears (see Index). Ra’s tears gave life to gods and men, the tears of the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut became incense-bearing trees. The tears of Osiris and Isis caused life-giving herbs, &c., to grow, but the tears shed on the world by the evil Set and his partisans produced poisonous plants. When deities were enraged, their saliva, sweat, and blood on touching the earth germinated and produced poisonous plants, scorpions, serpents, &c.19
The Chinese Buddhists believed in a Naga that, by means of a single drop of water, could give rain to one or two kingdoms, and even prevent the sea from drying up.20 Similarly a single tear from Isis-Hathor, as the star Sirius, that fell on the “Night of the Drop”, caused the Nile to rise in flood.
The blighting and ocean-drying tears of Susa-no-wo were evidently those of an evil or angry deity, or of one who was sick with sorrow.
Izanagi, beholding the ocean-ruler in tears, asked him why he wailed and wept.
Susa-no-wo made answer: “I wail because I wish to depart to the land of my dead mother (Izanami) in the Nether-Distant Land (Yomi, i.e. Hades)”.
Izanagi was very angry, and said: “If that be so, you shall not dwell in the ocean domain”. He then banished Susa-no-wo to Afumi.21
Susa-no-wo made answer that he would first take leave of his sister, Ama-terâsu, goddess of the sun. He rose in the air, as does a thunder-bringing dragon. Says the Ko-ji-ki:
“(With these words) he forthwith went up to Heaven, whereupon all the mountains shook, and every land and country quaked. So Ama-terâsu, alarmed at the noise, said: ‘The reason of the ascent hither of His Augustness my elder brother22 is surely no good intent. It is only that he wishes to wrest my land from me.’ ”23
The goddess unbound her hair, twisted it into bunches, put on her string of five hundred curved jewels (maga-tama, i.e. claw-shaped),24 and armed herself with bow and arrows. She stood “valiantly like unto a mighty man”, and asked her brother why he had ascended. Susa-no-wo declared he had no evil intention, and she asked him to give proof of his sincerity and goodwill. He proposed that they should pledge their faith and produce children. To this she consented, and they “swore to each other from the opposite banks of the Tranquil River of Heaven”.25
Ama-terâsu asked Susa-no-wo for his sword. He gave it to her and she broke it into three pieces. She then made a jingling sound with her jewels, brandished and washed them in the True-Pool-Well of Heaven26 and “crunchingly crunched them”. Then from the mist (of her breath) were born the deities Torrent-Mist-Princess, Lovely-Island-Princess, and Princess-of-the-Torrent.
Susa-no-wo then asked for and obtained from Ama-terâsu the string of five hundred curved jewels27 which was twisted in the left bunch of her hair. He made a jingling sound with the jewels, washed them in the Pool, and, having crunched them, “blew them away”. From his breath were born the god “Truly-Conqueror-I-Conquer-Conquering-Swift-Heavenly-Great-Great-Ears”, the god Ame-no-hohi,28 the god “Prince-Lord of Heaven”, the god “Prince-Lord of Life”, and the god of Kumano. In all eight deities—three goddesses and five gods—were born.
From these deities the Japanese noble families have claimed descent. The Mikados were supposed to be descended from the Conquering God with Great Ears (Masa-ya-a-katsu-kachi-haya-hi-ama-no-oshi-ho-mi-mi). Another myth makes the Mikado a descendant of the sun-goddess and Taka-mi-musubi (the High, August God of Birth and Growth), who, in a sense, is a Japanese Osiris. He has been compared to the Hindu god Shiva. Aston says that “musubi” is “the abstract process of growth personified—that is, a power immanent in nature and not external to it”.29 Breasted similarly regards Osiris as “the imperishable principle of life wherever found”.30 Shiva, as “the fructifying principle”, is represented by the phallus. It is believed that this symbol was the “shintai” (god body) of Musubi.31
After the three goddesses and five gods had come into being, Susa-no-wo declared, “I have undoubtedly gained the victory”. He then proceeded to harry the celestial regions. He broke down the divisions of the rice-fields, filled up the ditches, and fouled with excrement and urine the palace in which the goddess took food. He became even more violent. Having broken open a hole in the sacred house in which sat Ama-terâsu superintending the weaving of the garments of deities, he let fall into it a heavenly piebald horse that had been flayed backwards (a criminal offence). The celestial female weavers were terrified.
Alarmed by Susa-no-wo’s doings, the sun-goddess entered her cave, the Heavenly Rock Dwelling,32 shut the door and made it fast. All the land became dark.
AMATERÂSU, THE SUN GODDESS, EMERGING FROM HER CAVE
From a Japanese painting in the British Museum
Then the eight hundred myriad deities took counsel, sitting in the bed of the River of Heaven, so as to plan how they could entice the sun-goddess from her hiding-place. They made the cocks (“the long-singing birds of eternal night”) to crow loud, they caused the Heavenly Smith to shape a mirror of iron (the “true metal”) from the Heavenly Metal-Mountains (the mines), and charged the Jewel-Ancestor (Tama-noya-no-mikoto) to make a complete string of five hundred curved jewels. A tree was then taken from the celestial Mount Kagu33 and on it were hung the mirror, the jewel, cherry bark, and other offerings. The ritual was recited, and thereafter Ama-no-Uzume (the Dread Celestial Female), wearing metal head-gear (flowers of gold and silver) and a sash of club-moss from the celestial mountain, and holding in her hands a posy of bamboo grass, danced on a tub34 until the eight hundred myriad deities laughed. Wondering to hear sounds of merriment, instead of sounds of woe, the sun-goddess opened the door of her cave a little and asked why they all laughed. She was told that the deities rejoiced because they had among them a more august goddess than herself.
One of the gods then held up the mirror, and the sun-goddess was astonished to behold a bright deity, not knowing it was her reflected image, and gradually came forth, fascinated by her own beauty and brightness. A strong deity took her hand and drew her out while another deity, Grand Jewel, drew a straw rope behind her so as to prevent her retreating.35 In this manner the sun-goddess was enticed to return and light up the world.
The second expulsion of Susa-no-wo followed. He was fined an immense fine of table-offerings, his beard was shorn, and his finger and toe nails were drawn out.
According to the Ko-ji-ki, he begged for food from the food-goddess. She took “dainty things” from various parts of her body which he regarded as filth, so he slew her. Then from her head “were born silk-worms, in her two eyes were born rice-seeds, in her two ears were born millet, in her nose were born small beans, in her private parts were born barley, in her fundament were born large beans”. These were used as seeds. According to the Nihon-gi, they were sown “in the narrow fields and in the long fields of Heaven”.
The reason for keeping the mirror and jewels (tama) in the shrine of Ise, and for worshipping the sun-goddess and the food-goddess there, are thus explained in Shinto mythology. Virgin priestesses danced at religious ceremonies as did the tub-thumping goddess, and offerings [37]were suspended from trees as in the celestial regions, while the straw rope was utilized to keep back demons and to ensure the rising of the sun by preventing the retreat of the sun-goddess.
The finding of the dragon-sword is dealt with in the next mythical story. [37]