Week 7 Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B
Here are my reading notes for Japanese Mythology, Part B. Take a look!
1: The Labors of Yamato - The Grotto of Love
-Yamato grew bored of his wife and longed for the siren he saw on the beach; one day, he's on the cliff when he hears music; he follows the sound and comes upon a cave; he swims in (knowing that this cave is probably a trap) and finds his lost siren, who is Benten, the Goddess of Deathless Love
-Yamato tells Benten that he wants her to love him, and Benten replies that she will if he goes to Horaizan and gets her the Golden Apple of Immortal Youth
2: The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple
-Yamato asks Benten to tell him about Horaizan and the Golden Apple; Benten sings him a song about it; she tells him a story about a man named Jofuko who sailed to the Isle of Life Eternal promising to bring an apple back to his king; he spends years on the island, and finally goes back to his home with an apple, finding that the king had died long ago; so, he eats the apple and ascends the throne and becomes king
3: The Labors of Yamato - The Demon Boar
-Yamato goes back to his palace and asks around about the Isle of Life Eternal but no one has ever heard of it, so Yamato gets depressed; one day, people tell Yamato about a giant demon-possessed boar that lives in the forest, so Yamato decides to go kill it; he goes to his priestess and she gives him the Sacred Sword to use
-Yamato and his men go on a hunt for the boar; they attack it and it kills a few of them, including Yamato's horse; the boar corners Yamato, but Yamato escapes, cutting off its tail and shoving it off a cliff, killing it
4: The Labors of Yamato - The Grass-Cleaving Sword
-Yamato and his men go to Sagami and meet with the people there (who don't like Yamato and his men but pretend to so they can kill them); Yamato and his men go on a hunt there one day, and fall asleep in the forest; they wake up in the middle of the night to see that the field around them is on fire, making the deer around them go crazy and start trampling everyone; the horses start going crazy too, trying to get away, so Yamato has his men kill them to save them; suddenly, Yamato sees his wife running through the flames; she falls to his feet and gives him a fire drill, which he uses to make a safe passage out of the circle of flames
5: The Labors of Yamato - The Sacred Sword
-Yamato and his people ride home; along the way, he hears the siren's song again and tells his men and his wife to go home without him so he can go see Benten; when he gets near the cave, he steps on the dragon usually guarding it; the dragon roars at him, so Yamato cuts it with the sacred sword until it leaves; this makes Benten upset, so Yamato tells her about the sword; Benten is happy again because apparently the whole point of her luring Yamato into her cave was so that she could get the sword from him and give it to her father Susanowo
-Benten gives Yamato a feast, and after eating a lot he falls asleep; when he wakes up, she and the sword are both gone; he goes looking for her in the forest
6: The Sacred Sword cont.
-Yamato goes to Kwannon the Merciful to help him get the sword back; she tells him that he'll find the sword in the antlers of a magic stag in the woods- he has to kill the stag to get the sword back; she gives him a bamboo spear and a hunting dog to use to kill the deer
-Yamato goes to the forest and hunts the deer; he and the dogs find the deer and Yamato kills it, getting the sword back
7: The Labors of Yamato - The Dragon
-Yamato goes back to the sea cave to kill Benten for tricking him; she uses her siren powers to hold him in the water, nearly drowning him, but he hears his wife's voice calling to him; his wife's hair reaches down through the water and grabs him, pulling him to shore; he wakes up and finds that she isn't there, so he goes back to the palace and finds it in chaos; people tell him that a dragon had been set loose on the city and was entering the palace
-Yamato goes to the palace and finds his wife chanting a norito (a Japanese exorcism to ward off evil) at the dragon; it turns out that the dragon is Susanowo, the dragon of the sea, and it turns and charges at Yamato
8: The Dragon cont.
-Yamato fights with the dragon and ultimately kills it; he and his wife live happily for a while; one day, Yamato decides to fight the Ainos and his wife asks him if she can go with him; Yamato tells her this will be his last fight and goes to fight them; this makes the sea god angry, so he sends a horrible storm to Yamato's ship; during the storm, Yamato hears a siren song coming out of the ocean; his wife sees a mermaid in the sea and decides to sacrifice herself to it to save Yamato; Benten takes his wife and she dies; the storm goes away and Yamato mourns
9: The Faery Robe
-in Sugura, a fisherman hears the song of spring through the trees; he sees a fairy standing by the sea, wearing a white robe, singing; she puts her lute down, hangs her robe on a branch and dives into the sea
-the fisherman takes the robe; the fairy comes out of the sea and asks the fisherman for the robe back; he tells her he will only give it back if she dances for him; she tells him she can't dance without the robe, so he gives it back; she puts it on and sings and dances for him until she disappears into the sky
10: The Jewel of Heart's Desire - The Land of Morning Calm
-Emperor Chiuai (the emperor of Yamato) sits in his palace and plays the lute; his wife, an Amazon, tells him that she's had a dream where Amaterasu came to her and told her they needed to go west and get the Crystal of Heart's Desire; Chiuai refuses to go, so Amaterasu appears to him angrily and says that because he doesn't want to do anything, he must die and the Empress Jingu will rule the land; he dies
-the Prime Minister of Yamato makes it so that no one knows about the Emperor's death so Jingu can rule; she built tons of ships to prepare for them going west to get the crystal; one day, she looks for an omen from the gods and tries to catch a fish with a cherry blossom; she catches a huge shark, and is given gifts of a shield and the sacred sword, and takes that to mean that the gods want her to lead her people west to get the jewel
-Jingu leads her people west (with lots of favor from the gods) to Korea, where she comes upon a kingdom; the people there immediately surrender to her and give her the jewel; Jingu has her people mount the jewel to the front of their ship and they sail home; on their way, Benten steals the jewel; Jingu gets angry at the Prime Minister for it and kicks him out of the kingdom
11: The Quest of the Jewel
-the Prime Minister of Yamato, named Takeuchi, is upset and goes to the cliff; a fisher-maid, who is in love with him, follows him and begs him not to jump off the cliff; he tells her to let him die and tells her about how they lost the jewel to Benten; they look down into the water and see the crystal down there because that is where Benten's cave is; the fisher-maid dives in to get the crystal for him
-she gets attacked by the sea dragon, and knowing that the dragon won't touch a corpse, she cuts herself with her sword and puts the jewel in the wound to hide it; Takeuchi finds her dead body on the shore with the jewel; he takes the jewel and her body back to the palace and she is honored by everyone in the kingdom for what she did; Empress Jingu makes her the princess of heart's desire
12: Urashima
-someone tells a story about a fisherman named Urashima; he sails on the sea for a week, trying to catch something, until he catches a tortoise; he decides to let it go and keep fishing; he dreams that night about Benten, who tells him that he and his wife should come with her to her underwater castle and live forever
-he agrees and goes with her to her castle; he remains there for a long time until he starts to get homesick; he decides to go back home to visit his parents, so his wife gives him a talisman to take with him so he can come back, but warns him not to open it; he goes back home and finds that no one is there-- there aren't any houses or people there anymore; upset, he decides to open the talisman and see if it'll make his village appear; the eternal-life magic leaves the talisman when he opens it and makes him turn very old and feeble, and he can never go back to the cave again
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend" by E.W. Champney and F. Champney. Web Source: UnTextbook.
1: The Labors of Yamato - The Grotto of Love
-Yamato grew bored of his wife and longed for the siren he saw on the beach; one day, he's on the cliff when he hears music; he follows the sound and comes upon a cave; he swims in (knowing that this cave is probably a trap) and finds his lost siren, who is Benten, the Goddess of Deathless Love
-Yamato tells Benten that he wants her to love him, and Benten replies that she will if he goes to Horaizan and gets her the Golden Apple of Immortal Youth
2: The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple
-Yamato asks Benten to tell him about Horaizan and the Golden Apple; Benten sings him a song about it; she tells him a story about a man named Jofuko who sailed to the Isle of Life Eternal promising to bring an apple back to his king; he spends years on the island, and finally goes back to his home with an apple, finding that the king had died long ago; so, he eats the apple and ascends the throne and becomes king
3: The Labors of Yamato - The Demon Boar
-Yamato goes back to his palace and asks around about the Isle of Life Eternal but no one has ever heard of it, so Yamato gets depressed; one day, people tell Yamato about a giant demon-possessed boar that lives in the forest, so Yamato decides to go kill it; he goes to his priestess and she gives him the Sacred Sword to use
-Yamato and his men go on a hunt for the boar; they attack it and it kills a few of them, including Yamato's horse; the boar corners Yamato, but Yamato escapes, cutting off its tail and shoving it off a cliff, killing it
4: The Labors of Yamato - The Grass-Cleaving Sword
-Yamato and his men go to Sagami and meet with the people there (who don't like Yamato and his men but pretend to so they can kill them); Yamato and his men go on a hunt there one day, and fall asleep in the forest; they wake up in the middle of the night to see that the field around them is on fire, making the deer around them go crazy and start trampling everyone; the horses start going crazy too, trying to get away, so Yamato has his men kill them to save them; suddenly, Yamato sees his wife running through the flames; she falls to his feet and gives him a fire drill, which he uses to make a safe passage out of the circle of flames
5: The Labors of Yamato - The Sacred Sword
-Yamato and his people ride home; along the way, he hears the siren's song again and tells his men and his wife to go home without him so he can go see Benten; when he gets near the cave, he steps on the dragon usually guarding it; the dragon roars at him, so Yamato cuts it with the sacred sword until it leaves; this makes Benten upset, so Yamato tells her about the sword; Benten is happy again because apparently the whole point of her luring Yamato into her cave was so that she could get the sword from him and give it to her father Susanowo
-Benten gives Yamato a feast, and after eating a lot he falls asleep; when he wakes up, she and the sword are both gone; he goes looking for her in the forest
6: The Sacred Sword cont.
-Yamato goes to Kwannon the Merciful to help him get the sword back; she tells him that he'll find the sword in the antlers of a magic stag in the woods- he has to kill the stag to get the sword back; she gives him a bamboo spear and a hunting dog to use to kill the deer
-Yamato goes to the forest and hunts the deer; he and the dogs find the deer and Yamato kills it, getting the sword back
7: The Labors of Yamato - The Dragon
-Yamato goes back to the sea cave to kill Benten for tricking him; she uses her siren powers to hold him in the water, nearly drowning him, but he hears his wife's voice calling to him; his wife's hair reaches down through the water and grabs him, pulling him to shore; he wakes up and finds that she isn't there, so he goes back to the palace and finds it in chaos; people tell him that a dragon had been set loose on the city and was entering the palace
-Yamato goes to the palace and finds his wife chanting a norito (a Japanese exorcism to ward off evil) at the dragon; it turns out that the dragon is Susanowo, the dragon of the sea, and it turns and charges at Yamato
8: The Dragon cont.
-Yamato fights with the dragon and ultimately kills it; he and his wife live happily for a while; one day, Yamato decides to fight the Ainos and his wife asks him if she can go with him; Yamato tells her this will be his last fight and goes to fight them; this makes the sea god angry, so he sends a horrible storm to Yamato's ship; during the storm, Yamato hears a siren song coming out of the ocean; his wife sees a mermaid in the sea and decides to sacrifice herself to it to save Yamato; Benten takes his wife and she dies; the storm goes away and Yamato mourns
9: The Faery Robe
-in Sugura, a fisherman hears the song of spring through the trees; he sees a fairy standing by the sea, wearing a white robe, singing; she puts her lute down, hangs her robe on a branch and dives into the sea
-the fisherman takes the robe; the fairy comes out of the sea and asks the fisherman for the robe back; he tells her he will only give it back if she dances for him; she tells him she can't dance without the robe, so he gives it back; she puts it on and sings and dances for him until she disappears into the sky
10: The Jewel of Heart's Desire - The Land of Morning Calm
-Emperor Chiuai (the emperor of Yamato) sits in his palace and plays the lute; his wife, an Amazon, tells him that she's had a dream where Amaterasu came to her and told her they needed to go west and get the Crystal of Heart's Desire; Chiuai refuses to go, so Amaterasu appears to him angrily and says that because he doesn't want to do anything, he must die and the Empress Jingu will rule the land; he dies
-the Prime Minister of Yamato makes it so that no one knows about the Emperor's death so Jingu can rule; she built tons of ships to prepare for them going west to get the crystal; one day, she looks for an omen from the gods and tries to catch a fish with a cherry blossom; she catches a huge shark, and is given gifts of a shield and the sacred sword, and takes that to mean that the gods want her to lead her people west to get the jewel
-Jingu leads her people west (with lots of favor from the gods) to Korea, where she comes upon a kingdom; the people there immediately surrender to her and give her the jewel; Jingu has her people mount the jewel to the front of their ship and they sail home; on their way, Benten steals the jewel; Jingu gets angry at the Prime Minister for it and kicks him out of the kingdom
11: The Quest of the Jewel
-the Prime Minister of Yamato, named Takeuchi, is upset and goes to the cliff; a fisher-maid, who is in love with him, follows him and begs him not to jump off the cliff; he tells her to let him die and tells her about how they lost the jewel to Benten; they look down into the water and see the crystal down there because that is where Benten's cave is; the fisher-maid dives in to get the crystal for him
-she gets attacked by the sea dragon, and knowing that the dragon won't touch a corpse, she cuts herself with her sword and puts the jewel in the wound to hide it; Takeuchi finds her dead body on the shore with the jewel; he takes the jewel and her body back to the palace and she is honored by everyone in the kingdom for what she did; Empress Jingu makes her the princess of heart's desire
12: Urashima
-someone tells a story about a fisherman named Urashima; he sails on the sea for a week, trying to catch something, until he catches a tortoise; he decides to let it go and keep fishing; he dreams that night about Benten, who tells him that he and his wife should come with her to her underwater castle and live forever
-he agrees and goes with her to her castle; he remains there for a long time until he starts to get homesick; he decides to go back home to visit his parents, so his wife gives him a talisman to take with him so he can come back, but warns him not to open it; he goes back home and finds that no one is there-- there aren't any houses or people there anymore; upset, he decides to open the talisman and see if it'll make his village appear; the eternal-life magic leaves the talisman when he opens it and makes him turn very old and feeble, and he can never go back to the cave again
Yamato surrounded by flames. Source: UnTextbook.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend" by E.W. Champney and F. Champney. Web Source: UnTextbook.
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