Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, part A

Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).
The Miraculous Mirror

The Miraculous Mirror reading notes:

-Lots of imagery using color and beautifully written prose, written in a poetic way using stanza-like organization.

-Author is still able to tell a complete story with only 500 words, another reason the writing is similar to that of poetry.

-Use of illustrations to help the reader imagine the story.

“Sorely the people bewailed the loss of their Jewel of Heaven,
Vainly the people besought the return of their Sun-Goddess bright,
All unavailing their prayers, until a god one auspicious even
Fashioned a mirror of gold that gleamed with miraculous light.” The description of divine actions and their contributions to what we understand to be natural occurrences, such as darkness and light. This is a common theme in Greek mythology as well.

“Speeding her shuttle of Fate, interwove Izanagi’s fair daughter
Lotus-pure blossoms of Love with the flame of a rapturous star;
Twining the green woof of Life with the scarlet-stained ribbon of Slaughter,
Silver-bright Peace interweft with the red warp relentless of War.” Language used to describe characters and their actions is flowery, elegant, and descriptive. This language allows you to imagine the story in greater, more vivid detail.

The gentleness of Amaterasu is drastically contrasted by her brother’s arrival: As she is weaving a loom of darkness, he crashes through the Hall of the Gods with a fiery intensity. Because of her fear, Amaterasu flees from her throne in the sky, and the world becomes permanently dark. Then, the Goddess of Laughter calls to Amaterasu in the cavern she fled to and wakes her from her sleep. The Goddess tells her of a princess far more beautiful and glorious than Amaterasu, and then gives her the golden mirror. Because she is both vain and unaware of what a mirror is, when she looks at her reflection Amaterasu becomes jealous and enraged by what she sees. Her rage causes her to flee the cave at one, restoring light to the world. I found the fact that this clever trick was played by the Goddess of Laughter very fitting and reminiscent of something that a Greek God or Goddess would do in order to produce an outcome that they favored.

The beauty and vanity that define this woman and reminiscent of that of Aphrodite in the story of Cupid and Psyche. I thought it would be interesting to make a continuation/reimagination of the beginning of that love story when Aphrodite first hears of Psyches beauty. Replacing the characters with their Greek mythology counter parts would be a fun and relevant way to reimagine this story.

Painting of Amaterasu restoring light by Utagawa, Blogspot