Gross. Brothers and sisters marrying each other. That's right - Japanese myth spawned from incest. George R.R. Martin would be proud. Izanagi and Izanami are the siblings. God of the Air and Goddess of the Clouds, respectively. Together, they will manipulate the world as they see it and desire it. I won't even attempt to spell their kids' names.
Various gods and goddesses are born and created to have various roles in the world's workings. There is a god of water and the moon and etc. The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi may be the coolest title ever for anything. It has eight heads and eight tails. That's a lot of snake. Of course, because this is Japanese mythology, I'm pretty dang sure this is more accurately a dragon. Anyway, Susa-no-wo tempts it with alcohol and then kills it by using this ridiculously large sword.
Admittadly, the rest of the stories are kind of boring until you get to the adventures involving Yamato, like the Rescue of the Princess. This story has to be inspiration for an Akira Kurosawa film. It's such a similar story. Very good read, and full of fun adventure.
As the readings continue, it seems the highlight of everything is Yamato and his adventures. And I really enjoyed yet another story involving a dragon. I really love this character. He is unlike any other character I've read so far and I think it has to do with the virtue and honour he contains. Regardless of the reason, Yamato makes for a great mythic character that I absolutely love to read and hope to dive a little deeper into.
Japanese mythology has become a staple of my myth study, and I look forward to what else I might be able to uncover throughout the course of this class.
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