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The Structure of the Pantheon and the Concept of Sin in Ancient Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Taryo Obayashi
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Extract

Ever since the pioneering works by Chogyū Takayama and others in 1899 Japanese scholars have endeavored to elucidate the structure, meaning, and genetic connections of Japanese mythology, which was systematically described in the volumes on the “Age of Gods” of the Kojiki (compiled in 712 A.D.), the Nihon Shoki (720), and other works. In recent years the research has experienced a remarkable development, which owes much of its stimulation to the epoch-making studies of Indo-European mythologies by Georges Dumézil. For Japanese mythology betrays much in common with the Indo-European ones not only in its motifs but also in its basic structure, as we shall shortly see. In order not to be misleading, however, it should be stated here that analogies to Indo-European mythologies are but one aspect of the Japanese tradition, which comprises many other components, especially South Chinese and/or Southeast Asian components, and current researches on Japanese mythology are not restricted to comparisons with the Indo-European mythologies, but are undertaken through a variety of approaches, including those of the historian, the philologist, and the ethnologist.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 25 , Issue 98 , September 1977 , pp. 117 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Important studies of Japanese mythology published in European languages include: Nobuhiro Matsumoto, Essai sur la mythologie japonaise. Austro-Asiatique, Tome II, Paris, 1928; Eckart Franz, Die Beziehung der japanischen Mythologie zur griechischen, Bonn, 1932; Franz Kiichi Numazawa, Die Weltanfänge in der japanischen Mythologie, I nternationale Schriftenreihe für soziale und politische Wissenschaften, Ethnologische Reihe, Bd. II, Paris-Luzern, 1946; Atsuhiko Yoshida, "La mythologie japonaise: Essai d'interprétation structurale," in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 160: pp. 47-66, 161: pp. 25-44, 163: pp. 225-245, 1961-1963; Nelly Naumann, Das Umwandeln des Himmelspfeilers. Ein japani scher Mythos und seine kulturhistorische Einordnung. Asian Folklore Studies— Monographs, No. 5, Tokyo, 1971. Some of the results of my researches on Japanese mythology have been published in European languages: "Die Amaterasu-Mythe im alten Japan und die Sonnenfinsternismythe in Südostasien", in Ethnos, XXV: pp. 20-43, 1960; "Origins of Japanese Mythology. Especially of the Myths of the Origin of Death", in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, No. 25, pp. 1-15, 1966; "The Origins of Japanese Mythology", in Acta Asiatica, No. 31, pp. 1-23, 1977.

2 For sections 2-7 see my Nihon Shinwa no Kōzō, (The Structure of Japanese Mythology), pp. 4-71, Tokyo, Kōbundō, 1975 and Atsuhiko Yoshida, Nihon Shinwa to In-ō Shinwa (Japanese Myths and Indo-European Myths), pp. 63-105, Tokyo, Kōbundō, 1974.

3 Georges Dumézil, Les dieux des Germains, pp. 16-23, 36, Paris, 1959; Dumézil, Mythe et épopée, I: pp. 288-192, Paris, 1968.

4 For section 8 see my Nihon Shinwa no Kōzō, pp. 83-87.

5 Kōjirō Naoki, Kodai Nihon no Shizoku to Tennō ("Uji" Kin-Groups and Emperor in Ancient Japan), pp. 283-291, 307-308, Tokyo, Hanawa Shobō, 1964.

6 Dumézil, Mythe et épopées, II: pp. 366-367, Paris, 1971.

7 For section 9 see my "Kodai Nihon, Chōsen no Saishono San-ō no Kō zō" (The Structure of the First Three Monarchs in Ancient Japan and Korea), in Atsuhiko Yoshida (ed.), Hikaku Shinwa-gaku no Genzai (The Present State of Comparative Mythology), pp. 46-89, Tokyo, Asahi-Shuppan, 1975.

8 Dumézil, Mythe et épopée, I: pp. 261-284.

9 See, e.g., Masao Oka, "Nihon-bunka no Kiso-kōzō" (The Basic Structure of Japanese Culture), in Nihon Minzokugaku Taikei (Outline of Japanese Folklore), II: pp. 5-21, Tokyo, Heibon-sha, 1958; Namio Egami, Kiba-minzoku Kokka (States Founded by Horse-Riders), Tokyo, Chūōkōron-sha, 1967; Shichirō Mu rayama and Taryō Obayashi, Nihongo no Kigen (Origins of the Japanese Language), Tokyo, Kōbundō, 1973; cf. also Gari Ledyard, "Galloping Along with the Horseriders: Looking for the Founders of Japan", in The Journal of Japanese Studies, I: pp. 217-254, 1975.

10 E.g., Joseph Wiesner, Die Kulturen der frühen Reitervölker (Handbuch der Kulturgeschichte), Frankfurt am Main, 1968.