Japan is a country consisting of four main islands. These islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The main religion of Japan is Shintoism.
Shinto is literally “the way of the gods”
This religion is an old and ancient religion is polytheist and is natured based. There are countless gods, spirits, monsters, sacred places, and sacred animals. Shinto is said to come from Buddhism and Shamanism. The kami or gods are worshiped at local shrines. These deities are said to be protectors and can be ancient ancestors, animals, or plants.
The main gods are Izanami, Izanagi, Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi or Tsukuyomi, Susanaoo. There are many other deities
The
creation of the gods and Japan started with the universe by itself and heaven and earth had not yet been divided. The purer and cleaner part was formed into heaven. The rest of the mass was created into earth. So it was said that heaven was created before earth. After the creation of heaven, many gods were created. The final gods to be created were Izanagi and Izanami. This totaled to be 8 gods. The gods
Izanagi and Izanami decided to create a country on earth. They decided to take the jeweled spear of heaven and by dipping the spear in to the ocean, an island formed. The two became united and created the islands of Japan and the things on it. After they made the natural thing, they tried to produce a deity to rule the earth. They created the fire deity Kagutsuchi. This deity burned and killed Izanami. At the same time she gave birth to the water and earth deities. Since she died Izanami was sent to the netherworld Yomi. Izanagi, missing his wife tried to get his wife from the dark world. He found her but she told her not see her face. Also, she couldn’t go so easily because she ate the food of the dead. When they were going to earth he couldn’t help himself and looked at her. She had rotten and deformed skin. There were many worms and maggots in her. Seeing this, Izanagi ran out of Yomi. He sealed Yomi from earth by putting a rock over it. On the other side Izanami said that for revenge she would kill 1,000 people every day. In return Izanagi said he would give life to 1,500 people every day. To purify himself he washed himself in a river. From his left eye was the sun deity Amaterasu, his left Tsukiyomi the moon god, and from his nose was the storm god Susanaoo. This is the reason why the sun rises in the east.
Another ancient Shinto myth is based around Izanagi’s son
Susanaoo. After Susanaoo was banished heaven because of the evil thing he did to torment his sister, Susanaoo traveled the islands. He eventually reached the village Izumo where the monster Orochi was terrorizing a family by eating their daughters. Orochi was a giant snake who was said to have 8 heads 8 tails and as long as 8 fields. Susanaoo said that he would kill the monster if he could marry the daughter that was to be eaten next. To defeat the monster, he put eight tubs of “eight-fold sake” to get the snake drunk. Then he appeared before the snake and fought it. After he killed it, he noticed that there was a notch on his sword after striking the tail. He opened the tail and found a sword inside it. He presented this fated sword to his sister the sun goddess as an apology for the things he had done to her. The name of this sword is “Ame-No-Murakumo-No-Tsurugi”. This sword is said to reside in the shrine of Atsuta, but is not on public display. Also this is part of the “Imperial Regalia of Japan” along with the “Mirror of Yata” and the "Magatama of Yasakani". The other two are from another myth regarding Susanaoo and
Amaterasu.
The Japanese people use a lot of these myths in their comics and in their media. There are a lot of sacred places and shrines around japan. A sacred place is Mount Fuji. This was in the myth about
Princess Kaguya , a story of a girl who was of the moon people, and when she went back to moon, the prince wanted his letter to reach her so; he sent his men to burn his letter at the highest point in Japan. This religion was more prominent in the past, but has decreased its followers. It is said that the emperor is related to the sun goddess Amaterasu
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