2016/01/01 by Emilia Gadeleva · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Mathematics · #Japanese History and Culture #Worship #Mythology #Annals #HERO #History #Character (mathematics) #Period (music) #Variety (cybernetics) #Politics #Literature #Spring and Autumn period #Ancient history #Philosophy #Classics #Art #Aesthetics #Law #Theology #Political science #Mathematics
paper · doi:10.15055/00000288
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
Summary The god Susanoo is one of the central characters in the eighth-century annals known as Kojiki and Nihon shoki, and the contradictory way he is depicted has inspired several different interpretations. On one hand he is the violent counter-part of the sun-goddess Amaterasu; on the other, the hero who slays the enormous serpent Yamata no Orochi and saves the maiden of the rice fields. Susanoo is one of the most important deities in the land descriptions (Fudoki) from the same period as well, where the stories about him lack any negative features. Among the variety of other hypotheses about the reasons for such a characterization, I suggest my point of view based on a compre hensive study of the three mentioned sources and other ancient documents. I doubt that the roles Susanoo plays in the myths recorded in these documents come simply out of the political motives that lay at the base of their compila tion. To me, it seems that both positive and negative features lay at the base of this god's character from the very beginning, as he was the god who was supposed to bring sufficient rain for the crops. I think he was derived from the priests performing rites for rain and serving at shrines where sacred rice and water were regularly offered to the gods. At the same time, the worship of a pair consisting of a sun-deity and a water-deity, which is often met at Japanese shrines even today, must have been quite important in ancient Japan. Such a connection must have lain at the base of the relation between Susanoo and Amaterasu.