[Volume I]

One of the richest mythologies/cosmologies of the known world is the Japanese. It is related (and sometimes depended) on Asian Religion (mostly Buddhism), and has become a great part of the common people’s every-day life, who had always wanted to feel their gods and deities as close to them as possible; almighty, nonetheless. This is one of the main reasons as to why many common beliefs and folklore legends have survived up to this day in Japan –and not only there-, even as a simple rumor or prejudice. For example, the Kitsune mask (fox) which is still being used in the Kabuki theater, but it has also influence modern means, like manga and anime (“Kyubi no Kitsune to Tobimaru” and “Hotarubi no mori e” are two of the many animated movies in which we see Kitsune in a more active role).

Watching anime as a young girl, I couldn’t recognize the symbolisms behind names, faces and actions on the screen… Until, one day, I came across some interesting information about Kyubi, which made me re-evaluate what I was watching. With this short article I wish to share a brief research on beings we ignore while watching our favorite animated series, forgetting their origins. And what better place to start if not from the very well-known and vastly liked “Naruto”!

 

Kyubi

 

The evil spirit possessing young Naruto from the moment of his birth; the demon his own father sealed in his son’s body... What a tragic story (with a happy ending, for those of you who have been watching the adventures of this little hero); at least in this part they made no mistake…

Asian history always had a certain amount of prejudice left for foxes, believing them to be creatures with magical powers, sometimes evil and sometimes good, which could take human form and seduce men and women alike, so as to form families. This is the, somewhat condensed, story of Kitsune…

The nine tailed fox appeared, not initially in the Japanese –as we would like to believe- but in the Chinese mythology, literature and poetry, that later on was spread in Korea and Japan, influencing all of the Asian World. The first Kyubi “debut’ was in the book “Shan-hai Ching” (“Classics of Mountains and Seas”). Foxes in the land of the Green Hills had four legs, nine tails, sounded like crying babies and feasted on human flesh…

No wonder why Kurama (as the Kuybi was known later on in the series) was so spiteful and continuously out of control…

 

Amaterasu-Tsukuyomi-Susanoo

Amaterasu

 

Itachi and Sasuke’s Mangekyo Sharingan dojutsu, as it was presented in the anime. This powerful technique can envelope in black flames the target that the ninja controlling it is aiming at. The fire is so powerful that can continue to burn for seven days and seven nights, and nothing can put it out since it is, practically, as powerful as the sun itself.

…Something that doesn’t fall to far away from the nature of the Goddess Amaterasu (who originates from Shinto Religion). She is the Sun Goddess (her full name is “The Great August Goddess who Shines in the Skies). The love for her holly association was such, that she affected Buddhism and Taoism as well.

In the Japanese culture, Amaterasu is he sister of Susanoo (the God of the sea and storm) and Tsukuyomi (the God of the Moon and also her husband). Is it said that Amaterasu and her brothers shaped the world, forming ancient Japan. All three of them have the same father, Izanagi, who created them from his two eyes and nose…

 

 

Susanoo

Susanoo, the Ninja’s energy extension who has mastered the Mangekyuo Sharingan in both eyes (something extremely rare, since is it considered to be one of the most difficult techniques of the Uchiha Clan).

Even if we saw him as a guardian in the anime series, Susanoo was anything but protective and caring, since the myth has it that he had a great rivalry with his sister. Such was their conflict in the end that Izanagi was forced to banish Susanoo from the Sky, and the latter brought a severe disaster in his sister’s rice fields…

The sword he holds is the sword that “gathers the clouds of the skies”, the one Susanoo presented to his sister Amaterasu as a refund for the evil he brought upon her.

 

Tsukuyomi

Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu forming the world

 

As a genjutsu technique, Tsukuyomi is capable of creating hallucinations of such accuracy and tensity that a few seconds can seem to the victim as hours; along with the extreme pain of the torture the Ninja will chose, the victim suffers to the point of inability for battle for many hours later…

But as a god, Tsukuyomi in the Shinto Religion is the God of the Moon. One time, irritated by the way that Uke Mochi, the Godess of Food, created and presented her goods, he killed her. (He didn’t forget to mention how tasty the all looked, though). When that action reached Amaterasu, such was her wrath for her brother and loved one, that she banished him from the common spot they shared in the Sky. That is why, since then, the Sun and the Moon never rise at the same time, and they don’t even rise from the same spot of the horizon…

It is not weird at all that the Uchiha Clan choose these names to represent three of their most disastrous abilities…

 

 

To be continued in the next article, to keep you on edge!

 

 

Love, Melane…