Kojiki - Kevin Gontkovic

For this post, I would like to talk about a book I read on the mythology of Japan, called the Kojiki. This book describes how the world was created and how the islands of Japan were created. Also, it explains how most of the deities came into being. The world began with a really large chaotic mass that eventually split in two, with the lighter part becoming Heaven, and the heavier part becoming Earth. The part that became Earth was more polluted than the part that became Heaven. This has to do with the relationship between pollution and purity. Heaven is associated with purity so anything that is polluted cannot come into contact with it. This is probably why Heaven and Earth eventually split apart. The half that became Earth just kept getting more and more polluted until they just separated.
This book also tells how the gods were created and how the country of Japan was created from two of the gods, Izanagi and Izanami. These two were commanded by the other Heavenly Deities to create a country so the two of them created the main island by thrusting the heavenly staff into the sea and bringing out brine that dripped back down to the sea and formed the island. They then went down to the island and created a large pillar that connected to Heaven. They then performed a ritualized dance around the pillar. The first time they did it, the female spoke first, which caused the islands that were born from their intercourse to not come out correctly. The Heavenly Deities told them that the male is supposed to speak first and that is the reason the islands came out incorrectly. So they did the ritual again with the male speaking first and then the islands that were born satisfied the Heavenly Deities. This myth shows that there is an order to certain rituals whether they be dances or any other art forms.

Reference: Chamberlain, Basil Hall. The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company. 1981. 428 pages.