Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [185]
Who was Japan’s first divine emperor?
It is the land of shoguns and samurai to most Westerners, a string of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, which roughly equals the size of the state of California. In the mid-nineteenth century, Japan emerged from hundreds of years of near-isolation and became one of the great empires of modern times. After it fell in the fiery destruction of World War II, it then rose, like a phoenix, from the ashes to become a modern financial and trading empire.
According to Japanese legend, the first emperor of this island nation was Jimmu-tenno, or “divine warrior emperor,” who is traditionally dated from 660–585 BCE. Believed to be the great-great-great-grandson of the divine sun goddess Amaterasu, Jimmu and his elder brother supposedly marched eastward from a region of Kyushu Island, intent on consolidating their power. After his brother is killed in battle, Jimmu presses on, guided by a heavenly crow. His army continues its march until he reaches Yamato, traditional home of the Japanese emperors. The consensus today is that Jimmu-tenno did not exist, that there were no emperors at that time, and that more than a dozen of Japan’s earliest reputed emperors were inventions. Historians today assert that the imperial line actually began in the fifth or sixth century of the Common Era.
When the Yamato emperors were actually established, in a public-relations move designed to establish their authority, they proclaimed Amaterasu as the ancestress of their clan. Stories connecting the gods and the emperor provided the core of the state religion that became known as Shinto (“the way of the gods”).
Japan’s highly militaristic traditions—begun with the legend of Jimmu and other warrior emperors—continued for centuries, carrying over into the two iconic military institutions of the samurai and shogun. Both inspired legends, but neither had a place in true Japanese mythology. The samurai—immortalized in the films of Akira Kurosawa—were members of a hereditary warrior class, more like the knights of medieval Europe. The early samurai defended the estates of aristocrats, and around 1000 CE, they began to develop a code of strict values and self-discipline, prizing horsemanship, archery skills, and bravery. Above all, they valued total obedience and loyalty to their lords, and personal honor. Dishonor brought an obligation to commit ritual suicide.
The samurai began to grow more powerful in 1192, when the emperor gave the title shogun (“great general”) to the military leader Yoritomo of the Minamoto family. Yoritomo established the first shogunate, or warrior government. These militaristic governments then largely ruled Japan from the late 1100s to the mid-1800s. In 1867, as Japan struggled toward modernity, the shogunate was overthrown and powers were restored to the emperor. This scenario became the background for the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai, a highly romanticized view of the traditional samurai attempting to stave off modern times.
Writer Stefan Lovgren burst that Hollywood “myth” when he wrote in National Geographic, “Mythology colors all history. Sometimes, legend and lore merely embellish the past. Other times, mythology may actually devour history. Such is the case with the samurai, the military aristocracy of feudal Japan. The samurai are known as strong and courageous warriors, schooled with swords. In reality, they were an elitist and (for two centuries)