Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [188]
O-kuni-nushi The god of medicine and sorcery, whose name means “great land master,” O-kuni-nushi is credited with inventing healing. He is often accompanied by Sukuna-Biko, a dwarf god skilled in both agriculture and medicine, who knows almost everything that is going on in the world.
O-kuni-nushi also figures in an intriguing myth. When O-kuninushi stops to help a wounded rabbit that his seventy brothers have passed by, the good deed earns him the right to marry the daughter of the god Susano. This is because the rabbit is actually another god in disguise. Angry that they missed such an opportunity, O-kuni-nushi’s brothers kill him, but he is able to regenerate himself. Displeased that his daughter is to marry, Susano subjects his future son-in-law to a series of tests. First, O-kuni-nushi is placed in a room full of snakes, but his bride gives him a magical scarf that protects him. Next, he sleeps in a room filled with poisonous insects, but again, he is saved by his bride’s magical scarf. Finally, he is trapped in a great grass fire, but is led to safety in an underground chamber by a friendly mouse.
In return for his father-in-law’s tests, O-kuni-nushi ties Susano’s hair to the roof beams and makes off with Susano’s magic bow and harp. The storm god gains new respect for his son-in-law and allows him to rule over a province in central Japan.
O-wata-tsumi The chief god of the sea, O-wata-tsumi is a god created when Izanagi purifies himself after his descent into the underworld. (In other accounts, O-wata-tsumi is descended from O-kuni-nushi.) O-wata-tsumi is significant in Japanese mythical history because he is considered another divine ancestor of the first emperor, Jimmu.
Susano (Susanowo) The god of storms and the divine embodiment of the forces of disorder, Susano is known as the “valiant, swift, impetuous deity.” He is born when the divine father Izanagi clears his nose as he bathes in a stream. When the universe is divided up, and Susano’s sister, Amaterasu, the sun goddess, is given the heavens, Susano thinks that he has gotten shortchanged. Banished by his father for his defiance, Susano begins his long struggle to overthrow Amaterasu and nearly brings catastrophe to the world in what is called “the divine crisis.” Terrified by her brother, Amaterasu withdraws into a cave, depriving the world of sunlight.
After the crisis, Susano is expelled from heaven and later wins some measure of respect by defeating the eight-headed dragon, Yamato-no-orichi—who had eaten seven of eight daughters of the local king and who sounds like the inspiration for Japan’s favorite monster, Godzilla. Susano accomplishes the feat by filling eight bowls with rice wine and luring the monstrous serpent to drink. Once the serpent monster becomes drowsy, Susano cuts open the creature’s stomach and finds a magical sword hidden inside. As a reward for his feat, he is given the kingdom he has saved, as well as a princess, Kusanada-hime, also called Rice Paddy Princess. Their daughter, who marries the medicine god O-kuni-nushi, is thought to be an ancestor of the Japanese emperors.
Since 1946, when the Japanese emperor Hirohito denied his divinity, after which the Japanese Constitution ended “state Shinto,” Japan has been a parliamentary democracy, in which the emperor is the head of state and the prime minster is the elected head of government. But old ideas still die hard. A recent controversy flared in Japan over new regulations requiring teachers to stand in classrooms and face the Japanese flag while singing the national anthem. Banned for three years during the postwar American occupation of Japan, the country’s “rising sun” flag is a vestige of the old connection between Japan—or Nipon, which means “rising sun”—and the sun goddess.
But many Japanese feel that the rising-sun flag is a symbol of Japan’s militaristic and imperialist past, when