Japanese mythology
[1] The history of thousands of years of contact with Chinese and various Indian myths (such as Buddhist and Hindu mythology) are also key influences in Japanese religious belief.
[1][2][3] Japanese myths are tied to the topography of the archipelago as well as agriculturally-based folk religion, and the Shinto pantheon holds uncountable kami ("god(s)" or "spirits").
[1][5] For much of Japan's history, communities were mostly isolated, which allowed for local legends and myths to grow around unique features of the geographic location where the people who told the stories lived.
[5][1] Written in the Eighth century, under the Yamato state, the two collections relate the cosmogony and mythic origins of the Japanese archipelago, its people, and the imperial family.
[8][5] It is based on the records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki that the imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu and her grandson Ninigi.
[8][5][1] Emperor Temmu enlisted the help of Hiyeda no Are who committed to memory the history of Japan as it was recorded in two collections that are thought by historians to have existed before the Kojiki and Nihongi.
[1] Under Empress Gemmei's rule, Hideya no Are's memory of the history of the Japanese archipelago and its mythological origins were recorded in spite of Emperor Temmu's death before its completion.
[1] As a result of Hideya no Are's account, the Kojiki was finally completed, transcribed in kanji characters, during Empress Genshō's time as sovereign.
[1] The Yamato state also produced fudoki and Man'yōshū, two more of the oldest surviving texts that relate the historical and mythical origins of Japan's people, culture, and the imperial family.
[1][10]The earliest creation myths of Japanese mythology generally involve topics such as death, decay, loss, infanticide, and contamination.
[10] When Izanagi and Izanami ask the older gods why their child was born without bones or limbs, they are told it was because they did not conduct the ceremony properly and that the male must always speak before the female.
[1][10] Among their children are the Ōyashima, or the eight great islands of Japan — Awaji, Iyo, Oki, Tsukushi, Iki, Tsushima, Sado, and Yamato.
[14] Izanami is referred to in the Kojiki as Izanagi's imo (meaning both wife or little sister in Japanese) and other scholars dispute that the pair were siblings.
The myth of Izanagi's journey into Yomi features many themes of food, he creates grapes to distract the shikome who stop to eat them, granting him time to escape.
[9][page needed] The origins of the Sun and the Moon are accounted for in Japanese mythology through the myth of Izanagi's return from Yomi.
[10] Various accounts of Susanoo's temper tantrum in Amaterasu's home depict a variety of disgusting and brutal behaviors (everything from smearing his feces across her home's walls to skinning her favorite horse alive and throwing it at her maid and killing the maid) but it is usually, in depictions of this particular myth, Susanoo's behavior that scares Amaterasu into hiding in a cave.
[15][10][1][9][16] It would take the combined efforts of many other kami, and the erotic dance of a particular goddess named Ame no Uzume, to lure Amaterasu from the cave again.
[8] The Nihon Shoki and Kojiki have varying accounts of the mythic history of Japan, and there are differences in the details of the origins of the imperial family between the two texts.
[1] Some heroes are thought to have been real people, such as the Forty-seven rōnin, but their legacy has been transformed into great folktales that depict the historical figures as more gifted, powerful, or knowledgeable than the average person.
[1] The heroic adventures of these heroes range from acts of kindness and devotion, such as the myth of Shita-kiri Suzume, to battling frightful enemies, as in the tale of Momotaro.
The tale of Shita-kiri Suzume, for example, warns of the dangers of greed, avarice, and jealousy through the example of an old couple's experiences with a fairy who disguised herself as a sparrow to test the old man.
[1] Momotaro, born from a peach for a childless couple to raise, is a mythic hero who embodied courage and dutifulness as he went on a journey to defeat oni who were kidnapping, raping, and pillaging his home island.
[1] Ototachibana, the wife of Yamato Takeru, threw herself into the sea to save her husband's ship and quell the wrath of the storm that threatened them.
[1] Yamato Takeru, once safe, built a tomb for her and his mourning utterance for his wife caused Eastern Honshu to be called Adzuma.
Every story commonly states, that the creature captures it's prey by first seeming like a beautiful women than after seduction is complete turning into the much more bitter better half.
