Shinto

Amaterasu as Susano's reflection

The Myth of Susano and Amaterasu is probably the most famous in Shinto mythology.

In my experience of asking Japanese people what they think about their myth, this episode together with the one preceding it regarding Izanami and Izanagi, are the only two episodes from the Kiki mythology that Japanese people know. These two myths are therefore, in fame if not also in theme, up there with the myth of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, and an outline of the New testament, the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (see note 1).

The Myth of Susano and Amaterasu, particularly that surrounding the entry and exit of Amaterasu from the rock cave is also said to be related to the main Shinto festival, the New Years festival, or at least the version of the New Years festival performed by the Emperor of Japan, the Chinkonsai (which means festival of accepting the soul of deity). The emperor is thought to be a descendent of the Sun Goddess, and as the year end approaches and the Sun light decreases, his spirit is thought to weaken so in midwinter he reaffirms his connection with the Sun Goddess taking in her spirit once again. Japanese people on the other hand put out "mirror rice cakes" go through a period of semi-fasting, visit their shrine to receive a new Holy Tablet for their household shrine and the Shrine of the Sun Goddess at Ise, and eat the Mirror Rice cakes, thereby (both in the form of the tablet, and in the form of the rice cakes) taking in, and imbibing the spirit of the Sun Goddess into themselves. Through this the Japanese are felt to be reborn every New Year.

Thirdly the myth is interesting due to its possible ability to explain human development. To assume that a myth has this explanatory power before even reading it may be putting the cart before the horse but:

1) The myth starts with an adult male in an arrested stage of development, crying and behaving like a child even though he is advanced in years. Similar developmentally arrested children (most of whom cry, have long beards, and some who cannot speak) are seen throughout the Kojiki myth, so arrested development is arguably a major them. If heroes are not "Eternal Juveniles" ("Eien no Shounen", Hayao Kawaii's term) then it is only because subsequent events in the myth allow them to develop and mature. Thus the myth has been taken to describe human, or at least Japanese human, development.

2) The myth is associated with the birth, or rebirth of the spirit, and so might be describing the genesis of the self.

3) The myth involves an encounter with a mirror, and mirrors loom large in theories of human development such as those of Freud, Piaget and Lacan, where self-recognition in a mirror is seen as being a *stage* in human development. On the face of it Susano, the developmentally arrested hero, does not encounter a mirror himself, except in the person of his sister.

Finally, even so, even if the myth should be an allegory or *parable* about the genesis of the self, then if interested in the development of the self, it might be a better idea to read a book such as "Others in Mind: Social Origins of Self-Consciousness" by Philippe Rochat or another scientific representation of the development of self-awareness. It was a belief in Buddhism that brought me to myth. Buddhism argues, quite convincingly, that the self is a mistake. Be that the case, then it is going to be a very strange, and allegorical sort of explanation that might allow someone in that state of mistake to become aware of it.

Now turning to the Myth of Susano and Amaterasu
The myth starts, as mentioned above with Susano in an arrested state of development. At this point is father arrives and throws him out of the world of adults.

The Name/Prohibition of the Father (skip this if you hate Freud and Lacan)
This again is a very interesting start from a psychoanalytic point of view, since it the Freudian or Lacanian view of child development it is the prohibition of the father, that forces the child to grow up. In Freud, the prohibition of the father causes the child to think something along the lines of "I can't just hang out with my mother. My mother belongs to my father. I must go out and find my own woman."

In Lacan the prohibition said by the mother "I belong to your father." This pronouncement of the prohibition of the father through, the lips of the mother, has a double effect in Lacan, encouraging the child not only to want to go out and get his own mother, but also to want to become "a father" or someone who is called "a father", and so to want to join the word of names, of language. Lacan, in typical Lacan fashion, makes a pun "Non de pere" (the no or prohibition of the father) and "Nom de Pere" the name of the father. So for Lacan, the “prohibition of the father” is also the order to join the world of names, the world of language.

In the Kojiki myth however, the father says "Get out of here, the world of adults, and go to your mother, *if that is what you want to do*." Rather than prohibiting the mother, the Japanese father prohibits entry to (or the ability to remain in) the world. And further, rather than being an obstacle, preventing the child from sleeping with his mother due to his desire, the Japanese father acts as a mirror to the child, telling him forcing him to see himself "*If that is what you want*, then get out of here. Go and do it." The father acts as a linguistic mirror to the child, putting his intentions into language, and forces the child, Susano, to start to act.

The Mirror Goddess as Susano's Hidden Reflection
Things get stranger still in that rather than go see his mother, Susano goes to see his sister, the Sun Goddess. This may not be so strange if one considers that his parents may have been brother and sister. Perhaps the decisive prohibition of the father, caused the child to attempt to mimic his father's incestual relationship by going off to find a sister of his own.

This is when the myth is really interesting. The warrior god, Susano, later famous for killing a dragon, sets off towards his sister, who is it should be emphasised both the goddess of the sun and the goddess of the mirror. As Susano approaches, Amaterasu behaves in a strange way.

From my version of the Susano and Amaterasu Myth
"Amaterasu hears her brother coming from far away (he [too] is stamping and shouting?), and suspects that he may be coming to take her realm away from her. So she dresses like a male warrior, rolling up her long hair in the way of men, and stands beside the "true name well in heaven", shouting and stamping her feet in a "manly" way, so much that she sinks into the ground up to her thighs as if "kicking around slushy snow."

Or here is Chamberlain’s version
"So the Heaven-Shining-Great-August deity, alarmed at the noise, said: " The reason of the ascent hither of His Augustness my elder brother is surely of no good intent. It is only that he wishes to wrest my land from me." And she forthwith, unbinding her august hair, twisted it into august bunches; and both into the left and into the right august bunch, as likewise into her august head-dress and likewise on to her left and her right august arm, she twisted an augustly complete string of curved jewels eight feet long, of five hundred jewels, and, slinging on her back a quiver holding a thousand arrows, and adding thereto a quiver holding five hundred arrows, she likewise took and slung at her side a mighty and high sounding elbow-pad, and brandished and stuck her bow upright so that the top shook, and she stamped her feet into the hard ground up to her opposing thighs, kicking away the earth like rotten snow, and stood valiantly like unto a mighty man, and, waiting"

Several commentators point out that the way that Amaterasu puts her hair in buns at her ears, wears a bow, and shouts (quite literally) "like a male," implies that the Sun Goddess is cross-dressing. There is quite a lot of cross dressing in several episodes of the myth. Japanese commentators tend to assume that Amaterasu dresses up as a guy because she wants to be a warrior. Fair enough.

None of the commentators, ancient or modern, that I am aware of (at the time of my paper anyway) were able to shed much light on why Amaterasu should stamp her feet so much that she sinks into the ground “up to her thighs”, and kicks the ground around like slush (weak snow) If you are about to do battle to defend your kingdom, then sinking into the ground up to ones thighs, even if one is dressed as a warrior, does not seem to be an advisable thing to do.

The myth makes sense to me however if one imagines the sight of the Sun Goddess from the point of view of Susano. What he sees is approximately the image above, except that I have drawn (a mythically unforgivable) third person view from behind Susano’s head, in order to emphasise the structure of what may be happening.

Please note that Amaterasu, the deity *of the mirror* in front of him is sunk into the ground until “her” thighs, and dressed, behaving like a male warrior, and that both Susano and she is beside a pool of water, "heaven's well of true names." This is the image that Susano would see of a manly shouting warrior, if he looked into a pool of water at his own reflection. The reason that the image appears buried in the ground up to "her" knees, spraying the ground like slush, is either a result of the angle at which he is looking at the pool at his feet (please see this photo)
www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/5491154351/
perhaps with his feet entering the water a little, and if so, hence the "kicking around slushy snow."

If Susano is seeing a water surface acting as a mirror then it would explain why he and Amaterasu (his reflection?) is able to chew the jewels and swords(2) that they are wearing. Reaching down into the water, he may scoop their reflection, "chew" on them and spit them out.

The Myth of Susano vs The Myth of Narcissus
The myth also presents a very interesting duality: a myth in a myth. Amaterasu is presented as a living entity (a deity) and yet, reading between the lines, she might be interpreted as a mirror, or mirror image. She represents, therefore, a possible misconception on the part of the protagonist, Susano, and from a Buddhist (or Lacanian) view of self, this is what one might hope be described in a description of the development of self. Finally, under this interpretation the Susano Amaterasu myth relates in interesting way with the myth of Narcissus.

Freud used the myth of Narcissus, who falls in love with his reflection to explain why humans come to identify with self-image, and to form a nascent self. What Freud failed to mention, but as John Brenkman (1976) points out, is that myth of Narcissus too contains a duality, a double copying, a myth within a myth. Narcissus even as he falls in love with his own image (which is presented as an image, and his undoing) he is loved by Echo, who, though she is only ever represented in the narrative as the vocal repetition of words that Narcissus speaks, is present (as Amaterasu is present) as an personae. The parallel between the structure of Narcissus, and Susano may be argued to increase in the next part of the myth.

Notes
(1) A survey of Mexican converts to Christianity taking part in pagan-Christian syncretistic festival for the dead, by my professor, Nobukyo Nomura, found that the participants were generally only familiar with these two parts of the bible: the myth of the fall and an outline of the New Testament
Kawai Hayao reports that Hidden Christians believed that once upon a time a long time ago humans committed a sin which has stayed with their descendents, but if they pray to the Christian God then they would be forgiven. Kawaii seems to have concluded that Hidden Christians are therefore different from Christians in general but, perhaps they had the general gist of the Christian story.
(2) The jewels and swords that Amaterasu and Susano are wearing are two of the jewels of the Japanese imperial regalia, the third being the mirror itself.
(3) Brenkman. J (1976) “Narcissus in the Text”, Georgia Review, 30, pp293-327.
Posted by timtak at March 4, 2011 12:50 PM