Legends say that Japan’s Imperial Family descended from Amaterasu, the goddess of the
Sun.
She sent her grandson, Ninigi, down to pacify the land.
Ninigi’s great-grandson became the legendary first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu.
This video explains how this myth came to be, or tries to.
This story of divine ancestry is found in the pair of historical documents called the
Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki.
These texts contain legends and more reliable historical accounts.
It was Emperor Tenmu who authorized their writing, partly to legitimize himself and
Japan’s Imperial Family.
In those days, Japan really really wanted to become equal to the dragon next door, China.
This myth was part of that goal, but the myth did not originate from the texts.
It developed over generations and went through major changes, important figures were added
and removed, sometimes people went back and changed certain gods to fit popular or politically
convenient beliefs.
Since the version in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki is the only one we have, much of the scholarly
research involves parsing inconsistencies and weirdness within the texts themselves,
which can be pretty subjective.
We may never know the truth, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good theories.
The stories recorded in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki came from both oral tradition and older
texts that have since been lost to time or quantum fluctuations in the vacuum state.
Or Trevor, dammit Trevor.
Amaterasu was not always the Yamato Imperial Family’s patron kami.
Kami is a word that can be loosely translated to “god.”
I’ve talked about this in an earlier video.
It seems the Yamato originally worshipped Takami-musubi.
Probably some kind of kami of agriculture.
He was patron kami of the Yamato house, but did they originally claim divine ancestry?
Not sure.
The claim of divine ancestry may have developed gradually, as the idea became popular among
other clans.
At any rate, an early version of the myth held that Takami-musubi sent his son, Ninigi,
down to Earth, and Ninigi’s line eventually became the Imperial line.
Amaterasu was not in the picture.
Some experts have made a strong case that an updated version of the myth later appeared
because of Buddhism.
In the mid-500s, a Paekche king sent some Buddhist scriptures and a statue of Buddha
to Emperor Kinmei.
It sparked a debate in the Japanese court about whether or not they should adopt Buddhism.
It was a vicious fight, resulting in the death of a Buddha statue and of polite tea time
at the Yamato household.
I covered this in a previous video.
The debate birthed entirely new gods from thin air, similar to how babies are made.
On the pro-Buddhist side, we had the Soga clan, who was the #1 trending clan at the
time.
On the anti-Buddhist side, we had the old and powerful Nakatomi and Mononobe clans.
The Nakatomi were religious leaders, they handled rituals for kami worship, so it’s
easy to see why they would oppose a new religion encroaching on their territory.
The Mononobe had more earthly concerns.
They held a lot of power.
If they let the Soga push through Buddhism, the Soga would become the strongest clan.
It was as much a political decision as it was a religious one.
Emperor Kinmei himself seemed to lean pro-Buddhist, which no doubt lit a fire on the other side.
The Nakatomi and Mononobe needed a way to fight the Buddhist threat.
Now in those days, sun worship was common in the Korean kingdoms.
People often called Korean founders children of the Sun.
The idea likely spread to Japan via Korean refugees fleeing wars on the mainland, and
it became all the rage for clans to claim divine ancestry from kami that were related
to the sun.
The anti-Buddhists must have thought it was a good idea to replace Takami-musubi with
a sun kami.
It would have made the myth consistent with the solar god craze at the time, and would
have converted some of the Korean immigrants, who went cuckoo for sun gods.
The problem with this proposal was that the anti-Buddhist crowd was not united.
The deeply religious Nakatomi likely opposed it.
Replacing the ancestral kami was a big change to their beliefs.
It would be as if you told a Christian Jesus wasn’t actually Jesus, he was really, um,
Tyler.
And now she’s gotta worship Tyler.
That wouldn’t fly.
The Mononobe thought differently.
All they wanted was to combat the Soga’s influence, and they would’ve been willing
to make any change necessary, even worshipping Tyler.
Some experts hypothesized that these two factions within the anti-Buddhist crowd settled on
a compromise.
Now tell me if this is a good compromise.
Instead of replacing Takami-musubi, have him marry a sun kami, making Ninigi their son.
It would allow the conservatives like the Nakatomi to claim descent from Takami-musubi,
and also allow the reformers like the Mononobe to claim descent from a sun kami.
Win-win.
Genius, right?
Not quite.
A husband and wife pair leaves room for conflict later on.
Followers may later claim that “Takami-musubi actually wears the pants in this relationship,”
and then we’re back to square one, with a sun goddess not wearing pants.
We can’t have that, so they ended up changing the myth like so: Give Takami-musubi a daughter,
give the sun kami a son, and have those children marry.
Ninigi becomes THEIR son, and the grandson of both Takami-musubi and the sun kami.
This way, you can claim ancestry from both kami, and keep them independent.
So that’s what they did.
The myth changed.
It was starting to look more like the final version.
The sun kami they chose may have been Ohirume, a popular sun kami worshipped in the Kii region
south of Yamato.
It ultimately proved futile.
All that work, and the court adopted Buddhism anyway.
And still, Amaterasu was nowhere to be found.
She was likely added later, we don’t really know why, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t
speculation.
Having a sun kami ancestor allowed the Yamato rulers to claim equal status when dealing
with the Korean kingdoms.
As the Yamato house grew in influence, they would have wanted their kami to be exclusive.
Since Takami-musubi was already claimed by multiple clans, that harlot, emphasizing the
sun kami was the way to go.
They ultimately decided on Amaterasu as their sun kami, and worshipped her at the Ise shrine.
Ise was far east, the sun rises from the east, so it was a good place for a sun kami.
You wouldn’t want a shrine far west because that would mean the sun rises from the west,
and all your dates to watch the sun rise are ruined.
Some say Amaterasu was a kami worshipped by the locals at the Ise shrine since ancient
times.
Since this ancient sun kami was not claimed by a powerful clan, she was a good candidate.
Others say that Ohirume was the kami worshipped at the Ise shrine, who was then replaced by
Amaterasu.
Or even that Ohirume WAS Amaterasu by another name.
When Tenmu came along, he took the divine ancestry myth and ran with it.
The Buddhism debate had long passed and he was free to prop up Amaterasu as the sun goddess
to legitimize his rule.
If nothing else, this whole endeavor shows how these myths, although not real, affected
the real world.
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