On a Godless Planet:Volume3A Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Wonder Library 02[edit]
–One common trait of indigenous gods is extremely filthy content.
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“Listen,” began Tenma.
“I chose three of the top excrement stories in Shinto.”
1. A god was born from the excrement that left Izanami during her post-childbirth pain.
2. Susanoo ascended to Takamagahara and defiled a temple by defecating in it.
3. A god is killed after making food out of excrement.
“For #1, Izanami, one of the main gods in Shinto’s early times, expelled excrement and vomit, which became gods. The important point here is that these things did not need to be purified. Meaning…”
“”That anything coming from Izanami’s body was holy without needing purification?”
“Correct. Anything coming from a main god’s body, with no exceptions, is holy and can even become a god. This was proven with a god’s excrement.”
“But,” someone else cut in.
“For #2, the excrement of a god named Susanoo was considered impure? Even though #1 said anything coming from a god is holy?”
●
Hearing Bilgamesh’s question, Kuwajiri viewed the three examples Tenma had listed.
“I see. This is complicated.”
Why was that?
“As Bilgamesh-senpai said, #1 depicts a god’s excrement as holy, but #2 depicts it as impure. Do the myths explain why this is?”
“They do not.”
Kuwajiri sensed a challenge in Tenma’s response. Like she was daring Kuwajiri to come up with an explanation. So she thought about it while considering what happened afterwards.
She came up with…
“The simplest explanation would be that the rank of the gods dropped between Izanami and Susanoo.”
“It is true Susanoo is from the generation after Izanami. But that explanation still leaves a contradiction in the treatment of excrement.”
What was that? Tenma gave a small nod that told Kuwajiri she was on the right track.
Then Tenma explained.
“In #1, excrement was holy. In #2, it was impure. And in #3…”
3. A god is killed after making food out of excrement.
“That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
She took a breath.
“The god who served excrement as food is Ogetsu-hime in the Kojiki and Ukemochi in the Nihon Shoki. And the god who kills her for the impurity is Susanoo in the Kojiki and Tsukuyomi in the Nihon Shoki.”
Do you see it now?
“Ogetsu-hime was Izanagi and Izanami’s child, which puts her in the same generation as Susanoo. So in the same generation, you have Susanoo’s excrement being impure and Ogetsu-hime’s being holy enough to act as divine food. And it tells us that Susanoo was unaware that the excrement of gods in his generation was holy.”
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“Can’t we just chalk this up to myths being inconsistent?”
“Huh!? What are you talking about!? What part of our myths are inconsistent!? We wouldn’t be here if they weren’t so consistent!”
“I am very sorry.”
“Hey, don’t apologize so much. You’ll run out of variations.”
●
“We can discuss the consistency, or lack thereof, of myths some other time.”
Tenma was kind of happy to see everyone looking her way. She had originally been a politician, but now she was a god of learning.
“Listen. The excrement of the gods from the older generation was holy. The excrement of one of their children was holy too. But the excrement of Susanoo, another of their children and a major one at that, was impure. There is a way of explaining this. Any ideas?”
“Maybe Susanoo was an impure god?”
That was a very straightforward answer. But…
“It’s a good guess.”
“Eh? Do you mean that isn’t it? But Susanoo was a trickster who got into all sorts of trouble during his time in Takamagahara and he only became a good god after being exiled down to the Divine States.”
“That is true, but the Shinto myths tell us Susanoo is the god of the sea and the storms. If he were simply a wind god, you could say he was the ‘wind’ that blows in pestilence, but his storm side instead makes him an awe-inspiring being who blows away even impurities. He is a powerful purifying force. That is why he was able to restrain his power and become a good god.”
“In that case.” Kido raised a hand. “Was Susanoo not actually Izanagi and Izanami’s child?”
●
Kido had a tendency of focusing on these parent-child relationships.
“You have been vague in your wording. You clearly stated that Ogetsu-hime is Izanagi and Izanami’s child, but you only said Susanoo is ‘from the generation after Izanami’.”
“That’s suspicious. What do you think about this, Senpai-san?”
“Eh? Oh, um, uh, Susanoo is Izanagi’s child, isn’t he?”
Tenma-san answered Douhai-san’s doubtful question with a curving of her lips and a smile.
“Yes, Susanoo is Izanagi’s child. But…”
But…
“Susanoo is only said to be Izanagi and Izanami’s child in the Nihon Shoki. The Kojiki, on the other hand, depicts Susanoo as a motherless god who was born from the water rinsed from Izanagi’s nose when he purified himself.”
●
“So, hey,” said a voice.
“I’ve been wondering something while I listen to all this.”
“And what is that?”
“Well.” The harvest god nodded. “When Susanoo did his thing in the temple, who was it that decided it was impure?”
Tenma had an immediate response.
“Amaterasu and her followers.”
What did that mean?
Tenma thought – from the bottom of her heart – that something was twisted within Shinto.
“Don’t you find that fascinating? In the Nihon Shoki, it was Tsukuyomi who killed Ukemochi because she viewed the excrement food as impure, but in the Kojiki, she had a motherless birth just like Amaterasu and Susanoo.
“In the Kojiki, Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi are all born from Izanagi without going through Izanami, whose excrement was depicted as holy, and all three of them are involved in stories where excrement is shown as impure.”
“D-does that connection mean anything?”
“These are myths, remember?”
Everyone gasped a bit at the knowledge god’s statement.
They understood. They had begun the terraforming and were beginning to act as gods, but there was one thing that’s influence they could not escape.
“The myths that created us cannot escape the nature, history, and plans of the humans who invented them.”
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“It’s hard to say,” said Omokane, looking up at the library ceiling. “Think about it. Their natures as gods differed, but all three were counted as mainstream Shinto gods despite the irregular means of their birth. Why do you think the mythology would develop that way?”
“Maybe there were some mainstream indigenous myths and the winners of a political or factional victory deified them and had them added into the mythology as gods?”
That was a good answer, but the opposite was also possible.
“Another view is that there were stories of three Earthly Gods and then aspects of the foreign Heavenly Gods were added to their stories. Even now there are people convinced that foreign culture is so much classier and superior than their own.”
“What makes you think that happened here?”
“Because the Ogetsu-hime story is a textbook Hainuwele myth.”
●
“Wait, I thought we were talking about poop stories, so what’s this ‘high nude ‘ stuff?”
<That would be Hainuwele, idiot.>
“And what is that?”
Balancer answered while ignoring the idiot making a funny face and glaring up at them from below.
<There are in fact stories around the world much like the Ogetsu-hime story. Someone is served food, they look into how it was made and discover it was made with excrement, and they kill the person who made it. Then that person’s corpse turns into grains, vegetables, and fruits, giving the people of the earth plenty to eat.>
Now…
<The Hainuwele myths get their name from an Indonesian goddess, but that does not mean that is the origin of these myths. It is merely a good example of the connection between the serving of food and excrement.>
“Similarly, Ogetsu-hime and Ukemochi’s corpse becomes the source of grains and such.”
<Yes. In Shinto’s case, both the connection between food and excrement and the corpse becoming grains are shared with myths around the world.>
“Yeah, that happens sometimes. Like with our defeated giant becoming the cornerstone of the land.”
<Do you know why places all around the world have stories about corpses becoming the foundation of the harvest?>
“I do, but I’d rather not say it.”
Balancer could understand why, so they asked the others instead.
<Does anyone know?>
“I’ll say it.” Enkidu raised a hand. “It’s a remnant of when human sacrifices were made to ensure a good harvest.”
●
“Indeed. In ancient times, human sacrifices were a necessary part of human rituals. To ensure they continued to receive blessings from heaven, they would give back to the gods by offering up themselves, where the blessings had ended up. In other words, they were kept alive by the gods, so they repaid that debt by becoming ‘food’ for the gods so they could receive more blessings. This was the result of the primitive believe that ‘to live is to eat’.”
Omokane sighed.
“They would offer human sacrifices to receive blessings. These could be violent rituals, sometimes even including cannibalism. The bones found in prehistoric human ruins prove this.”
“Please don’t try to say all of them did that.”
“I’m not painting with that broad a brush. But the Hainuwele myths are an evolution of that. Some of the peoples with those myths did have human sacrifices rituals based on the myth. The person was later replaced with a boar, though. Probably because it would be too harmful otherwise.”
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“For meeee, I replaced the huuuuman with a raaaam.”
<That may be a record of the historical turning point when the culture of human sacrifices was replaced by something else.>
<Now,> said Balancer. <The story of Ogetsu-hime is a Hainuwele myth. That means either Ogetsu-hime is a foreign god, or her story had strong foreign influence. But…Susanoo and Tsukuyomi are not foreign, are they?>
“Wh-what does that mean?”
“A foreign and already complete god and myth were incorporated into Shinto mythology as something excellent. And the god was made an important god in Shinto.”
What did that lead to?
“Ukemochi and Ogetsu-hime were foreign gods, so to show off their excellence, they were made Izanami’s child and their excrement was holy. But Susanoo and Tsukuyomi were indigenous and also homages to politicians, so they viewed excrement as impure. How does that sound?”
“This borrowing of gods and a hierarchy of gods is a lot like with Mr. Vomit!”
●
Kuwajiri actually nodded at the idiot’s comment.
“That’s right,” she began. “It’s possible Ogetsu-hime and Ukemochi had their own indigenous stories. Or it’s possible the foreign god featured in the Hainuwele myth had a name that translated into Japanese as Ogetsu-hime. Either way, it means Japanese mythology took in foreign elements to strengthen themselves or eliminate their weaknesses just like Greek mythology did.”
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“But we need to take this a step further! Because I want to talk about some nasty stuff!”
“Someone’s excited.”
“I’ve given up trying to stop you…”
“What’s this!? Show a little excitement, Kubiko-kun! This is important!”
Omokane opened a Revelation Board and displayed a family tree of the Shinto gods.
“The Shinto gods’ parentage sometimes differs between the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Let’s take a look at Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi.”
- Kojiki
- Amaterasu: Born from Izanagi.
- Susanoo: Born from Izanagi.
- Tsukuyomi: Born from Izanagi.
- Nihon Shoki
- Amaterasu: Born from Izanagi and Izanami.
- Susanoo: Born from Izanagi and Izanami.
- Tsukuyomi: Born from Izanagi and Izanami.
“So he’s not a single father in that version?”
“Makes it sound like they had a more fulfilling family life there, doesn’t it?”
Where did this difference come from?
“We know what this difference means.”
“We do,” someone agreed.
This came from…
“Having those three also related to Izanami gave them greater power. And when these myths were made, there were people – people on the political stage – who wanted those three to be more powerful.”
●
It was a simple matter.
It came down to the people connected to the myths.
“First of all, the older Kojiki is closer to the original versions of the myths. But when it was compiled, they collected myths from all over and used those myths to bolster the emperor’s power. Shinto has the structure of a later religion because humanity had already developed to that point.”
But…
“When you look at the Kojiki, there are places where they could have done that bolstering better. Particularly, to give the country’s ruler legitimacy, Amaterasu and Susanoo had to be made more powerful. Because the emperor was considered a descendant of the former and the latter was a hero who had set the country on the right path. So what if the Nihon Shoki rewrote those three gods so they were children of both creator gods?”
“I get doing that for Amaterasu and Susanoo, but why would they do it for Tsukuyomi too?”
“In the Kojiki, those three gods were given special status, so Tsukuyomi had to be included when the other two were made the children of Izanagi and Izanami. But I think whoever or whatever faction Tsukuyomi was modeled after had lost power by then.”
She had explained why earlier.
“In Japan, north star worship became mainstream in place of having a star god. In that sense, Tsukuyomi may have represented the astrologers of ancient Japan.”
“May I ask something?”
Tenma nodded at the other knowledge god’s request.
She had noticed something when the initial three excrement story examples had been given.
“Why does Susanoo kill Ogetsu-hime in the Kojiki, but Tsukuyomi kills Ukemochi in the Nihon Shoki?”
“Why do you think?”
“Well,” she replied. “In the Nihon Shoki, Amaterasu was established as a political god and part of the emperor’s family line. Susanoo was established as a hero of the people. If they included a story of him killing another god, he wouldn’t seem so heroic anymore. So maybe to get rid of that story, they had Tsukuyomi – who represented the fallen north star worship – kill another god, Ukemochi.”
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“It is admittedly a conspiracy theory. But if you notice how few stories there are about Tsukuyomi-kun and how Ogetsu-hime is a Hainuwele myth, you can keep going and dig deeper. Because Shinto was developed so much later than other mythologies, there is a lot more extant material to look at, which leads to plenty of fun things to point out about myths that have been told to death.”
“Why do you sound so proud when you’re just making things up?”
“Oh, but I can impress my clients by telling them all this!”
●
Kido thought to herself while everyone finally took a break from their excited fantasizing.
…We have gotten extremely off topic.
They had started off talking about making this place into a base. And that got off track when…
…W-when Izumi brought up something weird!
Was that the power of a human? Should I be proud?
But as much as it all seemed like a waste of time, she did have a thought.
“Douhai-san?”
“Hwuh!? What is it!?”
“You really don’t have to freak out like that.”
But…
“I quite enjoy when we all chat like this...just maybe not always this particular topic.”
“The divine world is in the 90s and we’re students, so we don’t have to worry about supporting ourselves and there is plenty of entertainment. We aren’t enemies or trying to search out each other’s weaknesses, so I think interacting with other cultures like this is important.”
Kido nodded repeatedly to that. She did think they could go about it more efficiently, but…
“Understanding each other may be the greatest example of something where efficiency doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, like what was with that discussion just now? So when a Shinto god screws up, they rewrite the myths to help them out? Why couldn’t I get that treatment!?”
<If you ask me, you “screwed up” so frequently it distorted your personality in the myths.>
As the topic began to drift, Raidou-san raised his hand.
“We do understand two things now. One, to continue with the terraforming, we need to settle things with the flame dragons, which means building a base and recruiting help.”
And…
“Two, Senpai-san needs to solidify her mental image of what this base is going to look like. Right now, we’d just end up with a temple-like shrine, right?”
“Sounds like Senpai-chan has some homework.”
“I-I’ll do my best!”
“And I’ll root for you! From a low angle!”
Kido wasn’t sure what Izumi meant by that, but she knew what she was going to do if Douhai-san was working on this.
“I will provide help if you are having difficulty. We can work together to solidify your mental image before the next terraforming session.”
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