The Mythology of Okami Archive You're on the first page. | New Search | You're on the last page. (Displaying all posts 0 through 215 of 215) Okami Tea Giveaway! [ Posted Sun, 27 Oct 2013 01:48:00 ] To celebrate 700 followers on this blog, and also because I just finished Okami again, I’m going to give away some Okami tea blends! Whether you’re fresh in the world of tea, a loose-leaf veteran, or anywhere in between, this could be a great chance to try something new. Anyway, what could be better than Okami and free stuff? On November 10, I will pick one random winner. Likes and reblogs both count. I will ship to anywhere in the world! If the winner is within the contiguous US, you may choose any two 3-ounce pouches of tea you like. However, due to the cost of international shipping, a winner outside that zone may choose one. (This stipulation is subject to change depending on my funds when this ends, though!) Good luck! c: Tagged with: okami, okamiden, tea Princess Kaguya [ Posted Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:45:00 ] The legend of Kaguya-hime, known as the Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter, dates back to the 10th century, and is the earliest surviving Japanese narrative. Her story is largely simplified, but kept mostly intact compared to other stories in Okami, except for the iron bamboo shoot. This tale is considered proto-science fiction, so it seems all the more fitting that Okami took it a step further into modern sci-fi. The story, briefly, is as follows: One day, an old bamboo cutter happened across a strange, glowing bamboo stalk within a grove. He cut it open to find a baby girl the size of his thumb. He and his wife had no children, so he was overjoyed to find her, and brought her home where the old couple raised her lovingly. They named her Nayotake-no-Kaguya-hime, the Princess of the Bending Bamboo that Scatters Light. After that, whenever the old man cut down a stalk of bamboo, he would find a gold nugget inside, and he became rick. Kaguya-hime, meanwhile, grew to an ordinary size and became an extremely beautiful young woman. Hearing of her beauty, five princes came to ask for her hand in marriage. The man didn’t want her to marry them, but the princes convinced him to let her choose among them. Kaguya-hime told each of them to bring to her an item that would be impossible to find, such as the Buddha’s begging bowl or a jewel from the neck of a dragon. Three of them tried to bring her fakes, one gave up, and one was killed or severely wounded on his quest, depending on the story. All of them failed. After that, the Emperor himself asked for her hand in marriage, but she again refused, arguing that she was not of this country. Kaguya-hime started to act more erratic, and her parents grew worried. That summer, when she gazed at the full moon, she began to cry. She revealed that she was from the Moon and must return to her people there. When the time came for her to return, the Emperor himself set guards all around the house to keep the people of the Moon from getting to her, but it was all in vain. The beings from the Moon blinded the guards with light, and Kaguya announced that though she loved all her family and friends on Earth, she had to leave. She wrote letters of apology to her parents and the Emperor, giving her parents her robe as a momento, and the Emperor a small vial with an elixir of immortality. As she handed the note to an Imperial guard, she was adorned with a feather robe that allows heavenly beings to fly between the heavens and the Earth. Her parents watching with tears in their eyes, the lunar entourage brought her home to the capital of the moon, Tsuki-no-Miyako. The story doesn’t quite end there; her parents, wrought with sadness, became sick and bedridden. When the Emperor received Kaguya-hime’s letter, he asked which mountain reached closest to Heaven. So he sent his men to burn the letter at the summit of the great mountain of Suruga Province, along with the elixir, for he couldn’t bear to live forever without her. He hoped that the smoke would reach her and bear her his message. Legend holds that the name of the mountain, Mt. Fuji, came from the word for “immortality” (fushi or fuji). The name’s kanji mean “mountain abounding with warriors”, which were perhaps inspired by the image of the Emperor’s army rising up the mountain to burn the letter. Finally, since this story arose during a time when the volcano was still active, it was said that the smoke from the letter still burns to this day. [From a linguistic standpoint, since one of my professors mentioned this once, the name “Fuji” did not quite fit Japanese phonemes at the time it seems to have been given; it is thought to have come from the language of the people who lived in Japan before the ethnic Japanese. The Ainu are descended from these people.] In different versions of the story, there are various reasons for why Kaguya-hime was sent to Earth. Some say it was a punishment for a crime; some say it was to protect her from a celestial war. Some also say that the gold the bamboo cutter found was compensation sent for the cost of raising her. The Moon Tribe is depicted as a technologically advanced race, but not a divine one. Thus Kaguya rides a bamboo rocket, and is equipped with a helmet like an astronaut’s and what appears to be a jet pack, instead of a feathered hagoromo. She wears a junihitoe-styled robe with five layers (instead of the customary twelve), and a pleated train (mo, which were commonly white) with a rocket/moon motif. The bamboo leaves on her head resemble rabbit ears, furthering the moon motif, as the Japanese see a rabbit in the moon instead of a man. (The rabbit is also seen as pounding mochi, hence Yumigami’s design and the reason for the moon god being a rabbit.) All female nobility and ladies in waiting wore robes like junihitoe, but the color combinations one chose spoke of one’s rank and character. Specific combinations would suggest personality traits or a sensitivity to the season, and some colors were restricted to certain ranks. The outer color of Kaguya’s robe may be a medium shade of kurenai, a color that was reserved for royalty, referring to her status as a princess. More on Heian female court wear Some color combinations Story/image source: [x] Tagged with: the celestial war thing is my headcanon but I like the punishment idea too..., okami, okamimythology, kaguya, moon tribe, kaguya-hime Namahage [ Posted Fri, 18 Oct 2013 16:44:00 ] Namahage reside in the forests of Tohoku (northeastern Japan), and come out to scare lazy and misbehaving children so that they act properly. They are famously celebrated in a New Year’s festival in Oga. There is a legend that over two thousand years ago, the Han Emperor came to Japan with five of these demons, and they began to terrorize the area, stealing young women and crops from the villages. The villagers tricked them by making a deal: if the namahage could build a 1000-stone staircase, the villagers promised to give up all of their young women. Otherwise, they had to leave, never to return. The namahage went to work quickly, but as they finished the 999th stair, a villager imitated a rooster to signal dawn, and the namahage quickly ran away. Now, every year, young men of Oga dress up as namahage, wearing large, vicious masks with long hair and straw coats, and wielding a wooden bucket and a knife (which we see with the Bucket and Blade Namahage) and run around the villages bursting into people’s homes in search of children, new wives, and other new members of the community. In a practiced throaty yell they seek to ensure that the newcomers work hard and obey their parents or in-laws. The other members of the house are supposed to come protect the victims, assuring the namahage that these are good people, and sating them with a little food and sake. Oga also celebrates a Sedo Matsuri, or Demon Mask Festival, in mid-February. The festival begins at Shinzan Shrine, where dozens of men are given masks purified by Shinto priests, and then “become” namahage, and climb up the mountain. Dances and performances are held at the shrine, and the festival finishes with the spectacular descent of the namahage horde bearing torches down the snowy trail. They walk among the visitors and receive mochi roasted by priests on the Sedo fire, and return to the mountain. Of Okami’s namahage, only the Cannon Namahage embodies traditional namahage, as it seeks to scare the lazy and cowardly into action and courage. Physically, they act and make guttural cries like namahage, but otherwise their behavior has nothing to do with the kind known to Japan. In fact, the regular Namahage regards the lazy as allies. Even though they are not endemic to Hokkaido, as they are to Kamui, their relationship to northern Honshu and the snowy winter mountains (not to mention their warm, protective straw coats) makes them a suitable demon for the location.