Japanese Mythology: Its Cultural Background

In Japan, mythology was a very important aspect in everyday life. Many believed in gods and goddesses that helped shape the universe as it is today.

Most Japanese mythology revolves around their shinto beliefs. In the early 8th century, the Japanese began recording their religious beliefs. Shintoism believes in the worship of nature, ancestors, and heroes, and in the idea that every Shintoism aspect of nature had a divine spirit. The Chinese were also a major influence in Japanese religion, art and literature, starting from 552 A.D; a lot of the Japanese mythology we read today is derived from similar ideas of the Chinese. 

The two main books on Japanese mythology were written by authors who wanted to reduce exterior influences on their earliest religious beliefs. The books were also produced at a time in which the Japanese believed that their old myths were fact. 

These two books are: The Kojiki (Record of Ancients Matters, 712 A.D) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720 A.D.) Both were submitted to the Imperial Court, and were written in compliance with commands handed down by the reigning Empresses and were intended to glorify and strengthen Japan’s Imperial rule. The first chapter of each book focuses on myths about the birth and descendants of the Great Goddess Amaterasu, the ancestors of Japan’s Imperial Line. The last chapters of both show what was done and said by the human kin of Amaterasu.