COSMOGONIES AND THEOGONIES IN THE OLDEST WORK OF JAPANESE LITERATURE

Abstract

Each mythology and every religion in the world have their own cosmogonies, i.e. different myths and theories of the genesis of the universe. What is characteristic of the Japanese mythology, is the identification of cosmogony with the theogonies and etiological myths, since the deity – kami at the same time personifies the origin of various elements of the animate and non-animate nature, and the achievements of civilization.
After the spontaneous genesis of the first gods, the theogonical processes continued by sexual intercourse of the couple of gods – demiurges. Further on, the gods of the Japanese pantheon mainly originated by miscellaneous metamorphoses. Among other things, either the excretions, or the blood and parts of the body of the murdered god are transformed into the divine – kami, whose name signifies what element is personified. After the god’s return from the Land of the Dead, the impurity and the different objects which the god carried with him are transformed into deities. Finally, the deities developed also by parthenogenesis, from parts of the sword or jewels in possession of the divine couple.