Amenouzume
Amenouzume ( Japanese ア メ ノ ウ ズ メ ; also Ame-no-uzume-no-kami or Ame-no-uzume-no-mikoto ( Kojiki : 天宇 受 賣命 , Nihonshoki : 天 鈿 女 命 ); Karl Florenz translates the name as "the deterrent woman of heaven ”) is a female kami in Shinto mythology . The dance of the amenouzume is considered to be the original form of the Shinto sacred dance Kagura .
Dance for Amaterasu
Shortly after Susanoo 's last visit to his sister Amaterasu before his exile from Takamanohara , this wreaked havoc in the heavenly realms and devastated much of what had previously been built up according to heavenly order.
Amaterasu was so shocked and angry about this that she hid in the Heavenly Rock Cave ( Ame-no-iwa-ya ) and locked the door behind her, whereupon it was eternal night ( toko-yo ) in the heavenly realms and on earth and immediately a wail broke out among the eighty myriad kami. So they gathered at the riverbed of the Calm River of Heaven and devised a plan to get Amaterasu out of the cave.
The part of amenouzume was to perform a sacred dance. To do this, she took various relics (including a hand support band ( tasuki ) made of club moss from the heavenly Kagu Mountain, headdress ( kazura ) made from the leaves of the spindle tree (Kojiki) or Sakaki (Nihonshoki), a bouquet of hands made of bamboo grass ( sasa- ba ; not in Nihonshoki) and a spear ( hoko ; not in Kojiki)), lit a fire (not in Kojiki) and put a sound board ( uke fusete ; Kojiki) or an inverted trough ( uke , Nihonshoki) in front of the cave, then stomped on it and pantomimed as if she were possessed and divine inspiration. The passage immediately following is probably one of the most discussed in Shinto mythology. It can only be found in this way in Kojiki. The dance is not mentioned in two alternative narratives of the Nihonshoki; in the main version of the Nihonshoki and in the Kogoshūi , the obscenely criminalized parts of the dance from the Kojiki, which Basil Hall Chamberlain compelled for the translation into English in 1906, are missing to change the corresponding passage into Latin ( usque ad privates partes ):
“[Amenouzume] pulled out the warts of her breasts and pulled the hem of her robe down to the pubic area.
Then the high heaven shook and the eight hundred myriad gods all laughed together. "
Amaterasu heard this laughter and was so amazed at the openly displayed exuberance despite the darkness it caused in the sky that she opened the door to the rock apartment a little and asked why. Amenouzume then indicated that the Heavenly Kami would all be happy because there was a deity who was even more glorious than Amaterasu. At the same time, the other Heavenly Kami set up a mirror specially made for this purpose in such a way that Amaterasu - curious to find out who the more glorious Kami was and astonished by her own face - could finally be pulled out of the cave while peeking and everything became light again.
Service to Ninigi
When Ninigi was sent to earth by Amaterasu and Takamimusubi to rule over them, there was a kami at the heavenly eight crossroads ( yachi-mata ) whose identity was initially unclear. He seemed terrible, or at least very powerful, so Amenouzume was sent ahead to find out who this Kami was. According to the Kojiki, Amaterasu and Takamimusubi gave her the order with the words:
“Even if you are a weak-handed woman, you are a deity who looks victoriously at [hostile] opposing gods. So you should go there all by yourself and ask: 'Who is staying on the path on which our noble child wants to bring about the descent from heaven?' "
In Nihonshoki, the other Heavenly Kami were very scared of the mysterious Kami on the Way of the Cross and this passage precedes the question that Amenouzume posed to the Kami:
“Ame no Uzume then bared her breasts, pulled the ribbon of her woman's skirt down to below her navel, and faced him with a sneering laugh. The God of the Crosses asked them and said: 'Ame no Uzume! for what reason are you doing this? ' She replied and said, 'I would like to take the liberty of asking who is the one who remains in this [boorish] way on the path that the child of Ama-terasu Oho-mi-kami is walking along?' "
The Kami then introduced himself as the Earthly Kami Sarutahiko , who had heard of Ninigi's impending descent and was now humbly waiting for him to offer him services as a guide ( saki ) upon his arrival . Ameonouzume reported this in heaven and accompanied Sarutahiko on his tour of Ninigis.
Following and adoration
According to the Nihonshoki, Amenozume received from Ninigi the name of the deity she discovered as Kabane and Uji for her services . He gave her and her descendants the name and title Sarume no Kimi ( Saru-me is translated from Florence as “monkey woman”, it is the first part of the name of Sarutahiko. These Sarume are said to have been the first dancers at festivities, forerunners of the Miko ) .
Some commentators consider this to be a marriage between Sarutahiko and Amenozume, which would explain why they are depicted in some pictorial representations together and as a man and woman. In Shinto worship, both often share the same honors of a shrine , for example in the Yūtoku-inari shrine (Kashima, Saga prefecture ; there it bears the name Ōmiya-no-me-no-kami ), together with Uga-tama -no-mikoto at Fushimi Inari-Taisha and Saruta-hiko-jinja (a massha of the Mitsumine Shrine in Saitama Prefecture ). Other names by which she is worshiped include Miya-bi-no-kami , Ō-ichi-hime , Ō-miya-hime, and Ō-yama-hime .
Alone, Amenozume is worshiped in only a few shrines, including the Reino-mimae-sha (a massha of Atsuta-jingū ). With other kami besides Sarutahiko, she is entrusted to the Ebisu-jinja (a sessha of the Himuka shrine in the Higashiyama-ku district of Kyoto ) and in the Ichido-sha (a subsidiary shrine of the Kibitsu shrine in Okayama).
The dance of the Amenouzume is the model for many Kagura dances in all kinds of rites up to the Daijō-sai , part of the Tennō's accession to the throne in imperial Shintō. She traditionally receives special admiration for her dance for Amaterasu by the various guilds or organizations of professional dancers in Japan.
A popular motif (especially for netsuke and masks of the Nō theater) in Japanese art is her smiling full moon face with the chubby cheeks that are thicker below than above, the protruding forehead, flat nose, thin and curvy eyes and the open, small one Mouth. This motif, which is not supposed to look beautiful, but nevertheless joyful and enchanting, is also called Okame or Otafuku .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697 , translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by William George Aston . Book II, page 77. Tuttle Publishing. Tra Edition (July 2005). First edition published: 1972. ISBN 978-0-8048-3674-6 .
- ↑ Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697 , translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by William George Aston . Book II, page 79. Tuttle Publishing. Tra Edition (July 2005). First edition published: 1972. ISBN 978-0-8048-3674-6 .
Web links
- Mori Mizue: "Amenouzume" . In: Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugaku-in , April 21, 2005 (English)