Week 7 Story: Izanami and Tacibana

"Matsu no shima in Night Rain" by Kawase Hasui.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Tacibana glanced at her watch and was surprised to find that it was almost 2 in the afternoon. It was difficult for her to keep track of the time, even after all these millennia, because the land of Yomi receives no sunlight. Living (used loosely here, for Tacibana and all her neighbors were long-dead) in the underworld wasn’t so bad once she got used to it, but she never stopped missing the sun.

Although she hadn’t slept since her earthly life, she often lounged on the silk sheets of her bed, as she was doing now. She raised herself up until she was vertical, her feet hovering just above the wooden floor, and started toward the library.

The spirits, both mortal women and goddesses, were beginning to drift into the conference room. When Tacibana reached the front entrance of the library, she turned and glided down to join the gathering group. The white-walled room was rather quiet, as are most places in the land of the dead, with only whispering voices and the occasional soft whoosh as two spirits brushed past each other.

Tacibana lowered herself onto a chair and looked across the circle. Quickly she put her head down, her pale cheeks somehow flushed despite her lack of blood. She glanced up again and confirmed it to herself: the famous goddess Izanami was really here, at her support group! What problems could the co-creator of the world have? wondered Tacibana.

The group had been meeting for a few centuries – quite recent for Yomi standards. The women, wronged by their loved ones in life and still holding onto the pain that should have been let go of at their death, met monthly to talk to and support each other in their various griefs. So why was Izanami, the most beautiful and life-giving force in any realm, here?

“I am here because, like all of you, I was deeply hurt by my loved ones,” sang out Izanami. “But I was hurt not just by my loved ones, but by my very own children. And not only was I hurt by my children, I was hurt by them because my love was too great. The ever-expanding love I felt, and feel, for my Earth Children caused me shame among my God Children, and that is what I cannot let go of. To be shamed for my loving actions, to be exiled for selflessness…I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.”

Silence fell upon the group, and many women nodded solemnly, but none more solemnly than Tacibana, who knew the pain of being outcast for her love and self-sacrifice.

Izanami took the silence as a beckoning to explain herself. She went on, “From the beginning I was there. Izanagi and I came from blossoming flowers, and we descended to walk around the Pillar of the Earth. By him I gave birth to the Earth and to all its gods and people; I crafted and released the mountains and rivers and dirt. I gave all of myself for the world. And I loved my God Children and my Earth Children so intensely that I wanted each to have everything. But when I asked my God Children to use their dominion to aid my Earth Children, they exiled me. I was cast out, down to Earth, where I bore two more children and died alone. I did everything I could for all my children, and I was sent to my death because I loved too much. It’s difficult to know whether I made the right choice by being ever-loving and self-sacrificial, for my less charitable children are still reigning today.”

“I question my choices in the same way, my goddess,” ventured Tacibana. “I gave everything, even my life, for my husband, even though for much of our marriage he was unfaithful and even hateful to me. The image of our life together is me running toward him through fire, the ends of my hair singed and my skin black from the flames, tearing off my burning clothes and carrying his sword.”

Tacibana stopped for a moment, remembering that day. Her husband had been away with his army, but because of her great devotion to him she could sense that he was in trouble. She had grabbed his sword off its hooks and run through the night to him. When she arrived, the whole campsite was in flames, but she ran through them to her beloved. As he cut the grass with the sword to push back the fire, she had been elated, thinking that finally he would see her value and his infidelities would cease.

“And the next day, he sent me home because my skin and hair made me hideous in his sight. And he went off to see his siren lover. That’s the image of our marriage.”

Izanami looked her up and down. “And you sacrificed yourself for this man? Do you regret it?” she asked.

Tacibana looked back at her. “No,” she said. “No, I don’t think so. The memory is painful to me and I hate that our marriage is summed up in such a horrible story, but I’m proud of what I did for my husband. I find my strength in my forgiveness and devotion. When I first arrived here in Yomi, I wondered whether I had made the right choice, sacrificing myself for someone who never would have done so for me. But I am not weak because of my great love; I am strong because of it. To love over and over again after each wrongdoing is strength. My husband was weak, but I was strong for the both of us. And in the underworld, my strength keeps me going more than earthly justice could. Yes, I am happy to call my love too great for Earth.”

Author’s Note: This story is a retelling of a series of stories in Japanese mythology. In “Izanami and Izanagi,” the goddess Izanami gives birth to all the world and the beings in it, but she is exiled from the heavens because the gods resent her love for her Earth Children. She dies on Earth shortly after her exile. In “The Grass-Cleaving Sword,” a mortal character named Tacibana runs through fire to deliver a sacred sword to her husband, Yamato. He saves himself and his army with this sword, but the next day (in the story “The Sacred Sword”) he sends Tacibana home because he thinks she is ugly due to the effects of the fire on her hair and body. Later, in “The Dragon,” Tacibana gives up her life as a sacrifice so that he can continue to live. I was outraged by Yamato’s treatment of Tacibana. He cheats on her throughout their marriage and is constantly annoyed by her despite her sweet devotion to him. I could not believe that he found her scorched skin and hair ugly, when they so directly proved her love for him! I saw a pattern in the stories of Izanami and Tacibana: they were hurt and rejected because of their self-sacrificial love. I decided to write a story in which they meet and discuss their struggles and whether it is good or bad to practice self-sacrificial love.

Bibliography: "Izanami and Izanagi," "The Grass-Cleaving Sword," "The Sacred Sword," and "The Dragon" from The Romance of Old Japan by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Link to the reading online.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

The Grass-Cleaving Sword

I was impressed by the self-sacrifice, strength, and intelligence of Tacibana (Yamato’s unloved wife). On one hand, I felt it was a little sexist that Yamato was unfaithful and unloving and she was praised for never reproaching him for it and always loving him the same. On the other hand, I thought her forgiveness and self-sacrifice were beautiful. I think one could argue equally well that she is weak or strong for continuing to serve her husband when he isn’t good to her.

A beautiful and tragic image: Tacibana, running through the flames to Yamato, with her hair singed and skin scorched and tearing off her clothes as she runs. I questioned whether she was real or not, but she did deliver the sword that saved Yamato.

The Sacred Sword

I was so angry when Yamato told Tacibana to go home because she was hideous to him after he hears the siren song. He cites her scorched skin and hair as the reasons for her ugliness, when those very things are the direct result of sacrificing her health and safety to bring him the sword that saved his life! It’s like he forgets that she saved his life and that he wouldn’t be alive if she didn’t have that scorched skin and hair. So ungrateful!

Tacibana predicts that she will hold Yamato in her hair, and this does eventually happen and is another instance of her saving him.

The Dragon

Benten, the evil siren-goddess, lures Yamato in yet again and tells him that she will hold him forever unless some more beautiful goddess loves him more. Yamato hears his name from above (he is underwater), and he sees long dark hair coming down to him. He realizes that Tacibana is calling his name and that she is the beautiful goddess who loves him. Her hair wraps around him and pulls him up to safety.

When Yamato wakes up, Tacibana is gone. He goes to the palace and finds many dead due to Susanoo in the form of an evil dragon. Tacibana is chanting a prayer to remove the dragon. Yamato kills it, and Tacibana rejoices that he has saved her. Eventually, though, the two go on a voyage to one last battle, and Yamato challenges Susanoo. Benten, Susanoo’s daughter, demands that Yamato die, but Tacibana quickly sacrifices herself, jumping into the water. When Yamato finds her, she is lifeless.

I think Tacibana is just as much of a hero as Yamato, but she is never called one. If I retell this series of stories I would focus on her and the pain that a real person, rather than an imagined perfect woman, would feel from her husband’s infidelities. I would still make her a faithful and self-sacrificing character, but show the strength behind those actions and the pain that she has to deal with due to her husband.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, woodblock print by Hokusai.

Source: Wikipedia.

Bibliography: The Romance of Old Japan by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Link to the reading online.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

Izanami and Izanagi. 

Sketch from Nine Years in Nipon by Henry Faulds.

Source: Flickr.

Izanagi and Izanami

Izanami, the goddess of Love, gives birth to all beings other than Izanagi: the “worlds,” gods, men, sea, mountains, the earth. She brings all knowledge and resources from the world to men, including water, fire, and light.

I love the image of a flowering bud shooting up from an infinite void of chaos and a “night-blooming flower” fluttering down, becoming the sun and moon, respectively. Izanagi and Izanami come from the blossoms of these flowers.

I also love the image of Izanagi and Izanami standing up above the earth, not able to see down into it, and fishing into a “cauldron” to find and create land.

The husband and wife circle around the Pillar of the Earth until they meet each other again; they do this twice and then hold hands and their reign over the world begins.

Izanami gave birth to the deities of different parts of the earth: trees, rivers, mountains, and other “miracles of Nature.”

Their best-loved daughter, the Sun Goddess, is Amaterasu, and their best-loved son, the Moon God, is Susa-no-wo.

Even though she gave birth to all the gods and men of the earth, and to the earth itself, Izanami is exiled because she wants the gods to work for the people of earth (her Earth Children), and the gods become jealous. They are upset because they feel they are above humans and should therefore not have to work for them, because that would be raising humans up above their natural rank.

Izanami is kicked out by her own children and goes down to Earth, where she gives birth to the God of Fire (Kagu-tsuchi) and declares him to be a monster. She is near death but knows that Kagu-tsuchi is a monster, so she also gives birth to the God of Water before dying.

Izanagi goes down through a hole in the earth to the portal of Yomi, and he tries to find and speak to Izanami, but she simply answers that she cannot come back and he should leave. Izanagi continues to look for her, going through Yomi (which is a dangerous thing to do) and eventually giving up in failure. He can hear Izanami moaning but cannot get to her, for when he tries to touch her, she vanishes forever. It’s interesting to me that the gods have such a tragic fate in this story, whereas usually gods have things pretty easy and humans get the rough treatment.

Bibliography: The Romance of Old Japan, by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Link to the reading online.