Quaint Japanese Legend

Shannon News, 27 December 1929, Page 4

Quaint Japanese Legend

THE PAST RENEWED. In Japanese mythology the sun.goddess, Amaterasu, is considered the hea venly ancestor of all the Emperors of Japan. She is the supreme deity of the Shinto pantheon } having sprung into being from the eye of her father, Izanagi.

Certain Japanese customs of to-day can. be traced to an incident in her career, the flight from her prank-play-ing brother Susano-wo, the god of the sea, who later went to the nether-land to live. He frightened his sister so that she fled to a cave and shut herself in, thereby taking all suulight from the land.

The (800 myriad deities" tried to entice her from the cave. A mirror was made from the "heavenly metal mountains," and a dancer danced outside tnp cave. The sun goddess came cut and was entranced by her own reflection in the mirror. A straw rope was then placed across the entrance to the cave, and the goddess could not return.

The straw rope, shinienawa, is at present used in the New Year's- festivi, ties as a symbol to keep sunlight and prosperity in the Japanese home.