ASAKUSA Underground > Kojiki, the book of Japanese legends
Japan is a country of fusion and confusion. The more you know about it,
the more enigmatic you will find it. Sumo, geishas, and Kabuki lie right
next to Manga, video games, and robots.
ASAKUSA Underground will tell you about an episode from Kojiki, which was written one and a half millennia ago.
This may help you to understand the origins of Sumo and performing arts in Japan.
If you use your imagination, you might be able to find there some answers to your questions in other areas, too.
Why, onsens? Why, geishas? Why, Onsen-geishas? Why do Japanese novelists adore onsens and geishas?
---Ama no Iwato (Heaven’s cavern) ---
The sun goddess Amaterasu was quite unhappy because his brother was uncontrollable.
He destroyed the ditches in the rice paddy and left his own excrement all
over the dining room in the palace. At first, she tried to excuse him,
saying “He was drunk. He didn’t do it on purpose.”
However, he did not stop his wrong doings, and one day he made a hole on the top of her weaving atelier and dropped the hide of Heaven’s horse into it. It surprised Heaven’s weaving girls, and one of them accidentally slew herself by thrusting the shuttle into her “lady’s dark valley”.
The sun goddess got scared and hid herself in Heaven’s cavern. She shut its door completely. Consequently, the entire world got dark. A day never broke. In the darkness, evil things often happened.
All the troubled gods got together and discussed the solutions. They came up with a good idea.
First, they made a rooster crow. Then, they made a mirror. They prepared for a fete, too.
A Sumo god stood by the door, and a possessed goddess started dancing.
She danced on a wooden tub upside-down. She kept on stomping it and it made big noises. She pulled out the nipples of her breasts, and pushed down her skirt to expose her “lady’s dark valley”.
Then she played with a string, swinging it in front of the “dark valley”.
Men gods laughed and laughed.
The sun goddess in the cavern wondered, “Why are they laughing?”, and looked outside, slightly opening the door. She saw herself shining on the mirror.
“We have another sun goddess and are happy”, the dancing goddess said.
“It can’t be”, the sun goddess thought and opened the cavern’s door a little more to look at it well.
At that moment, the Sumo god pulled her out and another god closed the door behind her.
When the sun goddess came forward, the world became light again.
[Reference]
www.sacred-text.com/kojiki
天の浮橋 amano ukihashi
[Recommended sites]
・Shogun
将軍 limba, cultura si traditii japoneze
The author would like to leave you the total freedom of interpretation.
It can be the first Japanese Moulin Rouge.
Maybe, not. At least many Japanese artists proudly believe that it is so. To them provocative girls are always goddesses, symbols of life and energy.
Geishas could be descendants of the dancing goddess. That is why many Japanese novelists wrote about them.
The Japanese like partying, too. Don’t those laughing gods remind you of a karaoke party?
The rocky cavern represents nature. Where does nature meet partying? It is in an onsen, hot spring resort. The lewd men gods may answer your question why near an onsen we have a museum of indecency, Hiho-kan. Hot baths and promiscuity come hand in hand. Lechery is a source of fertility. What’s wrong with it? Fertility is the essence of Shintoism.
Onsens also need geishas. They are Onsen-geishas. The word is a pejorative and please do not address anyone with it. However, artists find beauty in places people despise. Komako, the tragic heroine of “Snow Country”, is an Onsen-geisha and a magnificent creation by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, who also adored Asakusa.
Asakusa enjoys descendents of the dancing goddess as well. Check Rockza. You can find god-possessed dancing girls there.
-Asakusa Rockza
2-10-12 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
台東区浅草2-10-12
tel. 03-3844-0693
Business hours; 11:30 to 22:40 (Sun. to Thur.)
11:30 to 23:05 (Fri. Sat. and the day before a public holiday)
Performances start at 13:00
Charges; adult \6,000 (\5,000 with a discount coupon or if you get in before 12:00)
student \4,000
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
Kojiki, the book of Japanese legends
Japan is a country of fusion and confusion. The more you know about it,
the more enigmatic you will find it. Sumo, geishas, and Kabuki lie right
next to Manga, video games, and robots.ASAKUSA Underground will tell you about an episode from Kojiki, which was written one and a half millennia ago.
This may help you to understand the origins of Sumo and performing arts in Japan.
If you use your imagination, you might be able to find there some answers to your questions in other areas, too.
Why, onsens? Why, geishas? Why, Onsen-geishas? Why do Japanese novelists adore onsens and geishas?
---Ama no Iwato (Heaven’s cavern) ---
The sun goddess Amaterasu was quite unhappy because his brother was uncontrollable.
He destroyed the ditches in the rice paddy and left his own excrement all
over the dining room in the palace. At first, she tried to excuse him,
saying “He was drunk. He didn’t do it on purpose.”However, he did not stop his wrong doings, and one day he made a hole on the top of her weaving atelier and dropped the hide of Heaven’s horse into it. It surprised Heaven’s weaving girls, and one of them accidentally slew herself by thrusting the shuttle into her “lady’s dark valley”.
The sun goddess got scared and hid herself in Heaven’s cavern. She shut its door completely. Consequently, the entire world got dark. A day never broke. In the darkness, evil things often happened.
All the troubled gods got together and discussed the solutions. They came up with a good idea.
First, they made a rooster crow. Then, they made a mirror. They prepared for a fete, too.
A Sumo god stood by the door, and a possessed goddess started dancing.
She danced on a wooden tub upside-down. She kept on stomping it and it made big noises. She pulled out the nipples of her breasts, and pushed down her skirt to expose her “lady’s dark valley”.
Then she played with a string, swinging it in front of the “dark valley”.
Men gods laughed and laughed.
The sun goddess in the cavern wondered, “Why are they laughing?”, and looked outside, slightly opening the door. She saw herself shining on the mirror.
“We have another sun goddess and are happy”, the dancing goddess said.
“It can’t be”, the sun goddess thought and opened the cavern’s door a little more to look at it well.
At that moment, the Sumo god pulled her out and another god closed the door behind her.
When the sun goddess came forward, the world became light again.
[Reference]
www.sacred-text.com/kojiki
天の浮橋 amano ukihashi
[Recommended sites]
・Shogun
将軍 limba, cultura si traditii japoneze
The author would like to leave you the total freedom of interpretation.
It can be the first Japanese Moulin Rouge.Maybe, not. At least many Japanese artists proudly believe that it is so. To them provocative girls are always goddesses, symbols of life and energy.
Geishas could be descendants of the dancing goddess. That is why many Japanese novelists wrote about them.
The Japanese like partying, too. Don’t those laughing gods remind you of a karaoke party?
The rocky cavern represents nature. Where does nature meet partying? It is in an onsen, hot spring resort. The lewd men gods may answer your question why near an onsen we have a museum of indecency, Hiho-kan. Hot baths and promiscuity come hand in hand. Lechery is a source of fertility. What’s wrong with it? Fertility is the essence of Shintoism.
Onsens also need geishas. They are Onsen-geishas. The word is a pejorative and please do not address anyone with it. However, artists find beauty in places people despise. Komako, the tragic heroine of “Snow Country”, is an Onsen-geisha and a magnificent creation by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, who also adored Asakusa.
Asakusa enjoys descendents of the dancing goddess as well. Check Rockza. You can find god-possessed dancing girls there.
-Asakusa Rockza
2-10-12 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
台東区浅草2-10-12
tel. 03-3844-0693
Business hours; 11:30 to 22:40 (Sun. to Thur.)
11:30 to 23:05 (Fri. Sat. and the day before a public holiday)
Performances start at 13:00
Charges; adult \6,000 (\5,000 with a discount coupon or if you get in before 12:00)
student \4,000
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.