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List of contents
List of Tables
Conventions
Introduction
Part I. BLURRED BOUNDARIES AND LIMINAL IDENTITIES
1. A Foil to Set Off the Sun Goddess: Susanoo in the Ancient Sources
2. Passion for Transgression: Susanoo’s Liminal Character
3. At the Margin of the Divine Country: Korea in Japanese Cultural Imagination
Part II. POLITICAL MYTHOLOGY: A GENEALOGY OF SUSANOO’S CONNECTION TO KOREA
4. “I do not want to Stay in this Land”: Susanoo’s Sojourn to Korea in the Ancient Court Chronicles
5. The God with a Thousand Faces: Susanoo and His Alter Egos in Medieval Mythology
6. Korea as a Realm of Death: Susanoo and Korea in Modern Discourses
EPILOGUE: After the War: Susanoo in Scholarship, Tourism, and Popular Culture
Bibliography
Index
About the author
David Weiss is Assistant Professor of Premodern Japanese Literature and Languages at Kyushu University, Japan.
Summary
This book discusses how ancient Japanese mythology was utilized during the colonial period to justify the annexation of Korea to Japan, with special focus on the god Susanoo. Described as an ambivalent figure and wanderer between the worlds, Susanoo served as a foil to set off the sun goddess, who played an important role in the modern construction of a Japanese national identity.
Susanoo inhabited a sinister otherworld, which came to be associated with colonial Korea. Imperialist ideologues were able to build on these interpretations of the Susanoo myth to depict Korea as a dreary realm at the margin of the Japanese empire that made the imperial metropole shine all the more brightly. At the same time, Susanoo was identified as the ancestor of the Korean people. Thus, the colonial subjects were ideologically incorporated into the homogeneous Japanese “family state.”
The book situates Susanoo in Japan’s cultural memory and shows how the deity, while being repeatedly transformed in order to meet the religious and ideological needs of the day, continued to symbolize the margin of Japan.
Foreword
This book discusses how ancient Japanese mythology was utilized during the colonial period to justify the annexation of Korea to Japan, with special focus on the ambivalent god Susanoo.
Additional text
David Weiss has tackled the long overdue task of heaping Amaterasu’s ‘shady’ brother out of the shadows, arguing for his importance not only in Japanese mythology and Shinto, but also for political purposes under Japanese Imperialism. Uncovering the ‘Korean link’ of Susanoo together with his representations and interpretations not only benefits scholars, but it also supplies under- and postgraduate students with an authoritative introduction to Susanoo and the diverse roles he plays in Japan’s cultural memory.
