These days, Japanese culture is very popular in the world. Despite being a small country in Asia, Japanese imperialism and old craftsmanship seem to be influential to foreigners. So many people are willing to visit Japan, learn Japanese, and research about Japanese myths and legends. But the most attractive, effective, and influential thing is manga. The Japanese style comic is called ‘Manga’. Mangas are easy to become more familiar with print media than typewritten media for television generation, and it is a means of gathering agile information for modern people who are being chased in time.
In some surveys targeting teenagers who read the manga a lot, there are many contacts with other media, such as books, novels, and television, and there are reports that they are keen to collect information. In the era of information age, mangas can be said to have entered the life of Japanese as part of information gathering. There is no doubt that manga culture in Japan is one of the modern cultures. Japanese manga has been developed independently and is now said to be comparable to any country in the world in its beauty and rich storytelling.
Also, there are already so many mangas that have Japanese myths and legends involved, which people in the other countries would fall in love with. Typical examples of Japanese myths and legends are Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan One Piece, Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto, Spirited Away, and Noragami. They are all dealing with Japanese myths, legends, or superstitions. But today, I am going to talk about how Japanese myths and legends are involved in Naruto.
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Naruto is one of the most famous manga in the world. Naruto has been ranked as the sixth most-sold manga in the Japanese comic book sales ranking of the all time. Naruto itself is already based on the Ninja world and each town have its own leader and theme such as water, sand, sound, leaf, lightning, and smog. It also has stuff about Japanese myths and legends; main characters’ skills, name, and background are related to them. Naruto’s main character is Naruto, and he has his friend and his rival, Sasuke.
A short summary of Naruto is that Naruto who has the nine-tailed beast inside of him tries to be a leader of his leaf town as overcoming the obstacles. Sasuke is the last descendant of the Uchiha clan, and he confronts his brother, Itachi, who has annihilated his own clan to fight for revenge. Naruto and Sasuke fight each other a lot, but in the end, they fight together for their enemy. Most of the Uchiha clan’s techniques have names that are related to Japanese myths. Naruto himself is already the person who carries 9-tailed beast, which contains tailed beast legend in Japan.
Naruto’s tailed beasts were equally portrayed and quoted from Japanese legends. In Japanese legend, the fugitive is the strongest. It has red hairs that indicate the properties of fire. The nine- tailed beast, Kumi has never experienced defeating by any other tailed beasts and has a wonderfully powerful force that can not be measured. Its tail makes a whirlwind just by moving fast, and its big forefoot tears its enemies. At the same time, fireballs such as meteorite are released from hair, and one village can be destroyed in an instant.
In the ancient tailed beast war, Kumi defeated the two challengers, two-tailed beast, Nekomata and five-tailed beast, HouKou, and the Nekomata would have died if the master did not help Nekomata. Kumi also defeated Yamata no Orochi with the Kusanagi sword and Kumi made a hole in the sword. Naruto’s nine-tailed beast, Kurama is the most powerful tailed beast out of all nine. He has an infinite power, which is called chakra that does not float. So he could win the battle for 100 years. When Yamata no Orochi had exhausted his strength, he could still hold on.
Also, Kurama is very cunning and clever. Izanagi is a Japanese mythological creator and father of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi (or Tsukiyomi), and Susanoo. He was the spouse of Izanami and gave birth to many islands and gods. However, when Izanami died after giving birth to a fire god Kagutsuchi, Izanagi tried to rescue her from Yomi (Japanese underground world). However, Izanagi, who could not overcome the bitterness, looked into the inside of the Nether and ran away to the appearance of Ijaminami, who had changed so terribly.
Izanagi, who came back from the Nether, rinsed the dirt on his body with water. At this time, Amaterasu from the left eye, Tsukuyomi from the right eye, and Susanoo from the nose were born. In a moment of time, the discipline of Uchiha controls the gap between fantasy and reality, turning a situation unfavorable to a surgeon into a dream and making a favorable situation a reality. Instead, both Senju and Uchiha must have both powers and lose the light of their eyes in the cost of casting. Forging uses an unstable sting, but Sasuke loses to him, but the unidentified man, Toby, uses the right eye of his own to cast the sting.
For reference, this unidentified man has 96 Sharingan, which literally means Copy Wheel Eye, so he can actually cast infinite bugs. It seems that the reason he was involved in the Uchiha killing was not irrelevant to the collection of Sharingan. Tsukuyomi is also known as Tsukiyominomikoto and is said to have been born in the right eye or copper mirror (Tokyo), the second of three children of Izanagi. After rising to the sky with a ladder, Tsukuyomi lived in the sky with his sister Amaterasu. Amaterasu was angry when he killed his slave Uchamochi.
So the sun and the moon split up and it became hard to meet each other. In Naruto, it is a tale that is touched in the right Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye of Itachi and tries to make time, space, and mass all feel like a long time in reality in the reality that the caster dominates. Kakashi who is Naruto and Sasuke’s teacher has just fallen to Tsukuyomi, but Sasuke wakes up Tsutomu Tsuchiyomi of Itachi in a four-rowed motion. Amaterasu or Amaterasu Omikami (天空 大 神 神) is a goddess of the sun appearing in the Shinto god of Japan is a religion. He was born in Izanagi ‘s left eye and was the supreme ruler of the gods because he ruled the sun.
Tenshin myth and cave cloak anecdotes are well known. The world was hidden in the cave, and the other gods danced to excite the curiosity of Amaterasu, and as the world brightened, the other gods sealed the cave forever and Susanoo drove to the earth world as a responsibility for the wrongdoing. Amaterasu from Naruto is a black flame that is burning until the disappearance of a focused opponent, which is exercised in the left eye of a person with a Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye and is also called a black flame (黑 炎). It was the first time during the battle between Itachi and Sasuke.
Susanoo or Takehaya Susanonomikoto controlled the storm in the summer, but when Amaterasu was hiding in the cave due to his violent behavior, the world was darkened, he was asked to take responsibility and was expelled to the earth. He then defeated Yamata Orochi at Izumo no Kuni. In Naruto, the ability is given when you have all 2 skills, Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. It is divided into three stages. In the first stage, only the bones are produced. In the second stage, the muscle tissue is attached, and the third stage is the completion stage.
In the case of Itachi, the mirror of Yata and the curved beads of Yasaka come out. The mirror is a shield that makes all attacks ineffective because it has the characteristics of flabby, stubborn, It is a similar ranged attack. Sasuke shoots an arrow in stage two. In the third stage, Itachi and Sasuke both have the sword of Totsuka, but this black substance does not exist, but it is one of the swords of Kusanagi with the sword which blows the stabbing person into the dream of eternity circle.
If there is a difference, Itachi’s Susanoo is a purely blazing flame, but Sasuke’s Susanoo is a blazing Susanoo. For reference, the mirror of Yata, the sword of Kusanagi, and the curved beads of Yasaka are among the three kinds of shoes that are mentioned in Japanese myths. The three species were originally a sword of Kusanagi, a mirror of Yata, a curved ball of Yasaka, but it fell into the water during the Danwara Sea Battle. After that, he saved the mirror and the beads, but he disappeared into the Black Sea of Kusanagi. Kagutsuchi is described as a god of fire in Japanese mythology, and Izanami was the father of him.
In Naruto, Sasuke emerges as a shield for a fire burner skill that has been modified by Amaterasu and attached to the bone of Susanoo. He can use Kagutsuchi to shape the flames into a variety of forms for offensive or defensive purposes. This ability to manipulate his Amaterasu makes him more skilled than Itachi was with his own. As you can see, Naruto is basically all about Japanese culture, myth, and legend, which makes sense why foreigners are crazy about Naruto. Manga and anime not only have the benefit of easy access but also have the responsibility to tell the people more useful or proper informations. Espcially manga and anime are seen as targeting for the young people.
So if anyone is interested in teaching the young people or giving them new interesting information, manga or anime is the best way to destribute. Not many people know all about Japanese myths and legends. I do not even know many stuff about my country. But as reading or watching Naruto, I read or heard some familiar words and understood what it represents and stand for. There are tons of more manga that has different Japanese myths and legends involved and they are also salutary. Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and tailed beast’s story were interesting but there are more interesting things in others and more of Naruto.
References
- Kojiki (711-712). O no Yasumaro; 古事記・ふることふみ. Records/ Account of Ancient Matters . 3 full translations: Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882; full text available online);
- Donald Philippi (1968-69); Gustav Heldt (2014). Nihon Shoki/ Nihongi (720). Prince Tone, O no Yasumaro; 日本書紀／日本紀. The Chronicles of Japan . Volume I translated by William George Aston (1896; available online). Part of the so-called “6 national histories of Japan”, 六国史.
- “Sasuke Uchiha.” Narutopedia , naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Sasuke_Uchiha.
- Kishimoto, Masashi, et al. Naruto . Viz Media, 2008. “The Legend of 9 Bijuu.” All Info and Solution , 4 Dec. 2010, askingsolution.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/1173/.
