Sait? Mussashi-B? Benkei

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: principle that two is something more than company, and that one might indeed go it alone as had his predecessors, the Deity-Heavenly-Bird-Boat, one of the older generation and a brother and contemporary of Ama-tera- su, is coupled with this warlike youth. Together they start on their mission, largely of...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: principle that two is something more than company, and that one might indeed go it alone as had his predecessors, the Deity-Heavenly-Bird-Boat, one of the older generation and a brother and contemporary of Ama-tera- su, is coupled with this warlike youth. Together they start on their mission, largely of bluff backed up with the potentialities of the chiropodical Eight-Hundred-Myriads, an account of whose methods must have reached even the Central-Land-of-Eeed-Plains (Japan), if we are to judge by the results. But to understand something of the character with which Ama-terasu's messengers had to deal we must go back a little, at least six generations of gods, which leaves plenty of time for any developments. But here the old Japanese mythology puts less strain on our modern fondness for unity of time and place, a tolerable consistency all the more to be appreciated considering its source. When Susa-no-wo, the Rain-Storm god minus his impedimenta and other personal effects, finally came to ground and. Mother-Earth, he was a deity out of a job. If in one meaning of the term he lacked character, he had plenty of it in another sense. All he wanted was the opportunity, and that was not slow in presenting itself. He lit on his feet?or what was left of them?in Idzumo, on the banks of the river Hi; and as he was pondering on what mischief to get at next, a pair of chop-sticks came floating down the stream. This had at least palpable connection with provender, and Susa-no-wo, naturally connecting folks with forks (to use an anachronism)promptly started up stream in search of belly timber. This might probably have been hadfor the asking, but meanwhile there was other work to do as preliminary to drying things off and getting a fire started. The owners of the chop-sticks turne...