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Thread: Magic and superstition in ancient Japan.

  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member Kurando's Avatar
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    I am interested in the place that these mythical beings refered to as "Hengoyokai" held in ancient Japanese culture. I always think of that wonderful scene in Ran where the Lord Jiro's General warns him about mischievous badger which on the loose.

    My question is this: did the persons of ancient Japan take such creatures/beings literally, or where they more akin to our modern day grain-of-salt views on leperechauns, elves, and whatnot.

    Modern civilization is a vast conspiracy against silence

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    Senior Member Senior Member Idaho's Avatar
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    It was probably not a badger but a tanuki. For some reason the Japanese always translate it as badger. They are a real animal who regularly appears in childrens stories and folk tales. One of my favourite is click clack mountain - where the naughty tanuki ends up being burnt alive!

    As to whether they believed in them in a literal sense... maybe the comment was the equivalent of us saying 'there is a gremlin in the works'.
    "The republicans will draft your kids, poison the air and water, take away your social security and burn down black churches if elected." Gawain of Orkney

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    Member Member Anssi Hakkinen's Avatar
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    But one mustn't forget that the Shintô religion was, and is, almost pantheistic, as Eastern religions generally turn out. It's rather hard to draw a clear line between "superstition" and the work of the kami, not to mention karma.

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    Senior Member Senior Member Idaho's Avatar
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    Wouldn't call it Pantheistic myself - but that's just semantics.

    I think throughout human history there have been superstitious people and unsuperstitious people. Some societies tended toward it more than others - but I think Japan would have been equivable to pre-enlightenment England. As for Finland - you still have an active animist religion in your country!

    Personally, I'm a little superstitious.
    "The republicans will draft your kids, poison the air and water, take away your social security and burn down black churches if elected." Gawain of Orkney

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    Naughty Little Hippy Senior Member Tachikaze's Avatar
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    I believe the warning about the badger/tanuki in Ran was a sly reference to Lady Kaeda.

    By the accounts I've read, Japanese historically believed there was a supernatural (actually part of nature to them) They were animistic.

    Even today, I believe some Japanese, especially followers of animistic Shinto, have a vague feeling that magical animals, demons, and mischievous spirits exist.

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