Japanese

= Japan = (The map of japan) || [] (Izanami(left) and Izanagi(right) holding the jewel spear of heave to find land) || =Japanese Creation Myth Recording= = media type="file" key="myth.mp3" width="240" height="20" =
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 * @http://www.japannet.de/japan/japan3.gif
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 * My version of Izanami in Yomi, the land of the dead ||

= How do creation myths shape stereotypes? = Whose stronger, females or males? In the Japanese creation myth, the world was created by two gods”Izanagi no Mikoto” and “Izanami no Mikoto” who gave birth to the islands of Japan, the element gods and divided the land of the dead and land of the living (Rosenberg, 370,371,372,374). The creation myth shapes a basic idea of how the female and male should act and behave.

Women have played an important role in society. However, men are always respected in a higher position. Just like in every other part of the world, woman is considered as the weaker sex. In the Japanese creation myth, Izanami is portrayed as a motherly and holy character and when she spoke first in their first meeting, she gave birth to an abnormal child. As one knows, females have certain traits that apply to almost every woman, for example, motherly, kind, and gentle and etc. In ancient Japan, women may take on the job of a priestess, shaman and the head of a household. However, they never have higher authority than the man.

Males have been the dominant sex ever since the beginning of time. In the story, the two gods gave birth to an abnormal child because the Izanami spoke first. Izanagi also received a lot of respect from the Izanami. When the Izanagi traveled to the land of the dead to find Izanami, Izanami begged Izanagi to turn back. This is due to the duty that Izanami felt that she had to fulfill as a wife and a woman to Izanagi. Males receive more respect and are always taking on the physically harsher jobs than women.

Looking at society now, the position of a women has become higher, sometimes, even higher than men. In the past, it’s not possible for a woman to take jobs like being a police, lawyer or military soldier. Usually women are considered weaker physically and mentally than men, however over the past few years, this has been proven wrong little by little. This is a myth that has been around for a long time but it’s has been around for quite some time but it still shapes the basic ideas of how the two gender should act even though it’s being change as time pass by.

The creation myth plays an important part in shaping the basic idea of how the two genders should act individually. Even though history shows that women may not always be weaker than men, but the idea still remains the initial thought. In the Japanese creation myth, there's an obvious division of roles between men and women.


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What is a motif?
 A motif is a theme that is recurrent element in a literary work. In creation myth, there are four motifs that recurrently appears.  They are-  -Land emerging out of the ocean -Separation/ division -Fractionation of things from primordial chaos-order achieved from chaos -Creation ex nihilo- creation out of nothing

Separation division
The motif the Japanese create myth shows is separation division. The myth shows the separation of water and land when Izanagi and Izanami landed one earth, the separation of day and night when the two gods gave birth to the sun and moon god and the separation land of the dead and the land of the living when Izanagi block the path to the underworld to stop the eight “uglys” from chasing him. The myth focuses on the separation of the different elements of earth creating Japan and the living environment on Japan.

Annotation #1 Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology ,Chicago 1994 Print A- The story talks about the beginning of how earth was created and the roles of men and women in the process B- This is a useful source as it covers in detail about the creation of japan, the moon and the sun. This also a reliable source as it was published, meaning a certain amount of research must been done. However the book was publish for quite some time but it's okay because creation myths are stories written a long time ago, therefore it does not affect much. The source is also a great source for in studying the different myth from different parts of the world. C- The source gives a detailed summary of the Creation myth and include a short paragraph of how Izanami's role in the myth affect the role of a women. It supports my argument perfectly.

Annotation #2 Kreger,Wayn. "[|The kojiki Izanagi, Izanami, and the Birth of Japan]" [|Suite101], April 27, 2005 Web. December 1, 2010 A-The article talks about the beginning of how earth was created and roles of men and women however it focus on the how the myth is form than my topic B-This source is done by an online author that gives her name and publish a website with a certain numbers of viewers. The host site is reliable making the website reliable too. The source is published 5 years ago but it does not affect the reliability of the source as it is mostly opinion and comments. The purpose of this source is to evaluate the creation myth and see how outside country influenced the create myth. C- It does not completely fit my research but it gives support on how accurate the Creation myth I found is. The source is helpful and gave me some new thoughts about the Creation myth. It spoke about the position of men in between the line but it's enough for me to use.