Journey of Japanese myth that starts from a plate of curry

Onokoro Mystery

 

In this blog there are 3 activities, "Fon-Suai", "Tao" and "Japan".

In the category "Japan" I'd like to write about Japan, obviously, but I'd like to do so along the way with "Kojiki" and “Nihon Shoki”.

My journey starts from a curry restaurant “Onokoro Curry” that is located in Koikawa Street, Motomachi, Kobe.  This gorgeous curry contains lots of Awaji onion. Awaji is well-known to be a locality of Onion. Awaji was called as Onokoro Island in ancient time. Most of the places had different names then.

 When I was a little girl, I was very much surprised to find the similarity in Greek Myth and Japanese one. I should almost say Japanese myth is a copy of Greek myth. I should mention further how similar they are, and how, I suppose, it had happened, in the other articles. But here let me demonstrate the first common point. Either in Tao ( a Chinese ascent philosophy), Japanese myth or in Greek Myth, they say the world was created from CAOS.  

Here I'd like to spot light the creation story of Japan, which is almost the same to the Greek Myth. In Greek Myth, the Gods were created from the marriage of Gaea and Uranus, in Japanese Myth, on the other hand, there are Izanaghi and Izanami.

 But Izanaghi & Izanami before they "made" Gods, they "made" islands. In this creation, 14 islands of Japan were created. Except for the 1st island, they were all given birth, from their mother, Izanami. Then how about the 1st Island?

Izanaghi and Izanami were self-created God out of "CAOS" or I should describe CAOS more in Asian way, "where that has no name", lust like Gaea and Uranus were out of CAOS. And when they obtained their existence, they had a Pike called ”Ame no Nuboko”(The pike of sky).  This pike had globe shape jewels (! I am not sure if they were 2) And the couple, together, from the bridge in the sky (I intentionally do not use the word of "heaven" because it is a religious term), they stuck the pike and they stirred the water below, which would be called as "ocean" later, and the drop of the water that fell from the Pike turned into an Island that now a days believe it to be Awaji Island. In the Japanese language, we describe the sound of globes go around, as "Koro Koro" The name of "Onokoro" came from this sound that was made from that. And in the antique Japanese language, Ono means " On one's own" Therefore Onokoro Island means "Island that created on its own sounding Koro Koro"

 This is a picture of Onokoro Island, to be precised, it is Nushima, which is a tiny little island located in South of Awaji Island.