On some continental motifs in Japanese mythology

Abstract

   It is believed that the Proto-Japanese ethnos was formed on the Islands during the Yayoi period (2^nd century B.C. to 4^th century A.D.) This was the time of numerous migrations from the Korean peninsula, and various groups of migrants relocated to the Japanese Islands and brought with them the techniques of rice cultivating, bronze and iron production, silk weaving, the main ritual symbols of power – the mirror and the sword, and many other innovations. Powerful migrations from the neighboring peninsula for various military and political reasons continued in the next period named Kofun, which is alternatively called the Yamato period. The 5^th – 6^th   centuries bring to Yamato Chinese system of writing, different currents of Chinese philosophy and Buddhism. It is also a period of the formation of the ancient Japanese state. Accordingly, when the time comes for compiling the state codes of myths and records (8th century), these texts are based primarily and predominantly on legends belonging to the ruling family and its closest clans, often of continental origin, apparently brought to the Islands in the form of written records. Many mythological themes and motifs came to the Islands among other cultural phenomena and inventions; some of them remained in little changed form, others blended with local archaic motifs, which probably date back to even more ancient migrations from the continent. The paper strives to reconstruct typological connections between the mythological narratives about the shamanistic ruler Jingū, her son, Emperor Ōjin, and some motifs of the East Asian folklore related to concepts of miraculous birth. It is also intended to touch on the theme of miraculous turtle in the Japanese and the continental folklore.