Comparing The Monster In Yanagita Kunio's The Legends Of Tono

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While the western definition of “monster” is not entirely synonymous with Japanese yokai, they both do share what “Monsterologists” like Komatsu Kazuhiko and Susan Sontag note as a profound connection between their appearance and “times of crisis.” While perhaps this connection is more prominent in the relationship between Godzilla and Japan’s “nuclear dialectic,” there is evidence that folktales of yokai nevertheless emerged during different times of crisis in Japanese history. This essay will explore the appearance of yokai in Yanagita Kunio’s The Legends of Tono in relation to anxieties of protecting local society and identity in “pre-modern” Japan, as well as the connection between Japan’s struggle with modernity and an increased exposure …show more content…

The folktale of the mayoi-ga (a house found when one loses his way) says that anyone who finds this house is able to take anything they like. In other words, this kami appears when one is in a literal crisis (being lost) to test their moral virtue. A woman who found the house, but did not take anything, later found a bowl that never decreased the volume of her rice. In contrast, a man who also stumbled across the mayoi-ga, but decided to return with others to take its possessions, was never able to find the house again. A similar moral can found in the story of the Stone Grain Mill These stories were likely directed to the villagers of Tono to not only constrain them to their social position, but to also show that people should be humble, otherwise bad things will occur. For example, the curse of a kami is seen in a story about Kahei the hunter who decided to kill a white deer kami out of self-importance, but instead shot a rock and ended up crippling his pride: “Being a famous hunter and disliking criticism from society, he resolved to shoot the deer…He found that what he had shot at was a white rock that closely resembled the shape of a deer…It is said that this was the one time he considered giving up hunting.” The phenomena of kami who appear and bestow good fortune among the …show more content…

The song has many phrases that praise various things like the bridge, the gate, or the stable, telling people to “come see this bridge,” or “come see this gate,” while remarking “Oh, What a wonderful era!” Even foreigners were given their own section in the collection, as if denoting they were part of the yokai experience. Therefore, a crisis in protecting or creating this important local identity can result in the creation of yokai. Examples of this can be seen in the stories about the kami of nature, which were created to explain everyday phenomena like birdcalls, or local aphorisms. On the section of “The Birds of Tono,” Yanagita tells one story of a daughter of a choja who lost her husband became the “otto bird,” whose cries sound like she is calling out for her husband. In another tale, it is said that the kakko and cuckoo were once sisters, and became birds due to a misunderstanding when they were

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