About this website

“Mythology comprises five main topics: theogony, which explains the genesis of gods; cosmogony, on the creation of the universe; anthropogony, on the origins of man; escathology, which discusses such issues as the future of humanity, the end of life and the world, immortality of the soul, hell, heaven, the rise from the dead at a certain endpoint and the day of judgement; the fifth is etiology. These are tales that explain the origins of a certain reality, an institution, a name or an object; or the reason of a natural element. They go deep in history and are very widely spread In Anatolia, myths—sometimes called legends—abound that explain how a mountain, a river or a lake was formed or how a living creature came to being. Apart from this, an important branch of mythology is the one that exalts legendary heroes accredited with supernatural powers. Some of these heroes are fictitious; others are real figures that have acquired legendary proportions. Prophet Ali, Alexander the Great, and Hamza, prophet Muhammed’s uncle for example are real people who have become legends. Great epics have been written relating the stories of these heroes, such as the Iskendernâme, Battalnâme, Saltuknâme, Hamzanâme and Danismendnâme.

Mythology has two dimensions, one vertical, the other horizontal. The vertical aspect expresses the dimension of mythology that began in the depths of history and reached all the way to the present, passing through the scriptures of monotheistic religions; whereas the horizontal dimension expresses the spread of mythology, its universality. The vertical dimension is the build-up of a certain belief, layer upon layer, from under the soil of a narrow patch of land to the top.”

— Slides and text for “Brotherhood of Word and Sight”: Yapı Kredi Cultural Activities, Arts & Publishing Can Göknil Exhibition Catalogue, 1-30 November, 2002

It is our goal to study and explore as many as possible themes of myth and legend, as well as the cultural ritual practices  that might in some way be connected to, that may have been the origin of the ancient myths and legends of Japan.  DNA research has established that there are many lineages of populations within Japan that originated from elsewhere, and migrants bring their stories with them…although these histories and their origins become obscured over the curtains of time.  Consequently, this website represents a compendium of resources to allow the study and exploration of those myths and legends and ritual practices found in antiquity, all over the world, that might have found its migratory terminus in the land of Japan.

In a nutshell,the goal of this website is to map the mythologies of Japan and to back-track the trails of their origins outside of Japan.