Mitología japonesa: Una fascinante guía del folclore japonés, mitos, cuentos de hadas, yokai, héroes y heroínas

by Matt Clayton

Explore Captivating Myths of Japanese Deities, Yokai, Heroes and Heroines

The study of mythology and folklore is a peculiar one to the extent that we are looking into things which are generally regarded as untrue yet critically important to a culture. We are also taking on the study of the "lore of the folk," and this faces us with the question of exactly which folk we are talking about. Japan, of course, is a single nation, but its origins are so old and often so fragmented that unified mythology and folklore can be difficult to point to. Still, in all, there are some key texts, tales, and characters we can focus on which will give us a pretty good sense of Japanese mythology.

In this book, you'll discover stories of mystery, horror, and romance while simultaneously learning about the Japanese culture.

Within this book, you'll find the following Japanese myths and topics covered

The Creation Stories
The Myths of Origins
The Journey to the Underworld
The Wanderings of Susano-o
The Birth of Amaterasu, Trukuyumi, Susawono, and the Leech-Child
The Story of the Comb and the Curse
Amaterasu and Susanowo
The Contract of Amaterasu and Susawono
Stories of the Three Most Evil Yokai of Japan
Stories of Helpful Yokai
My Lord Bag of Rice
The Story of Urashima Taro
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Kaguya hime
The Legend of Yamato Takeru
Contemporary Versions of Japanese Mythology
And more!
Get the book now and learn more about Japanese mythology

Genres: Mythology, History, Japan, Nonfiction, Religion, Research

74 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2020

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read and does a surprisingly good job of preparing the reader for Japanese myths. It goes over where the myths come from and the terminology (such as yōkai, where the moral position of yōkai is likened to fairies; they can be good, bad, or mischievous). It also retells a couple of the myths, focusing on the "historical", yōkai, and Japanese "heroes". I put those in quotations, because these are broad-stroke ideas, with "historical" meaning from old sources, and "heroes" meaning past stories of heroes.

If you like mythology and have never looked into Japanese mythology this is a great starting point. Even if you have some acquaintance with Japanese mythology, this is a nice short overview. If some of the typos were fixed in the book I would award full stars, but a couple of these mistakes make the stories hard to understand unless you realize they put the wrong character as saying something. For example, one passage has:

Izanagi told him "If you say this oath..."
In response Izanagi said, "If you do such a thing..."

The first "Izanagi" should be "Izanami", and then it makes a lot more sense.
In addition, there are some misspellings of the characters' names (Trukuyumi instead of Tsukuyumi) that distract a reader's attention. These are minor details, but they detract from the enjoy ability of the book. However, the end of the book also lists online resources for the stories, which is a very nice touch.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Scott Lewis' Egyption Mythology book and was eager to read more old myth stories right away. I found some Matt Clayton audiobooks to get into myths.

The first one was African myths. A basic and mediocre book that's fine enough for very interested readers. While the story analysis was weak I did feel like the weak stories let the author down too. They were weird, mediocre and shallow. Not culturally rich like the Egyptian myths about great gods.

I decided to read another Matt Clayton book to see if he would improve with better stories. Unfortunately this one is worse still. This one I can't even recommend to people very interested in the topic. It's just a very short and unfulfilling book about Japanese mythology. While the audiobook reader was at least eager and engaging in the last one this one had a methodical reader and quite a few times he would even repeat words. But you never know with audiobooks. There are sometimes more than one version of them. The one I got was clearly not even listened through, but it may have been some beta version.

And the reader can't really be blamed for not engaging in such dry material. It's like stories retold by an autist. We get a ton of dates and descriptions, but very few emotional stories. It's too much filler and too few stories. Maybe 2-3 shorter stories at best and all 3 are not really great in any way. Not even good as such. Yet it's still sad the author didn't focus on writing a line of stories instead of this dry an overall book with so much meta information.

It's not bad. It's just not worth reading over many other Japanese mythology books because it's very easy to write a better one. I can't quite recommend this book. But it's not bad either. Just a huge meh. Don't bother unless you really want to read this topic and can't find anything else at all. I frankly would recommend podcasts and YouTube videos over this.

[Rory Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summarising tales from the Eighth Century Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, this book provides an overview of the myths and stories of Japan, without the genealogical information which is less interesting for general readers.

The importance of these stories lies not only in their history as folk tales, but they also found their way directly and indirectly into the expression of aspects of the Shinto religion of Japan. An understanding of what they celebreate and denigrate gives useful insights into the virtues and vices of Shintoism.

In the stories we encounter the standard fare of dragons and princesses, and quests to win the hands of beauties. The extraordinary and marvellous abound on every page, from three legged mermaids and inexhaustible rice pots.

The Story of Kaguya is particularly interesting. Found as a (very) tiny child inside a bamboo shoot, she blessed her poor rescuers by ensuring that they found gold every time they cut a bamboo shoot. Unlike other stories this one ends on a somewhat sad note as she must return to her true home on the Moon, leaving broken hearts behind her.

In another story we encounter a Krorinrin monster, which forms out of piles of unread books. It seems that the modern problem of good intentions with respect to reading lists has its early medieval equivalent, but with a sting in the tale for tardy readers.

The final chapter is a good attempt to map the myths and legends as they are found in contemporary Anime, Manga and Video Games. Doing so introduces a wider selection of stories as characters are explained and expounded.

The obvious criticism of a book like this is that it is incomplete, or that it moves too fast so that readers cannot engage with a wide enough and detailed enough selection of stories. But that criticism misunderstands the introductory nature of this book. This is a ‘taster’ and an overview of the myths and legends of Japanese culture. It gives readers a bite sized opportunity to engage with the culture and decide whether they want to go further with more detailed collections, or even with the original texts from which the stories are taken.

As such it is a welcome summary in a very readable format.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gives some of the greatest highlights from various Japanese texts. Specifies when things overlap and shares anomalies or other details about specific events or times. This is all a part of the Japanese culture and heritage and even though the stories shared in this book are the exhaustive details that can be found elsewhere, it is simplified to the point of truly being captivating. It gives you insight to the people themselves from their beliefs to the very heroes that help shaped their country.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice little summary to some of the more common stories in Japanese mythology

This short book considering the topic at hand is quite interesting. It looks at Japanese mythology from an educated outsider perspective and tries to explain why and how these stories are important and why these ones have been selected for the book when there are so many options. The book is also sourced at the end which can be handy if this takes your fancy and you want a deeper dive.

[Rodrigo Schaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

In spite of the size, the book offers a good introduction and is fast reading of the most famous japanese tales. Without getting into too much the details, the 90 page ebook serves its purpose just well. It is very well written, and the author took care to referenciate more inspiring readings in the end of the book, which an interested reader will certainly check up. If only it had more images and had gone just a litte bit more into the Gods themselves, it would be a 5 star rating for sure.

[Jennifer Hilliger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful introduction to Japanese Mythology. I highly recommend this.
I really enjoyed this book on Japanese Mythology. I found these tales from Japan very interesting. I didn't know anything about the Myths of Japan. I would highly recommend this book who would like to learn about Japanese Myths. I found this book easy to read and understand.

[Kdcontorno · Rating 5 out of 5]

More, more, more!!

How cool is this read! I knew so little about Japanese mythology, and it's SO interesting! I love how the books trigger list making for me. Lists of topics to research for more understanding. Every time I read one of Clayton's books, I hope for more! This book is certainly the case. I can't wait for more!

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief introduction into some of the more prominent mythological beings in Japan.

It was interesting to see how similar many of the myths were to those of other cultures on the other side of the globe. Also, not being into manga and the like, I had no idea that many of the characters in mythology form the basis of the storylines. I’m somewhat tempted to check some of it out now.

[Marisol Grade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habla de la religión sintoísta, los orígenes de algunos mitos y leyendas japoneses, sus criaturas y los textos sagrados.

Voy a buscar más material sobre esta cultura, no me terminó de convencer la forma en la que relata Matt. Por momentos se hacía bastante lento.
Para ser un primer acercamiento, bien, pero creo que hay mucho más por ver

[William Tarbush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating short book

A fascinating short work on Japanese mythology. It covers heroes and Yokai. It is not lengthy and can be read in an afternoon easily. It is also great for comparative mythology.

[Michael Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction to Japanese mythology

A concise overview and introduction to Japanese mythology. It leaves the reader hungry for more. This book is a good place to start your journey into Japanese mythology.

[David Den Boer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shinto Religion

A good basis to start to learn the Japanese Shinto religion, interesting overview of the folk tales of the island of samurai’s!

[Rhys Causon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt very rushed in telling the stories it chose to tell.

[Darcie Dibble · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, though not much different from other sources I've read on the subject. Wish there were more stories and details included, it was quite short.

[Taylor Hubbard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent enough read. It was easy to follow and understand.

I'm someone who has read extensively on Japanese mythology and history, it's truly a bare bones retelling of the lore. As in introduction piece, it's great. More than that, it's not detailed enough to satisfy those who want to know more.

[Hridoy Hoque · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read the Bengali translation of the book. It is a very short introduction to Japanese mythology & folklore. It covers the very basics & most famous stories you'll hear in Japanese mythology. Good for a broad overview!

Here is the review I wrote in bengal: https://open.substack.com/pub/hridoyh...

[neopedro · Rating 2 out of 5]

no more than a summary