Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

Unidentified Artist, PD-US-expired. 

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

    The thing I really want to write my thoughts out on from this reading is the stories about Yamato and Tacibana. I jotted down a lot of thoughts as I was going through this, and I think for this assignment, I'm just going to type up those thoughts and process them, organizing them by the story.

1. Labors of Yamato - Grotto of Love

I really really don't like it when women are treated this way. He's so cruel to his wife, using it as an excuse for his infidelity, and it's just heartbreaking to see.

2. Golden Apple

3. Demon Boar

I feel so sad for Tacibana. Yamato is so cruel to her! He is willing to do anything for a siren that he doesn't have any ties to (I know she's enchanted him, but still... is it bad to say he was pretty willing? Like he treated Tacibana badly before that, I don't think we can chalk up all his bad behavior to his bewitchment). 

4. Grass-Clearing Sword

YESSS!! Give Tacibana the credit she deserves!!! She's a QUEEN, and I'm glad that the narrator recognizes it, even if Yamato refuses to!! She literally saved their lives, he does not deserve her in any way.

5. The Sacred Sword

I love Tacibana and kind of feel that Yamato gets what he deserves. He was careless and unfaithful (emotionally, at the very least). But it is sad that others will have to suffer because of his foolishness.

6. The Sacred Sword cont.

7. The Dragon

I like that Tacibana gets a good role in this. I feel like we're getting dimensions to her character. I do still wish that she had a personality besides being in love with Yamato, but she's still pretty badass.

8. The Dragon cont.

Man, Yamato really does not deserve Tacibana. She literally forgives him for his unfaithfulness and dies for him, like the level of love that that takes is absolutely astonishing and better than anything Yamato could possibly deserve for how cruelly he treated her. 

Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan by E.W. Champey and F. Champey, 1917