The concept of Samudra Manthan connects Japanese tradition to Hindu dharma

The concept of “Churning of Water Body” connects Japanese tradition to Hindu dharma

Tenchikaibyaku is a Japanese traditional story that talks about the creation of heaven and earth. The story describes the birth of the celestial and earthly world, of the first Gods and of the Japanese archipelago. The base of this mythology comes from two books: Kojiki, the first book written in Japan (712 AD) and the Nihon Shoki (720 AD).

Kojiki says that the universe was immersed in a beaten and shapeless (chaos) sunk in silence at the very beginning. Later, the particles started the move, all indicated by sounds. From that movement, light and other particles rose, but they were not as fast as the light, thus, could not go higher. The light was above the Universe, and below were the particles formed: first, the clouds, then the Heaven, which was known as “Takamagahara”, which means “High Plain of Heaven”. The remaining particles formed a huge mass, dense and dark. That was called Earth.

When the High Plain of Heaven was formed, five deities known as Kotoamatsukami appeared spontaneously. From that, other two gods arose, then again, five pairs of gods were born. A total of 12 deities, making a pair, each of one male deity and one female deity. Collectively, they were known as “Kamaiyonanayo”, which means “Seven Divine Generations”.

The last pair Kamiyonanayo – Izanagi and Izanami – went on to create archipelago, Kuniumi, and gave birth to a large number of gods, Kamiumi.

Both Izanagi and Izanami were given Naginata, decorated with jewels, named Ame-no-nuboko, Heavily jeweled spear. Thus, they went to the bridge between heaven and earth. Amenoukihashi, Floating Bridge of Heaven and churned the sea below with the halberd, two-handed pole weapon.

Onogoro (“self-forming”) was formed; it is an island formed from drops of salty water. Then, the deities descended from heaven to the island via the bridge. Later, they fell in love and procreated From that, Oyashima or the great islands of Japan was formed:

1. Awaji
2. Iyo
3. Oki
4. Tsukushi
5. Iki
6. Tsushima
7. Sado
8. Yamato

Here we are witnessing the concept of “churning a water body”. This concept is very popular in Hindu dharma, and thus, we can see the relation between Hindu dharma and Japanese tradition.