Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B
Bibliography
"The Labors of Yamamoto - The Grotto of Love & The Golden Apple", from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Read "The Grotto of Love" here, and "The Golden Apple" here.
These two stories act as the sort of intro to the larger tale of Yamamoto, who was a prince sometime in Japanese history/mythology. This story describes Yamamoto's quest to win the affection of the goddess Benten by retrieving a Golden Apple from the Island of Eternal Life and bringing it back to Benten.
Yamamoto is not necessarily the most likeable prince. He has a beautiful wife named Tacibana, but Yamamoto grows tired of her because of how great and devoted of a wife she is! Since Tacibana takes care of Yamamoto and shows him constant love, Yamamoto thinks their relationship isn't exciting and grows bored of her since there's no "challenge". Instead, Yamamoto begins to pursue Benten, who is a goddess of the sea and is also known as the "Goddess of Deathless Love".
Although Yamamoto is not very likeable, I found the introduction to this story to be quite beautiful. Benten's title as the "Goddess of Deathless Love" is one of the reasons I found the story beautiful, sine to me the idea of "deathless love" is really powerful and fascinating. The description of Benten's "Grotto of Love" is also beautiful. The story describes the grotto as being bathed in moonbeams and having a floor of golden sand and white pebbles. Benten is described as sitting on a couch of coral surrounded by "glittering sea-blooms". Although the story is a translation, I think the language is so descriptive and beautiful, and is really big component of the story.
When Yamamoto meets Benten, he is served "gem-like fruits" on plates of anemones! I'm not sure exactly how that works in a practical sense, but as a description it sounds so amazing and other-worldly.
Yamamoto professes his love and enchantment with Benten and asks if there's any way he can earn the right to be her lover for eternity. Benten says that he most definitely can, as long as he proves himself by completing the simple task of bringing her a Golden Apple of Immortal Youth from the Island of Eternal Life.
Benten gives Yamamoto more detailed instructions on how to complete the quest by singing him a song of the last person to retrieve a Golden Apple, who was Jofuku. Jofuku wasn't exactly an upstanding man either, as he managed to get a ship and crew to sail to the Island of Eternal Life only by tricking his King and telling him he was finding the Golden Apple to bring back to the King. In reality, Jofuku was worried that his days were numbered, and he wanted the Golden Apple for his own benefit.
Jofuku successfully sails to the Island of Eternal Life and finds the Tree of Youth Immortal with the Golden Apples, but Jofuku decides to stay on the island for fifty years because it's so beautiful and lush. And so he stays there, eating from the Tree of Youth Immortal until finally he longs to return home. So he brings a Golden Apple back home with him, but by then the King is dead, and so Jofuku becomes the ruler of the land.
The story "The Golden Apple" ends there, so it isn't yet revealed what the final outcome is, but I wanted to focus on the first two parts of Yamamoto's story because I find the set-up to the story the most interesting, and think they have the best descriptive language.
"The Labors of Yamamoto - The Grotto of Love & The Golden Apple", from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Read "The Grotto of Love" here, and "The Golden Apple" here.
These two stories act as the sort of intro to the larger tale of Yamamoto, who was a prince sometime in Japanese history/mythology. This story describes Yamamoto's quest to win the affection of the goddess Benten by retrieving a Golden Apple from the Island of Eternal Life and bringing it back to Benten.
Yamamoto is not necessarily the most likeable prince. He has a beautiful wife named Tacibana, but Yamamoto grows tired of her because of how great and devoted of a wife she is! Since Tacibana takes care of Yamamoto and shows him constant love, Yamamoto thinks their relationship isn't exciting and grows bored of her since there's no "challenge". Instead, Yamamoto begins to pursue Benten, who is a goddess of the sea and is also known as the "Goddess of Deathless Love".
Although Yamamoto is not very likeable, I found the introduction to this story to be quite beautiful. Benten's title as the "Goddess of Deathless Love" is one of the reasons I found the story beautiful, sine to me the idea of "deathless love" is really powerful and fascinating. The description of Benten's "Grotto of Love" is also beautiful. The story describes the grotto as being bathed in moonbeams and having a floor of golden sand and white pebbles. Benten is described as sitting on a couch of coral surrounded by "glittering sea-blooms". Although the story is a translation, I think the language is so descriptive and beautiful, and is really big component of the story.
When Yamamoto meets Benten, he is served "gem-like fruits" on plates of anemones! I'm not sure exactly how that works in a practical sense, but as a description it sounds so amazing and other-worldly.
Yamamoto professes his love and enchantment with Benten and asks if there's any way he can earn the right to be her lover for eternity. Benten says that he most definitely can, as long as he proves himself by completing the simple task of bringing her a Golden Apple of Immortal Youth from the Island of Eternal Life.
Benten gives Yamamoto more detailed instructions on how to complete the quest by singing him a song of the last person to retrieve a Golden Apple, who was Jofuku. Jofuku wasn't exactly an upstanding man either, as he managed to get a ship and crew to sail to the Island of Eternal Life only by tricking his King and telling him he was finding the Golden Apple to bring back to the King. In reality, Jofuku was worried that his days were numbered, and he wanted the Golden Apple for his own benefit.
Jofuku successfully sails to the Island of Eternal Life and finds the Tree of Youth Immortal with the Golden Apples, but Jofuku decides to stay on the island for fifty years because it's so beautiful and lush. And so he stays there, eating from the Tree of Youth Immortal until finally he longs to return home. So he brings a Golden Apple back home with him, but by then the King is dead, and so Jofuku becomes the ruler of the land.
The story "The Golden Apple" ends there, so it isn't yet revealed what the final outcome is, but I wanted to focus on the first two parts of Yamamoto's story because I find the set-up to the story the most interesting, and think they have the best descriptive language.
It's always a magic apple for some reason.
(Image source: Pexels)
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