Record #88
Kami
Gigantic subterranean creatures whose movements cause earthquakes and cosmic instability.
Original Text
In a passage from Seneca, we read that Thales of Miletus taught that the earth floats in a surrounding sea, like a ship, and that these waters when tossed and driven by the tempests are the cause of earthquakes. Historians or mythologists of eighth-century Japan offer us a rather different seismological system. In the Sacred Scriptures it is written:
Now beneath the Fertile-Land-of-Reed-Plains lay a Kami in the form of a great cat-fish, and by its movement it caused the earth to quake, till the Great Deity of DeerIsland thrust his sword deep into the earth and transfixed the Kami’s head. So, now, when the evil Kami is violent, he puts forth his hand and lays it upon the sword till the Kami becomes quiet.
The hilt of this sword, carved in granite projects some three feet out of the ground near the shrine of Kashima. In the seventeenth century, a feudal lord dug for six days without reaching the tip of the blade.
In popular belief,the Jinshin-Uwo, or Earthquake-Fish, is an eel seven hundred miles long that holds Japan on its back. It runs from north to south, its head lying beneath Kyoto and its tail beneath Awomori. Some logical thinkers have argued for the reverse of this order, for it is in the south of Japan that earthquakes are more frequent, and it is easier to equate this with the lashing of the eel’s tail. This animal is not unlike the Bahamut of Moslem tradition or the Miõ - garõsormr of the Eddas.
In certain regions the Earthquake-Fish is replaced, with little apparent advantage, by the Earthquake-Beetle (JinshinMushi). It has a dragon’s head, ten spider legs, and a scaly body. It is an underground, not an undersea, creature.
Now beneath the Fertile-Land-of-Reed-Plains lay a Kami in the form of a great cat-fish, and by its movement it caused the earth to quake, till the Great Deity of DeerIsland thrust his sword deep into the earth and transfixed the Kami’s head. So, now, when the evil Kami is violent, he puts forth his hand and lays it upon the sword till the Kami becomes quiet.
The hilt of this sword, carved in granite projects some three feet out of the ground near the shrine of Kashima. In the seventeenth century, a feudal lord dug for six days without reaching the tip of the blade.
In popular belief,the Jinshin-Uwo, or Earthquake-Fish, is an eel seven hundred miles long that holds Japan on its back. It runs from north to south, its head lying beneath Kyoto and its tail beneath Awomori. Some logical thinkers have argued for the reverse of this order, for it is in the south of Japan that earthquakes are more frequent, and it is easier to equate this with the lashing of the eel’s tail. This animal is not unlike the Bahamut of Moslem tradition or the Miõ - garõsormr of the Eddas.
In certain regions the Earthquake-Fish is replaced, with little apparent advantage, by the Earthquake-Beetle (JinshinMushi). It has a dragon’s head, ten spider legs, and a scaly body. It is an underground, not an undersea, creature.