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Sitonai
Sitonai ( Ainu: シトナイ) is a mythical Ainu heroine, known for a legend of slaying a giant snake of Akaiwa mountain (located northwest to Otaru). Synopsis In a cave in Akaiwa mountain there lived a giant serpent (the height of the body was seven or eight go (22.3 meters), and the thickness of the body was about the size of a four-toed barrel) that demanded the sacrifice of maidens from the village below, once a year on the 15th day of the eighth month. The town officials, afraid of the creature, give in to its horrible requests and send a maiden to the cave's opening. On the tenth year after nine years of sacrificing children, the youngest of six daughters of the village chief, Sitonai, aged 12 or 13, volunteers to be next sacrifice. In other version she is the 9th sacrifice, the youngest of nine daughters and aged 15. Sitonai goes to the cave with a makiri knife and her faithful hunting dog, and along the way they hunt a deer and a bear and acquire their meat. She then se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otaru
is a city and port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular tourist destination. Because it is a 25-minute drive from Sapporo, it has recently grown as a bedroom community. As of July 31, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 115,333 and a population density of 474.37 persons per km2 (1,228.6 persons per sq. mi.). The total area is . Although it is the largest city in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, the subprefecture's capital is the more centrally located Kutchan. History The city was an Ainu habitation, and the name "Otaru" is recognised as being of Ainu origin, possibly meaning "River running through the sandy beach". The very small remaining part of the Temiya Cave contains carvings from the Zoku-Jōmon period of Ainu history, around A.D. 400. Mount Akaiwa (Northwest part of Otaru) is m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chen Jinggu
Chen Jinggu () is a Chinese Protective Goddess of women, children, and pregnancy, and was a Taoist priestess. She is also known as Lady Linshui (臨水夫人 Linshui furen). Chen Jinggu is a deity worshipped in Fujian, Taiwan, South China, and across East and Southeast Asia. The legend of Chen Jinggu originated in Fuzhou prefecture. She was also a Taoist priestess of the Lushan School (閭山派). She was virtuous and worshipped as a goddess after her death. She was acquainted in mediumship or spirit channeling. Taiwan has more than 130 temples dedicated to Madam Chen, and Fujian has many ancestral temples dedicated to her as well. Today she is revered as a Taoist and Confucian deity. History Chen Jinggu was born Chen Jing (陳靖) and was called Chen Jinggu (陈靖姑). She was born in Xiadu (下渡), Fuzhou, nowadays Cangshan District around 766 CE. One source claims she was born in the 2nd year of Dali during the Tang dynasty. Another source says she was born at the end of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Li Ji Slays The Giant Serpent
''Li Ji slays the Giant Serpent'' (李寄斩蛇) is a Chinese tale. It was first published in the 4th century compilation named ''Soushen Ji'', a collection of legends, short stories, and hearsay concerning Chinese gods, Chinese ghosts, and other supernatural phenomena. The collection is attributed to Chinese official Gan Bao (or Kan Pao). Li Ji (or Li Chi) also appears as the character of "Chinese tales and ballads". Alternate names Alternate names for the tale are: * ''The Girl-Eating Serpent''; * ''Li Chi slays the Serpent''; * ''Li Ji slays the Great Serpent''; * ''Li Ji Hacks Down the Snake''; * ''Li Chi Slays the Great Serpent''; * ''Li Chi, the Serpent Slayer''; * ''Li Ji, the Serpent Slayer''; * ''The Serpent Sacrifice''. Synopsis In the Yung (Yong) mountains, in the province of Fukien (or in another translation, in Eastern Yue, in Minzhong, or in the province of Minchung, in Tungyeh), there lived a serpent that demanded the sacrifice of maidens from the village below. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainu Language
Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate with no academic consensus of origin. It is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinct Kuril Ainu and Sakhalin Ainu – were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in the Kuril Islands. Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is now moribund. A very few elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it. According to P. Elmer, the Ainu languages are a contact language, having strong influences from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benzaiten
Benzaiten (''shinjitai'': 弁才天 or 弁財天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯才天, 辨才天, or 辨財天, lit. "goddess of eloquence"), also simply known as Benten (''shinjitai'': 弁天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯天 / 辨天), is a Japanese Buddhist goddess who originated mainly from Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of speech, the arts, and learning, with certain traits deriving from the warrior goddess Durga. Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mainly via Classical Chinese translations of the ''Golden Light Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ''Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra''), which has a section devoted to her. During the medieval period onwards, Benzaiten came to be associated or even conflated with a number of Buddhist and local deities, which include the goddess Kisshōten (the Buddhist version of the Hindu Lakshmi, whose role as goddess of fortune eventually became ascribed to Benzaiten in popular belief), the snake god Ugajin (the combined form of the two bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainu Culture
Ainu culture is the culture of the Ainu people, from around the 13th century (late Kamakura period) to the present. Today, most Ainu people live a life superficially similar to that of mainstream Japanese people, partly due to cultural assimilation. However, while some people conceal or downplay their Ainu identity, Ainu culture is still retained among many groups. The Ainu way of life is called in the Ainu language (literally + "customs, manners"1905, ''An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary'', John Batchelor, Tokyo: Methodist Publishing House. ''Puri'' entry viewable onlinhere). The unique Ainu patterns and oral literature () have been selected as features of Hokkaido Heritage. Overview The term "Ainu culture" has two meanings. One is an anthropological perspective, referring to the cultural forms held by the Ainu people as an ethnic group, which includes both the culture held or created by the modern Ainu and the culture of their ancestors. The other usage, from an archeol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainu Mythology
The Ainu are the indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Tōhoku region, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Yamato people, Yamato Japanese and Treaty of Aigun, Russians. These regions are referred to as in historical Japanese texts. Official estimates place the total Ainu population of Japan at 25,000. Unofficial estimates place the total population at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals of Ainu descent having no knowledge of their ancestry. As of 2000, the number of "pure" Ainu was estimated at about 300 people. In 1966, there were about 300 native Ainu language, Ainu speakers; in 2008, however, there were about 100. Names This people's most widely known ethnonym, "Ainu" ( ain, ; ja, アイヌ; russian: Айны) means "human" in the Ainu language, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ao Bing
Ao Bing () is a character in the classic Chinese novel ''Investiture of the Gods'' (''Fengshen Yanyi''). He is a dragon prince and the third son of the East Sea Dragon King Ao Guang of the Crystal Palace. He has two brothers named Ao Jia and Ao Yi. Both of them are older than him. Ao Bing was originally revered as a rain god who would bestow the rain at his command upon any individual in need, but, as time passed, his father became corrupt, and soon the people were living in fear of the stormy malevolence of Ao Guang and his three sons. After the divine child-hero Nezha had slain the yaksha Li Gen and been seen creating tremors that threatened to destroy the Crystal Palace of the Dragon King, Ao Bing set out (with his father's consent) to confront Nezha, riding upon a great green beast and accompanied by his father's troops. Ao Bing duly confronted Nezha and met with a most uncouth reception, prompting him to bellow in rage "You self-righteous cur! Li Gen was sent to us by the Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nezha
Nezha ( 哪吒) is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion. His official Taoist name is "Marshal of the Central Altar" (). He was then given the title "Third Lotus Prince" () after he became a deity. Origins According to Meir Shahar, Nezha is ultimately based on two figures from Hindu mythology. The first is a yaksha from the ''Ramayana'' named Nalakubar, the son of Yaksha King Kubera and nephew of the antagonist Ravana. The link to Nalakubar is established through variants in his Chinese name appearing in Buddhist sutras. The original variant Naluojiupoluo () changed to Naluojubaluo (), Nazhajuwaluo (), and finally Nazha (). The simple addition of the " mouth radical" () to Na () changes the name to the current form Nezha (). The second figure is the child god Krishna. Both Krishna and Nezha are powerful children that defeat mighty serpents, Kaliya in the case of the former and Ao Bing in the latter. The ''Bhagavata Purana'' describes how Nalakubar was rescued from impri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susanoo
__FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory characteristics (both good and bad), being portrayed in various stories either as a wild, impetuous god associated with the sea and storms, as a heroic figure who killed a monstrous serpent, or as a local deity linked with the harvest and agriculture. Syncretic beliefs that arose after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan also saw Susanoo becoming conflated with deities of pestilence and disease. Susanoo, alongside Amaterasu and the earthly Ōkuninushi (also Ōnamuchi) – depicted as either Susanoo's son or scion depending on the source – is one of the central deities of the imperial Japanese mythological cycle recorded in the ( CE) and the (720 CE). One of the gazetteer reports () commissioned by the imperial court during the same per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Women Warriors In Folklore
This is a list of women who engaged in war, found throughout mythology and folklore, studied in fields such as literature, sociology, psychology, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies, and women's studies. A ''mythological'' figure does not always mean a ''fictional'' one, but rather, someone of whom stories have been told that have entered the cultural heritage of a people. Some women warriors are documented in the written or scientific record and as such form part of history (e.g. the Ancient Briton queen Boudica, who led the Iceni into battle against the Romans). However, to be considered a warrior, the woman in question must have belonged to some sort of military, be it recognized, like an organized army, or unrecognized, like revolutionaries. Pirates and seafarers *Anne Bonny and Mary Read sailed alongside Calico Jack, Mary dressing as a man. Anne eventually became Jack's lover, and they had a child. In October 1720, their ship was attacked by a royal fleet. All ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vrtra
Vritra () is a danava in Hinduism. He serves as the personification of drought, and is an adversary of the king of the devas, Indra. As a danava, he belongs to the race of the asuras. Vritra is also known in the Vedas as Ahi (Sanskrit: ', lit. "snake"). He appears as a human-like serpent blocking the course of the Rigvedic rivers, and is slain by Indra with his newly-forged vajra. Name ''Vritra'' literally means "cover, obstacle", in reference of him holding back the waters. It stems from Proto-Indo-Iranian ''*wr̥trás'', from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*wer-'' "to cover, to obstruct". The Indo-Iranian word is also found in Avestan as '' vərəθraγna'' (Vedic ''vṛtraghná''), literally "(one who) slays obstacles". Functionally, he is related to Jörmungandr of Norse myth, Typhon of Greek myth, and Veles of Slavic myth. Literature Vedas According to the Rig Veda, Vritra kept the waters of the world captive until he was killed by Indra, who destroyed all the 99 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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