by Shigeru Aso

The ancient Shinto manuscript, KOJIKI, is the first book ever written in Japan. It describes the colorful world of animism, our belief system in Japan that there are spirits and gods in everything and anything in the land of the rising sun. We refer to this as YAOYOROZUNOKAMI, which lierally means 8 million gods, that we have praised and worshipped throughout history. This includes the god of cannabis, the god of wind, thunder, etc. We basically have gods and goddesses for everything, and that is embodied into the deep psyche and spirituality of the Japanese people and culture.

In this book, KOJIKI, there is a chapter called IWATOBIRAKI. This means the opening of the stone. In our mythology, AMATERASUOOMIKAMI, the sungodess hides behind a stone, and the world is covered in darkness and gloom. The other gods are freaked out by this, so they gather around the stone and they throw a big party to call the sungoddess back into the world to enlighten the land. In the end of this story, AMATERASUOOMIKAMI hears the noise of the party and gets curious as to what’s going on, and while she opens the stone and peaks through the cracks, a Japanese powerful giant pulls AMATERASUOOMIKAMI out from behind the stone. Then the land was full of sunshine once again.