In Japanese mythology, there is a belief in kawaya kami, or the toilet god.
Similar kami also exist in Ryukyuan and Ainu mythology.
Most bodily wastes were collected and used as fertilizers, ensuring a higher overall level of sanitation than in other countries where wastes were stored in cesspits or otherwise disposed of. Toilets were often dark and unpleasant places where the user was at some risk of falling in and drowning. The protection of the toilet god was therefore sought to avoid such an unsanitary fate.[1]
Overview[]
The god also had a role to play in promoting fertility, as human waste was collected and used as fertiliser. Rituals were performed at the New Year to ask the kawaya kami for help in producing a good harvest. In some places, family members would sit on a straw mat in front of the toilet and eat a mouthful of rice, symbolising eating something that the god had left. A properly appointed toilet would be decorated and kept as clean as possible, as the toilet god was considered to be very beautiful. The state of the toilet was said to have an effect on the physical appearance of unborn children. Pregnant women asked the toilet god to give boys a "high nose" and dimples to girls. If the toilet was dirty, however, it was said to cause children to be born ugly and unhappy.fate.[2] According to a different Japanese tradition, the toilet god was said to be a blind man holding a spear in his hand. This presented an obvious and painful threat when squatting down to defecate, so it was regarded as necessary to clear one's throat before entering so that the blind toilet god would sheathe his spear.[3]
Rituals[]
Various rituals and names were associated with the latrine god in different parts of Japan. On Ishigaki Island it was called kamu-taka and was propitiated by the sick with sticks of incense, flowers, rice and rice wine. In Nagano Prefecture's former Minamiazumi District, sufferers from toothache offered lights to the toilet god, which was called takagamisama. The inhabitants of [Hiroshima called the toilet god Setchinsan while those of Ōita Prefecture called it Sechinbisan and those of Ehime Prefecture called it Usshimasama.[4] The American anthropologist John Embree recorded in the 1930s that the inhabitants of part of the southernmost Japanese island of Kyūshū would put a branch of willow or Chinese nettle tree, decorated with pieces of mochi (rice cake), into the toilet as an offering to ask the toilet god to protect the house's inhabitants from bladder problems in the coming year.[5]
Ainu mythology[]
The Ainu people of far northern Japan and the Russian Far East believed that the Rukar Kamuy, their version of the toilet god, would be the first to come to help in the event of danger.[6]
Ryukyuan mythology[]
In the Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa Islands), the fuuru nu kami, or "toilet god", is the family protector of the area of waste.The pig toilet (ふーる / 風呂), lacking this benevolent god, could become a place of evil influence and potential haunting (such as by an akaname,[7] or other negative spirits, welcomed by the accumulation of waste matter, rejected and abandoned by the human body). Because he is considered a primary household god, the fuuru nu kami's habitat (the bathroom) is kept clean and is perceived to warrant deferential behavior. Reports on the family's status are delivered regularly to the fuuru nu kami. He shares traits with the Korean bathroom goddess Cheukshin.
References[]
- ↑ Hanley, Everyday things in premodern Japan: the hidden legacy of material culture, pg 122–125, University of California Press, isbn=978-0-520-21812-3
- ↑ Hanley, Everyday things in premodern Japan: the hidden legacy of material culture, pg 122–125, University of California Press, isbn=978-0-520-21812-3
- ↑ {Country to city: the urbanization of a Japanese hamlet, Norbeck, University of Utah Press, isbn=978-0-87480-119-4|url=https://archive.org/details/countrytocityurb0000norb/page/124
- ↑ Yanigita, Kunio (1954). Japanese folk tales. Tokyo News Service. p. 128.
- ↑ Embree, John Fee (1939). Suye mura, a Japanese village. University of Chicago Press. p. 271. https://archive.org/details/suyemurajapanese0000embr.
- ↑ Shigeru, "The Ainu: a story of Japan's original people", pg 23, Tuttle Publishing, isbn=978-0-8048-3511-4
- ↑ Aka-name ~ 垢舐 (あかなめ) ~ part of The Obakemono Project: An Online Encyclopedia of Yōkai and Bakemono