Editing Susanoo-no-Mikoto (section)

=== Susanoo's rampage ===
[[File:天の斑馬 - Ame no Fuchikoma.jpg|thumb|280px|Susanoo about to flay the Heavenly Horse (Natori Shunsen)]]

Susanoo's acts of violence after proving his sincerity in the ''ukehi'' ritual has been a source of puzzlement to many scholars. While Edo period authors such as Motoori Norinaga and [[Hirata Atsutane]] believed that the order of the events had become confused and suggested altering the narrative sequence so that Susanoo's ravages would come before, and not after, his victory in the ''ukehi'', [[Don Philippi|Donald Philippi]] criticized such solutions as "untenable from a textual standpoint."<ref>Philippi (2015). p. 403.</ref> (Note that as mentioned above, one of the variants in the ''Shoki'' does place Susanoo's ravages and banishment before the performance of the ''ukehi'' ritual.)

Tsuda Sōkichi saw a political significance in this story: he interpreted Amaterasu as an emperor-symbol, while Susanoo in his view symbolized the various rebels who (unsuccessfully) rose up against the imperial court.<ref>Philippi (2015). p. 80, footnote 5.</ref>

Emilia Gadeleva observes that Susanoo, at this point in the narrative, is portrayed similarly to the hero [[Yamato Takeru]] (Ousu-no-Mikoto), in that both were rough young men possessed with "valor and ferocity" (''takeku-araki kokoro''); their lack of control over their fierce temperament leads them to commit violent acts. It was therefore imperative to direct their energies elsewhere: Ousu-no-Mikoto was sent by his father, the [[Emperor Keikō]], to lead conquering expeditions, while Susanoo was expelled by the heavenly gods. This ultimately resulted in the two becoming famed as heroic figures.<ref>Gadeleva (2000). p. 173-174.</ref>

A prayer or ''[[norito]]'' originally recited by the priestly [[Nakatomi clan]] in the presence of the court during the Great Exorcism (大祓, ''Ōharae'') ritual of the last day of the [[Japanese calendar#Months|sixth month]], more commonly known today as the ''Ōharae no Kotoba'' ([[:ja:|大祓詞]], 'Words of the Great Exorcism'),<ref>{{cite web |last1=Namiki |first1=Kazuko |title=Ōharae |url=http://k-amc.kokugakuin.ac.jp/DM/dbSearchList.do;jsessionid=6F4AC7A4EBD4F179A40B4972DB043860?class_name=col_eos&search_condition_type=1&db_search_condition_type=4&View=2&startNo=1&focus_type=0&searchFreeword=%C5%8Charae&searchRangeType=0 |website=Encyclopedia of Shinto |publisher=Kokugakuin University |access-date=2020-05-10 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Motosawa |first1=Masafumi |title=Norito |url=http://k-amc.kokugakuin.ac.jp/DM/detail.do?class_name=col_eos&data_id=23450 |website=Encyclopedia of Shinto |publisher=Kokugakuin University |access-date=2020-05-10 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> lists eight "heavenly sins" ([[Japanese language|Japanese]]: 天つ罪, ''[[Tsumi|amatsu-tsumi]]''), most of which are agricultural in nature:

# Breaking down the ridges
# Covering up the ditches
# Releasing the irrigation sluices
# Double planting
# Setting up stakes
# Skinning alive
# Skinning backward
# Defecation

1, 2, 6, 7 and 8 are committed by Susanoo in the ''Kojiki'', while 3, 4, 5 are attributed to him in the ''Shoki''. In ancient Japanese society, offenses related to agriculture were regarded as being as abhorrent as those which caused ritual impurity.<ref>Philippi (2015). pp. 403-404.</ref>

One of the offensive acts Susanoo committed during his rampage was 'skinning backward' (逆剥, ''sakahagi'') the ''Ame-no-Fuchikoma'' ([[Japanese language|Japanese]]: 天の斑駒, "Heavenly-Piebald Horse"). Regarding this, [[William George Aston]] observed, "Indian myth has a piebald or spotted deer or cow among celestial objects. The idea is probably suggested by the appearance of the stars."<ref>{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|page=40, footnote 185}}</ref> [[Nelly Naumann]] (1982) meanwhile interpreted the spotted horse as a lunar symbol, with Susanoo's action being equivalent to the devouring or killing of the moon. To Naumann, the act of flaying itself, because it is performed in reverse, is intended to be a magical act that caused death.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Naumann |first1=Nelly |title='Sakahagi': The 'Reverse Flaying' of the Heavenly Piebald Horse |journal=Asian Folklore Studies |year=1982 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=14, 22–25 |doi=10.2307/1178306 |jstor=1178306 }}</ref> Indeed, in the ''Kojiki'' when Susanoo throws the flayed horse (or its hide) to Amaterasu's weaving hall, one of the weaving maidens injures herself and dies. (In the ''Shoki'', it is Amaterasu herself who is alarmed and injured.) Emilia Gadeleva meanwhile connects Susanoo's act of skinning and flinging the horse with ancient Korean rainmaking rituals, which involved [[animal sacrifice]].<ref>Gadeleva (2000). p. 190-191.</ref>

The gods punish Susanoo for his rampages by cutting off his beard, fingernails, and toenails. One textual tradition in which the relevant passage is read as "cutting off his beard and causing the nails of his hands and feet ''to be extracted''" (亦切鬚及手足爪令'''拔'''而) suggests that this was something along the lines of corporal punishment. Another tradition which reads the passage as "cutting off his beard and the nails of his hands and feet, ''had him exorcised''" (亦切鬚及手足爪令'''祓'''而) meanwhile suggests that this was an act of purification, in which the sins and pollution that adhered to Susanoo are removed, thus turning him from a destroyer of life into a giver of life.<ref>Naumann (1982). pp. 29-30.</ref><ref>Philippi (2015). p. 86, footnote 26-27.</ref>