Japanese myths

How do you teach young children your cultural heritage?

Sometimes legends are not compatible to our modern-day morals and common senses.

They can be provocative and lewd.

Do you distort the original and tell them a diluted version of it?

When I think about Kojiki, the oldest book of legends in Japan, it is inevitable to ask myself whether it is possible to tell those interesting stories without referring libidinous elements.

For example, about the scene of Ama no Iwato (Heaven's Cavern), is it really funny if you just tell that a goddess danced in front of other gods and they laughed?

Why did they laugh?

Was the way she danced so comic?

In fact, the Japanese goddess performed the first recorded strip-tease in the history of Japan.

When she took off her tunic, those Oriental counterparts of Dionysos laughed like a lewd man in front of a Tifana table-dancer.

That is the whole point of it.

Sacredness and libido are inseparable in Japanese art.