LEGENDS AND MYTHS OF ANCIENT JAPAN. BML

The publication is a real encyclopedia that tells about Japanese myths and legends, starting from the cycle of legends about the creation of the country, the adventures of gods and heroes to legends related to flowers, folk holidays and superstitions. There are thirty-one chapters in the book, and each of them is devoted to a separate topic. For example, separate cycles of legends are dedicated to werewolf foxes or stories related to the sea. Other chapters deal with mythical animals, supernatural beings, and Buddhist legends. The book is decorated with several hundred magnificent color reproductions of Japanese prints from the 17th and early 20th centuries.

This publication is a real encyclopedia of Japanese myths and legends, from the cycle of legends about the creation of the country to legends related to flowers, folk festivals and superstitions. There are thirty-one chapters in the book, and each of them is devoted to a different topic. Some, for example, talk about werefoxes, others tell about mythical animals, supernatural beings or Buddhist legends. The book introduces the reader to a galaxy of gods and glorious warrior-heroes who are worthy to take a place on a par with the knights of King Arthur.

Many Japanese myths are highly poetic. In them, flowers, trees and butterflies are endowed with souls, blood-red azaleas in these legends are considered the fires of the gods, and the white snows covering the slopes of Mount Fuji are divine garments. Reading such descriptions, one can understand how important the role of spiritualized, deified nature plays among the Japanese in the perception of the world. At the same time, there is a lot of terrible, irrational and at the same time comical in Japanese legends; many grotesque details can be found in them. Many Japanese myths are replete with manifestations of brutal realism, which gives fantastic stories incredible plausibility and life credibility.

The author of this selection of myths, unique for the European reader, is the professional British historian Frederick Headland Davies, who at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century made a lot of efforts to popularize the cultural heritage of Asian countries in the West. In addition to the Myths and Legends of Japan, he compiled, in particular, an impressive collection of Persian myths and became the author of a ten-volume mythological encyclopedia. These and his other books have been and remain extremely popular in the English-speaking world. Suffice it to say that his "Japanese Myths" was reprinted more than seventy times in the 20th century. In his preface to this book, he wrote that its readers will witness how Mount Fuji was born, they will be able to walk along the corridors of the Sea Dragon Palace, visit the country of Eternal Youth and listen to the teachings of the holy hermits.

The edition is decorated with several hundred magnificent color reproductions of Japanese engravings of the 17th - early 20th centuries. Thanks to the skill of their authors: Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Kunisa-da, Yoshitoshi, Chikanobu, Harunobu and many other famous Japanese artists, the reader can imagine with his own eyes that wonderful world in which the ancient gods, heroes, legendary warriors, demons live and act. , werewolves, ghosts and dragons. The legends associated with them will help to better understand the unique culture of Japan, which continues to grow today on this ancient layer of folk tales, inextricably linked with the real history of this country.