Quote:
Originally Posted by garbage
no wonder onii-san sounds old he really is the mother's onii-san ..so how are they related to sasami's dad? man incest really messes up the family tree....
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Every so often I remember the fact that in Japanese mythology the gods who gave birth to the Japanese islands, and to many other gods, were the brother and sister
Izanagi and Izanami. No wonder incest keeps appearing in anime.
I'm guessing the following story about them has been mentioned before in this thread, but here it is again, based on
Wikipedia. It echoes things in the show, particularly Mother's appearance in that one scene, but also the fairly vicious attitude she has after spending time in the underworld.
Izanami died giving birth to their last child. Izanagi lamented her loss and travelled to the underworld to get her back. He found her, but at first could not see her in the dim shadows. He asked her to return with him. Izanami's voice spat out at him that he was too late: she had already eaten the food of the underworld and was now one with the land of the dead. She could no longer return to the living.
This shocked Izanagi, but he refused to leave her there. While she was sleeping, he took the comb that bound his long hair and set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami. She was now rotting flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her body.
He could not control his fear and started to run, intending to abandon her and return to the land of the living. Izanami woke up, shrieking and indignant, and chased after him.
Izanagi burst out of the entrance and pushed a boulder in the mouth of the cavern that was the entrance of the underworld. Izanami screamed from behind this impenetrable barricade that if he left her she would destroy 1,000 living humans every day. He furiously replied he would give life to 1,500.
After Izanagi escaped from the underworld, he (by himself) gave birth to the siblings Amaterasu (goddess of the sun), Tsukuyomi (god of the moon), and Susanoo (god of storms).
I don't really think this show is meant to fit precisely into Japanese mythology, but it does use it and relate to it in various ways.