The Mythology of Okami

The Myths, Legends, Art, and History Behind the Brilliant Game "Ôkami".

[okamimythology]

Hey, I'm not sure if you might see this or not, but after watching a playthrough of Okami I've been wondering if the Moon Tribe could be a representation of Western foreigners in ancient Japan? I mean, there was the Tao Trooper headquarters (which Waka, a member of the Moon Tribe, was captain of) which looked like a chapel on the inside, and the Ark of Yamato could be based on the 'Black Ships' brought by Commodore Perry.

OH... I never even considered this. I’ve always connected the Moon Tribe with the “ancient civilization” which is heavily inspired by the Jomon and Yayoi periods (before “japan” was even really a thing), because they also have some weird tech that seems like it could have come from the moon. But the Ark of Yamato is almost a literal black ship that brought weird blond people and devils who hecked everything up. 

I haven’t seen anything suggesting that this parallel was even considered, let alone intentional, but it’s REALLY interesting to think about. Damn.

[okamimythology]

Hey, so I just finished my first playthrough of the game and this blog made the experience so much more interesting! I was wondering if there was any lore or tales about the poncles? They were my favourite little people <3

I have an article on them already! http://okamimythology.tumblr.com/post/35317595542/poncles

[okamimythology]

Well I was mostly focused on the friendship between Oki, Samickle and Kai because there wasn't anything talking about that. Do you have anything on Kai? :'o Or the significance of the chosen animals (as I was fairly certain that there were things about the entire bear/eagle/deer thing). Also, what do you think Lika's leaf signifies? Considering the running theme of totem gods...

*edit: I got so wrapped up in talking about Lika that I forgot about the rest of the question. I will try to get back to it when I get home. XD

Lika’s leaf is a butterbur leaf, the same kind that Issun’s cape is made out of. Koropokkuru (the beings the Poncles are based on) are strongly associated with butterbur, and Lika has a strong connection with Issun in particular due to him saving her life when she got lost. This is revealed in a conversation with Mura, the purple Poncle girl, when you visit Ponc’tan. So my guess is that Lika’s totem is a Poncle, maybe even Issun himself.

“Hey! That's amazing! A wolf the same size as us! Hm, it's all a bitsuspicious if you ask me. How did you manage to find your way so deep intoYoshpet? Even the Oina tribe can't hold out in this forest for long. Any othercreatures die out there in an instant! Long ago, there was an Oina girl who gotlost out there, though. She was on the brink of death, poor thing. One of ourtribe, Issun, found her out there. He helped her find her way back to the edgeof the forest. Hm... It's funny remembering her after all this time. I supposeshe must be all grown up by now.Issun became good friends with that girl he rescued. He went to visither in Wep'keer quite a few times. The elder got really angry with him forneglecting his painting. In the end, Issun ran away. That was a long, long timeago. I wonder what he's up to these days. I suppose he hates painting now. Theelder was always nagging him.”

[celestialbrush]

Actually, I’m pretty sure the girl Issun saved was Kai, not Lika. Besides acting like old friends  when we meet her, she says this when she offers to guide us.

(Kai) I had something of a connection with the place when I was small. That's why I know the way. Right, Issun? (Issun) … …

And when you arrive to Ponc’tan:

(Kai) Here we are. It’s been a while since I was last here, so I wondered if I’d make it. You know, after all this time, it hasn’t changed one bit! Amaterasu, this place is Yoshpet’s little secret. Welcome to Ponc'tan, home of the Poncles.

[okamimythology]

...You are right. I got them crossed. Thank you. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Lika can perform the Volcanic Incantation then and has a certain closeness to the gods, as do the Poncles. Or her mask is in honor of the ones who saved her older sister. Maybe Lika's exceptionally small. Hmm. I still feel like it has something to do with Poncles because butterbur=Poncle (or just Hokkaido) in my mind, but nothing in the art book really gives us a clue of what anyone's masks are supposed to mean, so I guess it's unclear...

[okamimythology]

Well I was mostly focused on the friendship between Oki, Samickle and Kai because there wasn't anything talking about that. Do you have anything on Kai? :'o Or the significance of the chosen animals (as I was fairly certain that there were things about the entire bear/eagle/deer thing). Also, what do you think Lika's leaf signifies? Considering the running theme of totem gods...

*edit: I got so wrapped up in talking about Lika that I forgot about the rest of the question. I will try to get back to it when I get home. XD

Lika’s leaf is a butterbur leaf, the same kind that Issun’s cape is made out of. Koropokkuru (the beings the Poncles are based on) are strongly associated with butterbur, and Lika has a strong connection with Issun in particular due to him saving her life when she got lost. This is revealed in a conversation with Mura, the purple Poncle girl, when you visit Ponc’tan. So my guess is that Lika’s totem is a Poncle, maybe even Issun himself.

“Hey! That's amazing! A wolf the same size as us! Hm, it's all a bitsuspicious if you ask me. How did you manage to find your way so deep intoYoshpet? Even the Oina tribe can't hold out in this forest for long. Any othercreatures die out there in an instant! Long ago, there was an Oina girl who gotlost out there, though. She was on the brink of death, poor thing. One of ourtribe, Issun, found her out there. He helped her find her way back to the edgeof the forest. Hm... It's funny remembering her after all this time. I supposeshe must be all grown up by now.Issun became good friends with that girl he rescued. He went to visither in Wep'keer quite a few times. The elder got really angry with him forneglecting his painting. In the end, Issun ran away. That was a long, long timeago. I wonder what he's up to these days. I suppose he hates painting now. Theelder was always nagging him.”

[okamimythology]

I'm so glad to see that you're back, even if you're not posting! Your posts gave me many ideas for writing, although I ended up not writing most of them.

Well I’m always happy to help inspire people. :D And I’m always up for Okami discussion. c:

Thank you and I love you and I love all of you. 

[okamimythology]

fun fact: one of the reasons I headcanon that the lunar race were once Celestials is because the song A Resolute Person (one of Waka’s themes) is basically a dark version of Theme of the Celestials and I have a lot of headcanons based on music

[okamimythology]

ahh youre back!!!! I thought you might be gone forever!!!!!!! ;3;

Haha, I’m still here. I’m on my personal a lot. A lot has changed and I don’t have much motivation to post articles anymore, but I’m still here to answer questions or just talk if anyone wants. c:

[okamimythology]

do you have any interesting theories about waka or any of the moon tribe people? your head canons are sooo fascinating!

Aww I’m glad you like them!! :D

In legend, Ushiwaka had a lover named Shizuka so I designed a character for her once. She was going to be one of the main characters in a fanfic I wanted to write about my previously posted Moon Tribe headcanons, but never worked up the courage. XP

I also strongly believe that Waka and Himiko were really close. Waka has served the Yamatai clan for 200 years and probably saw her death before it happened… since he caused so much death and despair when he tried to help the Celestials escape, (and because he couldn’t save the moon,) I like to think that he tried to make her life as bright and fulfilling as possible. He lives well beyond human years; if everything is going to fall to dust around him, he might as well try to help make those fleeting moments as bright as possible.

I also feel like his “fruity prophet” personality is a facade to help him cope with the darkness of the past. 

And I get the sense that he’s kind of clingy with Amaterasu…? Like he’s been waiting so long for Ammy to come back to return to the Celestial Plain, sometimes I wonder if he only cared about going home at first, and as Amaterasu’s journey progressed he remembered why Ammy’s important too. idk I’m just thinking aloud here.

[okamimythology]

I'm curious. What are your head canons about the fall of moon tribe? (I love your blog *cries happily*)

I don’t 100% headcanon this but I have an idea where the Moon Tribe are descended from an exiled group of Celestials who felt a little too entitled to power. (Hence they both have blond hair?) The Moon Tribe’s distance from the Celestial Plain caused them to lose their divinity and their wings, but they still had enough power to manipulate things on the world below, and to develop and fuel technology. 

Based off the play Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy, I headcanon that the court of the Moon Tribe was taken over by an evil tyrant who saw that the ruling family had no legitimate claim to rule, and so claimed his own rule by filling the court with his own people and then ruling by force. He also wanted revenge on the Celestials, and wanted to reclaim the Celestial Plain. He exiled Sugawara to Nippon (as per Okamiden), and Kaguya was sent to Earth in hopes of saving her life. Waka led a group of rebels against the tyrant, but unable to stop them, they stole an iron ship and flew to the Celestial Plain where sympathetic Celestials let them stay, and the Ark of Yamato was thus enshrined there. Nobody sensed the dark forces still growing within, until the darkness that had been left behind on the Moon came after them yet again. By that the lunar civilization had basically been destroyed by the demons it had raised, namely Orochi.

Exactly how Orochi and other demons came to be, I’m not sure, but Orochi is referred to as “the monster of the moon” by one of the Celestials and all demons originated from the Ark, so... I feel like most people get the sense that the Moon Tribe made them. I’m not sure how much it was intentional.

[okamimythology]

What do you think ammy would look like if she were in human form? (I imagined her wearing a junihitoe like kaguya)

I have days where I love to imagine Ammy in elegant robes like in the old paintings of deities, and days where I can only see Ammy dressed head to toe in battle armor. Mostly I prefer the flowy elegance of robes, and their potential to capture dynamic motion in art~

There’s an illustration of Amaterasu (of legend) in a book about various goddesses and female figures with really cool art that I’m thinking of, but I can’t find it... it’s one of my favorite pieces of art, though. She kind of has a mix of both looks.

Most of the time I just imagine Amaterasu with hella robes. Not as many layers as a junihitoe--something more free-flowing--but still with a few colorful layers. Look up any woodblock print of Japanese deities, that’s pretty much what I think of. Mostly pink and red, like how the Hanagami’s clothes are pink. 

[okamimythology]

WRT Hiatus

I apologize for being dead for so long. To people who recently messaged me, I intend to answer you soon, but it will be a few days because I am swamped with pre-finals work and stuff. :'D I only have two weeks of school left, though, so I'm hoping to get back to posting after that! (I also haven't played Okami in a while so I need to fix that :< and hopefully that will inspire me to post more.) 

In the meantime, please feel free to send me questions--if you're curious about anything in particular, I'll be happy to answer to the best of my ability, and I think it will get me back in the swing of things. Sometimes I'm kind of overwhelmed by how many things I could possibly talk about. XP 

also this blog has 920 followers how did that happen

(so many Okami lovers! You guys are the best. And thanks for you patience ;w;)

[okamimythology]

How did the moon tribe fall?

I have my headcanons but no one knows D:

[okamimythology]

Is it just me or does this blog have more information on okami than the actual wikia

I go a lot deeper into it than the wikia does. :) You won't find much general information on the game, but I go as far as I reasonably can into what went into it.

[okamimythology]

I've seen you mention the grave in N. Ryoshima before, but in talking to the little girl nearby a thought occurred. Is is possible this little girl, who always remains by the tree (other children disappear into homes at night save for Camellia) could actually be the spirit of the lone grave? I mean, you need the catwalk to get up there, and I don't recall there being ANY treasure. Just the grave. And she tells you about the tower. So... Possibility?

Ooh, that's an interesting hypothesis. That grave is such a curious location. At best I think I can tell you it's a definite possibility. I'm just about to enter N. Ryoshima in my current playthrough, so I'll check around. c:

[okamimythology]

I noticed that characters like Kagu wears those golden bells that have Gohei on them, are those bells based of something?

Bells are used to call gods at shrines, and are said to ward off evil spirits, which is why they are often attached to charms such as omamori. Probably both of those associations, along with their common use with gohei/shimenawa, are why Kagu wears them.

[image]

(Sorry for taking so long to respond ;3;)

[okamimythology]

I'm finally done with the semester! I'm going to sleep for ten thousand days and then hopefully get back to this blog. Maybe I am sleeping? This feels like a dream.

I wish everyone who still has finals the best of luck, and to everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy/are enjoying your respective holidays as well :D

[saruofthemarsh]

Sakuya’s dialogue here is actually really interesting because she uses  a specifically Buddhist term, utsushiyo (present world; transient world), even though she is a god drawn from Shinto lore. Shinto and Buddhism have coexisted for centuries in Japan, and various Buddhist sects usually did not exclude Shinto but actually worked to explain the how it fit in. Although the Shinto folklore in Okami is the most prevalent, and the easiest for us to see, combined with the presence of temples and priests, karma, and vocabulary like this, it seems to me that Okami is actually set within an ultimately Buddhist universe.