For Reading Diary B, I will be going over some things I found interesting from the Japanese Mythology unit.
The first thing that stuck out to me was The Labors of Yamato, mainly because it was almost half of the unit (five stories). I focused on two of them: The Demon Boar and The Grass-Cleaving Sword. One thing that's interesting about this series of stories is they are intermixed with riddles that help tie some of the story together.
Anyways, in the Demon Boar, Yamato can't find the Island of the Golden Apples so he was pretty upset. He couldn't find anything that he really wanted to do; the hunt didn't excite him anymore. Until someone mentioned a demon boar that no one could kill. The high priestess warned him that he wouldn't be able to hurt it except for at its tail. So Yamato sent a whole army to kill this thing. Everyone died, except for him. He eventually got stuck between the boar and a cliff, so he hid behind a tree. When the boar walked past, he cut off its tail and forced it to run off the cliff to its death.
The story was good, but what really makes a better story is the details. Just a few examples: a scent of thyme floated on the breeze; mighty mountains loomed their time-scarred battlements against the cloudless sky. These are just from one paragraph, so you can see how the story is just lined with descriptive phrases.
The Grass-Cleaving Sword is similar to the Demon Boar in terms of details. Every other phrase is a descriptive one, describing either the atmosphere or what's actually happening. This story really showed how one of Japan's gods was able to conquer the elements, something the Japanese hold dearly in terms of their connection with nature. Yamato's people are caught in the middle of a raging fire. They are also being trampled by stampeding deer. Eventually the fire surrounds the men. Yamato takes his blade and cuts down a lane of grass to separate the fire. Then, the wind starts blowing the fire towards the enemies that were pursuing Yamato and his men, and they succeed in defeating the enemy. Thus, The Grass-Cleaving Sword.
The first thing that stuck out to me was The Labors of Yamato, mainly because it was almost half of the unit (five stories). I focused on two of them: The Demon Boar and The Grass-Cleaving Sword. One thing that's interesting about this series of stories is they are intermixed with riddles that help tie some of the story together.
Anyways, in the Demon Boar, Yamato can't find the Island of the Golden Apples so he was pretty upset. He couldn't find anything that he really wanted to do; the hunt didn't excite him anymore. Until someone mentioned a demon boar that no one could kill. The high priestess warned him that he wouldn't be able to hurt it except for at its tail. So Yamato sent a whole army to kill this thing. Everyone died, except for him. He eventually got stuck between the boar and a cliff, so he hid behind a tree. When the boar walked past, he cut off its tail and forced it to run off the cliff to its death.
The story was good, but what really makes a better story is the details. Just a few examples: a scent of thyme floated on the breeze; mighty mountains loomed their time-scarred battlements against the cloudless sky. These are just from one paragraph, so you can see how the story is just lined with descriptive phrases.
The Grass-Cleaving Sword is similar to the Demon Boar in terms of details. Every other phrase is a descriptive one, describing either the atmosphere or what's actually happening. This story really showed how one of Japan's gods was able to conquer the elements, something the Japanese hold dearly in terms of their connection with nature. Yamato's people are caught in the middle of a raging fire. They are also being trampled by stampeding deer. Eventually the fire surrounds the men. Yamato takes his blade and cuts down a lane of grass to separate the fire. Then, the wind starts blowing the fire towards the enemies that were pursuing Yamato and his men, and they succeed in defeating the enemy. Thus, The Grass-Cleaving Sword.
Yamato and Susano'o
No comments:
Post a Comment