Ocean Worship In Japanese Culture

To worship and believe ocean is an important aspect of Japanese primitive culture which is distinguished from others. It also unfolds the ancient Japanese's concept of space-time of the world and the outlook about life and death. Furtherly, these basic concepts penetrate into literature and culture, showing the distinctively national characters. This article is divided into four levels to analyze the ocean worship in Japanese cultures:The first level originated from Japanese myth "Kiki shinwa",it is the oldest records which recorded stories such as construction of the nation, born myth of the son of God, but the ocean story takes a greater proportion compared with others. The second level is to connect the relationship between myths and rituals, then discusses the original beliefs that how to comprehend the sea by the influence of Shinto ceremony.Third is the continuation of the myth, legend of ocean development events as its theme, exampled by the legend of Urashima taro, and discusses the evolution of Urashima story and the differences between per stages. The fourth related the new mythicism in Japanese contemporary novels, illustrates that the survived consciousness of ancient ocean worship in modern Japanese culture and the destruction and reconstruction on the concepts of Japanese original culture.This article is based on the embryology of Japanese literature and Chinese literature,to discuss the inheritance and variation of ocean concept in Japanese culture and the fusion and recreation by the impact of other cultures. The linear trajectory can be divided into three aspects when taking myth as its theme. Firstly, from rituals in ancient document Gushiji to fuxi ritul in Japanese Shinto, seawater exorcising occupies an important place. The second, according to the development from mythes to legends, displays the circulated version of the legend about Pudaozi biography which influenced by Chinese culture. The third, to discuss the influence study from Japan iterature to Chinese literature in the scope of comparative mythology, focuses on the harmonious but different. In the past, the research of Japanese worship and belief of ocean in domestic, mainly disperse in different areas. This article based on research results, to get a summary by the comparative method, aims at the subject in the scope of the East Asian cultures. It is always around with generalized mythology, using text documents, folklore, comparative study of stories, then get a conclusion about that.