JAPANESE WOMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26045, 8 January 1946, Page 3

JAPANESE WOMEN

INTENSE NATIONALISTS The Japanese woman owes her. lowly position to tenets of the Shinton creed, which is responsible for sacred beliefs and practices associated with their intense nationalism. The story of creation, according to Shinto, is thus: “In the beginning there was nothingness. Then a series of gods were born in the Plain of High Heaven, who did little but exist till the advent of a male and female pair called Izanagi and Iz3nami. Izanagi dipped a heavenly spear into the deeps and the drops tha„ fell from it as he withdrew it formed the islands of Japan.* “ Performing a special marriage ceremony, Izanagi and Izanami followed each other’ around a heavenly august pillar, and she greeted him: ‘Ah, what a fair and lovely youth! ’ He greeted her in return, and they were married. But their first children were ‘ not good,’ and by .divination it was found that there had been an error in the wedding ceremony. The man, not the woman, should have spoken first. So the whole ceremony was repeated, with Izanagi opening the conversation. Thus male superiority was assured for all time.’’