When Nicc requested me to put in writing a brief piece about crows and ravens in Japan, Karasu wa Aruji o Eraabanai was clearly an element. However one purpose he cited was the curious undeniable fact that there isn’t any separate phrase for “crow” and “raven” in Japanese – they’re each merely black water. When you get into the realm of delusion, that is a special matter, however that is not what we’re speaking about right here.
Coincidentally, that was one thing I seen years in the past (possibly I used to be writing some anime that made me notice it, I do not keep in mind). And I additionally thought it was very unusual. And I did analysis into it. And the brief reply appears to be: Ravens aren’t truly discovered anyplace in Japan, besides in Hokkaido (which for a lot of Japan’s historical past has been handled as a international nation, with its personal language) – and even there solely seasonally – so it was. it is necessary. However it’s also a undeniable fact that the Japanese don’t distinguish between mice and rats, or bees and wasps, for instance. It simply appears to be a quirk of the language.
That mentioned, when you Doing enterprise into myths and legends, corvids are in every single place. Finest identified, after all, is tengu, the legendary youkai (or Kami, relying on interpretation), one of the vital well-known Shinto creatures. They’re an odd group – they’re thought to dwell in mountain areas, love swords and younger boys (whom they’ve been identified to kidnap for nefarious functions), and usually have an boastful and haughty perspective in direction of lesser beings. There are some variations of the tengu delusion that recommend that they’re the reincarnated spirits of those that had been boastful and haughty in life.
Essentially the most well-known raven in Japanese folklore is the Yatagarasuthe three-legged raven within the coronary heart of Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai. The Yatagarasu goes again a good distance in Shinto, as he was the Kami who is claimed to have accompanied the legendary Emperor Jimmu on his first journey to the Yamato Plain. There are lots of theories as to why it’s at all times depicted with three legs (heaven, earth and man are the identical), however its origins are so hidden within the mists of time that nobody is aware of for positive. That mentioned, Yatagarasu (like many Japanese myths and legends) has its roots in historical China, with a cease in Korea alongside the best way.
Evidently, the examples of crows and ravens in animanga are nearly limitless. There are three (Yatagarasu, No Youkai-sanAnd Kimetsu) with them alone this season. Koukyuu no Karasu – on this case localizers went with ravens, “Raven of the Internal Palace” – is one other very distinguished instance. And so they’re no strangers to Western fiction both, from Edgar Allen Poe to “The Crowening” (and the Outdated Testomony, I would add). Science tells us that corvids are among the many most clever animals in nature, able to utilizing instruments and understanding numbers (there is a video of a crow from Tokyo making an attempt to make use of a PASMO card, and I dare you to elucidate it in one other approach).
However folks did not want trendy science to inform them this; anybody who watches the conduct of crows and ravens will notice it. And since they (notably crows, together with jays and magpies – the opposite fundamental branches of the corvid phylum) have lived in shut affiliation with people because the daybreak of civilization, we did so way back. The Japanese crows are a particular function of recent city life as a result of they’ve deduced that human cities are the last word gravy prepare and have established them in giant numbers. They’re annoying: loud, litter-scattering, pet-threatening. And there are circumstances of crows attacking folks they understand as hostile (and have been proven to acknowledge and keep in mind human faces). However we stay fascinated by such extremely smart creatures dwelling amongst us.
And that is the essence of the Karasu mythology, I feel. As people, we’re fascinated by the intelligence of different animals, and virtually in every single place these animals are rather more frequent in our each day lives than primates (amongst land animals, they’re, in addition to us, their solely rivals in mind energy). Japan has needed to take expensive and complex measures to restrict the harm crows may cause – not simply waste and noise, but in addition stealing livestock feed from farms (and zoos) and damaging energy strains with their nests. However they’ve at all times been our neighbors, simply as orangutans – the “folks of the forest” – had been in Indonesia. Given all this, their prevalence in Japanese (not solely, however particularly) folklore and in style tradition shouldn’t be precisely stunning.
