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Asia
Explore myths, traditions and legendary beings grouped under Asia.
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Susano-wo
Susano-wo, more commonly written Susanoo or Susanoo-no-Mikoto, is one of the most powerful and complex figures in Japanese mythology. He is a kami associated in different traditions with storms, the sea, violence, disord…
Takami-musubi
Takami-musubi is a primordial kami of Japanese mythology, best known from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. His name is also written Takamimusubi, Takami-musubi-no-kami, or Takamimusuhi-no-kami. He is associated with the gener…
Tamayori-hime
Tamayori-hime is a female kami in Japanese mythology whose name appears in more than one important tradition. The best-known Tamayori-hime is the daughter of Watatsumi, the sea kami, and the younger sister of Toyotama-hi…
Tengu
Tengu are supernatural beings of Japanese mythology associated especially with mountains, forests, religious discipline and martial skill. They are often depicted either as birdlike humanoids with wings and beaks or as r…
Tsukiyomi
Tsukuyomi is a major deity in Japanese mythology, usually understood as the moon god. In the oldest surviving written sources of Japan, he appears as one of the children of the creator deities Izanagi and Izanami, and he…
Uba
Uba is a figure found in Japanese folklore and folk-religious tradition, usually understood as an old woman or crone-like presence rather than a major deity with a fixed mythological biography. In Japanese storytelling, …
Uke-mochi
Uke-mochi is a Japanese food and fertility deity associated with the provision of grain, fish, game and other foods. In surviving tradition, Uke-mochi appears most clearly in Shinto mythic and ritual contexts, although t…
Umashiashikabihikoji
Umashiashikabihikoji is an early Japanese deity named in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, the two foundational mythological chronicles of Japan. He belongs to the creation narratives of Shinto tradition and appears among …
Yama-no-kami
Yama-no-kami is a Japanese mountain deity or mountain spirit associated with wild uplands, hunting, forestry, agriculture, and the shifting boundary between human settlement and untamed nature. The name is written simply…