Thread by @bryandaniellowe

I’ve done a lot of Shinto/Japanese mythology threads over the past six months, especially tied to teaching. At the risk of regurgitating, it feels like it warrants a thread of threads just to keep it all in one place for easy reference. 1/10

This thread explains how the foundational mythological texts, Nihon Shoki and Kojiki cannot be considered a single Japanese mythology. Rather, plurality was the name of the game from the time of our earliest written texts. 2/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1359364255229870080

Over the summer, I did a series of three threads on #transnationalshinto to try to complicate ideas of Shinto as an indigenous religion. Here’s the first one, which focused on #buddhistart to show how kami and Buddhist deities blend in Japanese art. 3/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1414553281049808897

The second #transnationalshinto thread is on Amaterasu from the 8th century to the present day and argues that even the most important deity in the Shinto pantheon can be understood transnationally for every period of Japanese history. 4/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1415278246934061057

And the final one on #transnationalshinto and Sugawara no Michizane (Tenjin-sama), which also clarifies what I mean by transnational. 5/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1417802763753435137

So how did this all end? This thread considers how a 1937 text helped reinvent #Japanesemythology to fit modern myths of the nation state and the Japanese empire, erasing plurality and transnationalism in favor of a singular indigenous myth. 6/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1379147648679174147

In contrast to this unified state-sanctioned view, this thread looks at how post-war manga artists, directors, and novelists use #JapaneseMythology to subvert imperialism and misogyny in mythology. 7/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1385232614714392579

This thread celebrates some of the many contributions of women to the study of #JapaneseMythology. 8/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1368934969847017475

Puppy thread, just because! 9/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1357350225652953089

If you are curious how I teach this, here’s my most recent syllabus from my Japanese Mythology class, though I tend to revise significantly every semester. Lots of materials didn't make it into my threads, which should not be seen as exhaustive. 10/10

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1356972823764418561