About gods and ethics
I was reading Paul Varley’s Japanese Culture, and discovered a basic part of the ancient Shinto belief to relate very closely to the youkai in Noragami.
"Shinto has little concept of the ethical as a means to measure human behaviour, but instead considers the misdeeds of people […] to be essentially visitations from without that must be handled by special rites, such as exorcism and purification."
In Noragami
- people’s negativity attracts the youkai,
- who in turn try to possess the human.
- A god can, by using their shinki, cut the bonds between the human and the youkai.
- Shinki and their masters can be infected by this negativity/youkai
- and can be purified by water or by performing a ritual.
- Gods don’t have a concept of right and wrong.
- It’s humans who judge behaviour of other humans.
I like it when things in anime are actually based on existing ideas. Especially historical/mythological stuff *A*
Quality stuff. Thank you, Adachi Toka!