Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part B

Reading Notes

Japanese Mythology Part B

I completed the reading for the second half of this unit. It was a lot easier to go through this portion because I read these sections aloud, and it also followed the story of one person, so the flow was apparent. It was similar to the Sinbad stories we were given the opportunity to read back in the Middle Eastern units a few weeks again. I loved the imagery used in this section because it was using other natural beauties to describe natural life forms. The way “foaming flowers” were used to describe the waves of the ocean was such a captivating observation for me. This section is definitely going to help me mold my storybook project pages further for the rest of the semester. I also got the hang of understanding the poem meters. It’s almost like a sandwich effect, which I like! Something I love to do when reading stories aloud is to give different voice tones and patterns to different characters. It was fun to play around with the rhythm of the poetry from this unit when reading aloud. I was also weirdly connected to Yamato based on the writing style he was portrayed under. They gave him very brief dialogue and most of his development was through action, but he had such strong passions that justified why he did what he did. It was realistic to the situation he was under, despite the mannerisms he chose to treat his wife. The only real critique I had was that the quotations thrown throughout the story were a bit confusing to me. Some of them seemed unnecessary, or like they weren't used for a character speaking. Overall a fun second half to review!

Image: Evil Tenkeisei (Wikipedia)
Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. C (Un-Textbook)