Meeting: #10 Subject: The Three Sacred Treasures and 108 Date: 8-1-97
The Jewel. The Sacred Treasure of the jewel is known as "magatama" (almost literally meaning "bent ball" or "comma-shaped jewel"). Made by the 80 Myriads of Gods, they were placed on the top branches of the True Sakaki Tree in an effort to lure Ama-terasu from her cave when she isolated herself from the world. The Sakaki is a tree sacred to Shinto and is described as Eurya ochnacea and Cleyera Japonica, and it is mentioned in the Nihongi, or Chronicles of Japan, index only four times. There isn't much mention of the magatama, and there are no stories I can find relating -- however, anime has taken full advantage of its mystery and it appears a *lot* there. It is symbolic mainly of the soul, having been conceived for animation purposes as the soul of Yamata no Oroichi, and it has decorated the sword of many a Ronin Warrior (you'll see in a moment how the sword relates to the soul).
The Mirror. The mirror of eight faces, a welding of stars created by the 80 Myriads of Gods, into which Ama-terasu gazed was later permanently housed at her shrine in Ise. There are two proverbs expressing its significance in mythology -- "When the mirror is dim the soul is unclean" and "As the sword is the soul of a samurai, so is the mirror the soul of a woman." In the Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters. Izanagi gave his children a mirror and told them to kneel before it every morning and evening and examine themselves. He said if they could subdue their passions and evil thoughts, the mirror would reflect only a pure spirit, and so the mirror is a part of most ancient tradition, believed to be able to reflect what is in a person's soul.
There is a famous story about the Matsuyama Mirror. Matsuyama means Pine Tree Mountain, and though it is also a surname, the name given to the mirror refers to the place rather than the family who possessed it. A man gave his wife a metal mirror which he had brought back with him from Kyoto. Engraved on the back of it were the symbols for long life (the pine tree) and married union (a pair of cranes). The wife had never seen her reflection before and while the gift delighted her it embarrassed her to see her beauty. While their only child, their daughter who was as pleasing to look at as her mother, was still quite young her mother become ill and for months she nursed her as the disease destroyed her mother's beauty. Just before the woman died she gave her daughter the mirror, carefully wrapped, saying that it was her most precious possession and would comfort the child in her sorrow. The girl had not previously seen the mirror, and when she opened the package after her mother's death she thought her own reflection was her mother, young and beautiful again. She used to murmur to the reflection and, seeing the animation in the face, believed she was communicating with her dead mother, and found some consolation in her grief.
The Sword. You know that Susanoo found the Sword Murakumo-no-Tsurugi in the tail of the oroichi, that it was raised up and proclaimed to be a heavenly sword, and that later it became known as the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, or "Grass-Cleaving-Sword." But what you don't know is -- nothing! You know everything! Though it is interesting how "As the sword is the soul of a samurai, so is the mirror the of a woman." All the Sacred Treasures seem to, in one or the other, reflect the soul.
108 and the Repetition of the Figure 8. According to Buddhist teachings, people are afflicted by 108 sufferings (or 108 earthly desires). On New Year's at midnight, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times and repeat a prayer the same number of times. This entire ritual is only symbolic. The figure eight by itself, however, seems to hold some sacred meaning. There were 80 Myriads of Gods, the Sacred Treasure of the mirror had 8 faces, the oroichi slain by Susanoo had 8 heads, and it was made drunk with 8 barrels of sake, there are 88 sacred places of Shikoku, when Ama-terasu isolated herself, 8 combs were made of True Sakaki wood and 8 more were made of grass. When Izanagi left the Land of Yomi he was chased by 8 Thunders, and one representation of Benten shows her as having 8 arms.