The Myth Of The White Hare Of Inaba Is The Oldest...

Compiled nearly 1300 years ago, the Kojiki is the oldest surviving collection of Japanese myths, which serve as the backbone for Shinto practices. Thirteen centuries later, those very same myths live on, sometimes in forms which could not even exist until about a decade ago. In particular, the myth of The White Hare of Inaba is reincarnated through a few modern-day games. It tells the story of a cunning rabbit who crosses the sea by tricking wani (translated as crocodiles by B. H. Chamberlain, but it can also be rendered as sharks) into lying in a row. The hare reveals the nature of his trickery, and the last crocodile enacts revenge by ripping off all of the hare’s fur. Eighty gods, all brothers, stumble upon the hare, but they respond to the rabbit’s plea for help by giving dishonest advice that only causes the white hare more pain. The eighty-first brother, named Ã…Å'kuninushi, then finds the hare and gives proper aid to restore the rabbit’s hide. In return, t he white hare of Inaba prophesizes that Ã…Å'kuninushi will marry Princess Yakami of Inaba, whom the eighty-one brothers sought to court. As can be seen through examples from Cardfight!! Vanguard and the Touhou series, the myth can be taken, reshaped, and used in a variety of ways without completely losing the original context. Before beginning, it is worth nothing that there are two versions of The White Hare of Inaba myth floating around, but not under Doty’s sense of the term â€Å"version†; rather, the two stories are