Rabu, 29 November 2017

Book Review of Japan Mythological Story



By : Eka Tresna Setiawan*

Title                                      : Izanagi x Izanami (The Story of Gods from Sun Land)
Author                                  : Anton WP
Place, Publisher                  : Solo, BukuKatta
Edition                                 : 9th Edition, 2013
Thickness                             : 96 Pages


Izanagi x Izanami is a novel describing Japan myth story. Izanagi and Izanami were charactered as gods. Actually, there are many god included the story. In fact, Izanagi and Izanagi were not the first gods.  Before them, there was Ameno Minaka Nushi as the first god. He transformed from one thing like bamboo bud.
I guess why Izanagi and Izanami becoming the title of the book because they are the first gods coming to the earth. In this novel, Izanagi and Izanami are only told in its six first chapters. The novel consist of thirtty chapters. The book tells us that the story was a hereditary chronology.
                When I read its synopsis, there are some examples of myth stories which is introducted in many popular media like animation and comic. The writter tell us about some myth characters in Naruto Comic. Amaterasu, Susanou and Tsukiyomi which were technics of Uchiha Itachi are some examples of myth stories. In myth stories, they are gods.
                 It was out of my expectation at the first I saw the synopsis. I guessed there would be some correlation between the written and Naruto’s story. I guessed the writter would tell me some Naruto’s story. In fact, there’s no Naruto’s story at all.
                More than that, my guessing about Uchiha’s technics was not right at all. For exmaple, Izanami was not a technic. It’s a god. In fact, there’s no similar thing between Izanami as a technic and Izanami as a god. Izanami as a technic is a technic to make sombody taking reality. Izanami in this novel was told not as anything about taking reality.
                The story is full of prodigies. It could be knowledgeable. However, it’s a genre which is telling about mythological story. There are many thing out of common sense if we think by our sense nowadays. How could it be the truth even the story is a provenance of Japan? Myth is myth. There are many myths in another nation history beside Japan history.
The story is related to Yamato Empire. Yamato Empire is none but Japan Empire. The first emperor of Yamato was Wakanukenu. Wakanukenu came to be called Kamuyamato Iwarehito, Yamato Emperor and Jimmu Emperor. Yamato Empire was told in the end of the chapters, epilog.
                Its plot is very simple. Over all, it’s just a forward plot. That makes easy to get the story. We don’t need to think too much when we read it. The forward plot make us getting story chronological.
                The language of this book is very enjoying to read. Even though there’s only a little of rhetoric sentence, over all it’s quite enough amusing. Simple plot, simple language. It’s very easy to follow the story.