I think Professor Makino will know because he is also a manga author that there are many manga works employing characters from myth, such as Nagai Go's Susa no O (lit. 'King of threats'), Miuchi Suzue's Amaterasu, and Sarume no Mai (Dance of Sarume) by Hoshino Yukinobu which takes up Ame no Uzume no Mikoto. They are also commercialized in various fields such as games and goods. In fact, the Japanese have enjoyed these mythological characters in the form of kagura. So I consider kagura to be one of the first stages in the process of character evolution. In particular, Ame no Uzume, Sarutahiko and Susa no O are popular characters as heroes in myths that the Japanese have been fond of. These gods are of course worshipped as deities in shrines. For example, Susa no O is worshipped in many places all over Japan including Hikawa Shrine in Omiya where I live and Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. There are probably over 30,000 shrines all over the country which venerates Susa no O no Mikoto. I think they gradually increased as they were requested to be brought to each region. The characters of the festivals differ from each other slightly. Susa no O, Sarutahiko and Ame no Uzume are all slightly different in each place and have transformed in various ways. What I mentioned above about the incident of the myth of the heavenly cave, in which the words 'Aware, ana_omoshiro, ana_tanoshi, ana_sayake, oke' were spoken, are represented by different gestures, music, and costumes in kagura of different regions.

 For example, this picture shows the version at Togakushi Shrine where Amaterasu Omikami comes out of the cave. The cave itself symbolizes vagina or womb, so it signifies new life being born from this womb. The god of strength, Ame no Tajikarao, opened this cave with great strength. It is said that the rock that he removed when opening the cave flew across the sky and became Mount Togakushi. Togakushi Shrine worships this deity with enormous strength, Ame no Tajikarao, in the inner sanctuary. Here the deity Ame no Uzume no Mikoto danced revealing her breasts and vagina. The gods made fun because she danced revealing her genitals.

 Incidentally, the entire scene was coordinated by the deity Ame no Yagokoro Omoikane, who is said to be a deity who combines eight minds. In other words, he was the producer, director, and Dentsu (advertising company) of that time. So Dentsu existed in the world of gods too. The deity called Omoikane brought everyone together and played the role of producer, and was a deity who collected, combined and synthesized many ideas and opinions. This deity is worshipped in the middle sanctuary of Togakushi Shrine. Inside Togakushi Shrine there is an attached shrine called Hi no Miko Sha, where Ame no Uzume no Mikoto is worshipped. In another attached shrine of Togakushi Shrine called Hokosha is worshipped Ame no Uwa Haru no Mikoto, the son of Ame no Yagokoro Omoi, whom I mentioned was the deity producer. In Togakushi, different parts of these stories are taken up and made into pictures and characters are created. These are turned into ten works of kagura and handed down in Togakushi. The scene mentioned above is the ninth one which is the climax scene at the cave of heaven.

 I have already published four books on Sarutahiko. In the book, Sarutahiko: A Mystery, I introduce the fact that the deity Sarutahiko has many forms and is worshipped in different shrines as different deities such as Koshin (monkey god) and guardian deity of travelers. He is also worshipped in Okitama Shrine in Futamigaura in Ise. Okitama Shrine implies that it worships souls of the offshore, and there is a sacred rock that stands about 100 meters offshore where the deity Sarutahiko is said to have descended. This rock is about 50 centimeters below the sea surface and cannot usually be seen above the sea. Boats cannot approach it because many seaweeds sprout from it and engulf the boats.

 There is a huge male rock and a female rock in front of it along the seashore. Sacred rope is tied between these two rocks. The sacred ropes are changed twice a year, and the morning sun that emerges there is worshipped. On summer solstice, we can see the sun rising from between the male rock and female rock, and see how the sun rises from just above Mount Fuji. The deity Sarutahiko is worshipped there. Today there is a main shrine, but in the past the shrine had no building and people worshiped the direction of the sea from afar.

 In the book, Sarutahiko's Journey, the cultural anthropologist Levi Strauss kindly wrote the opening article. There are various syncretistic versions of Sarutahiko, for example, guardian deity of travelers and monkey god. He is also sometimes represented as a pair with Uzume, and symbolized as yin and yang rocks in the shape of the penis and vagina in many parts of the country. A sacred rope is tied just below the glans of the penis and people come to pray to it for fertility. This type of thing has existed for a long time since the Jomon period, so many stone poles in the shape of the penis, and stones symbolizing the vagina have been excavated.

 Iwami kagura is a typical kagura of Izumo region, so the stories of Susa no O and Ohkuni Nushi are central. The story of Susa no O's conquest of Yamata no Orochi (eight-headed and eight-tailed dragon) is the most well known amongst the stories of Susa no O, and in Iwami kagura, the form of Yamata no Orochi is turned into a character and used as a resource for tourism. As the tourist industry is growing rapidly, the contrivance is escalating and now they are developing a very theatrical Yamata no Orochi, which is illuminated by inserting bulbs that light up like fireworks, with flashing eyes. Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi (the sword of the thickets of clouds in the sky), which later came to be called Kusanagi no Tsurugi (the sword of cutting down the grass), is sold as kagura character merchandise because Yamata no Orochi comes out with eight heads and eight tails, and Susa no O no Mikoto swings his sword in the middle to subjugate it. In Iwami kagura, several versions of the eight heads of Yamata no Orochi are created and produced on a commercial basis.

 I would like to add to what I mentioned above about The Dance of Sarume by Hoshino Yukinobu. The Dance of Sarume is the fifth episode of a book called Kamunabi in which an independent female journalist called Inbe Kana is the main character. This piece of work incorporates Ame no Uzeme no Mikoto in contemporary manga, and I am astonished about the concrete depiction it gives of Sarutahiko which I have never come across before. Sarutahiko is clearly and concretely described in myths as having a nose seven ata (span) in length and eyes shining brightly like Yata no Kagami (an eight-span mirror). Hoshino represents this image of Sarutahiko like an insect with huge long narrow eyes and nose.

 Sarutahiko stood in the way with a bizarre appearance at a border point called Ame no Yachimata where the path separated into all directions. His nose was extraordinarily long, his stature extremely high, his lips shone red, and his eyes shone brightly like Yata no Kagami. It is said in the Nihonshoki (The Chronicles of Japan) that Ame no Uzume no Mikoto revealed her vagina during the negotiation with Sarutahiko who was standing in the way. In fact, Ame no Uzume no Mikoto only reveals her vagina on two occasions, namely at the scene of the heavenly cave and the scene of encounter with Sarutahiko. After she met Sarutahiko, the two seemed to have got married. There are many shrines in Kyushu worshipping Sarutahiko. Takachiho in Kyushu is the place where god descended on earth, and lived together with Ame no Uzume no Mikoto, so Sarutahiko and Uzume are worshipped together in a shrine called Aratate Shrine. It is very unusual to have statues of deities in shrines, but statues of the two are kept there. Incidentally, the priest of this shrine is called Koorogi. It seems that the words kanrogi and kamuromi (god and goddess) in the prayers turned into koorogi (cricket) in the local dialect.

 Sarutahiko finally sinks into the sea after being caught by a hirabu shellfish in Ise. At that moment, he splits into three souls called Awadatsu Mitama, Tsubutatsu Mitama and Sokodoku Mitama. Subsequently, the child of Sarutahiko and Uzume becomes Sarume, and the Sarume clan comes to organize rituals to pacify of spirits and kagura rituals.

 Hoshino Yukinobu's The Dance of Sarume is depicted with the knowledge of such myths and legends. Even today, Sarutahiko and Uzume are linked with deities such as Otafuku, guardian deity of travelers and Tengu, and have become popular character deities. Yanagida Kunio said that the original name of Sarutahiko had the meaning of headland and tip. He analyzes that Ashizuri misaki used to be called Sada misaki in the past and Sada was derived from Sarutahiko.

 Now, I think the most widely popular animation character today is Totoro. In recent memory, the house that was the scene of the film was exhibited in Expo 2005 Aichi and gained popularity. There are three Totoros, namely Big Totoro, Medium Totoro and Little Totoro. I am very interested in animations of Miyazaki, particularly in Totoro for the following reasons. First is that ideas of divine authority and spirituality are represented by the word 'nushi (master)'. A deity in the form of a snake called Ohmono Nushi is worshipped in Ohmiwa Shrine in the foothills of Mount Miwa in Sakurai city, Nara prefecture. There, the mountains and forests themselves are revered as deities. It can be said to be the oldest shrine in Japan. Ohmono Nushi is related to the deity Ohkuni Nushi, and is said to be the same deity with different names.

 In Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro), there is a scene where Totoro is called the nushi of the forest. Also in Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro), when a deity called Okusare sama (The Rotten One) is actually washed clean in the bath house, it becomes an old dragon with a face of an old man and flies up into the sky as the god of nushi of a river. In Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), there is a wild boar god called Okkoto Nushi. Many nushi deities such as river nushi, forest nushi and wild boar nushi appear, so master (nushi) is indeed an ancient symbol of god for the Japanese.