To Save A Fox

Chapter 3 -- Reincarnation

...Nihon...

Also called Nippon and Wakoku...the Land of the Rising Sun, a name actually given to the Japanese from the Chinese, as the sun rose over Japan before it reached China. It was seen as the land ruled by the sun...by Amaterasu Okami.

Human first were seen in the lands of Japan roughly around 50,000 BCE, and were classified as stone-age hunters from northeast Asia. At the time, land bridges connected Japan to the mainland and allowed the culture to thrive based on hunting and gathering techniques. Only once the ice began to melt around 12,000BCE, the land bridges submerged and those trapped on the islands of Japan became its new residents.

It wasn't until the Jomon Period between 11,000BCE to 300BCE did civilization began to flourish. Unlike the rest of the developing world, Japan was still a hunter gatherer society...agriculture had not yet taken root. People began to live in small communities, supporting one another with the food harvested and the materials gathered.

From 900BCE to 250BCE, entered the Yayoi Period that introduced mining, smelting, bronze, iron, irrigation, and rice. It was the arrival of the goddess Inari and agriculture. Many of the old Shinto gods were said to have lived amongst the early people, including the demons and beastly creatures of the mountains, woods, and waters.

Life in Japan was tough during those days!

Technology was making things much easier with hot-fire cooking with high temperature pottery and deep vessels to store and carry things within. There was pottery to drink from and pottery to place things upon. There was pottery for the dead and pottery for the kami.

Clothing was still furs and pelts fashioned from the skins of animals, and the use of tools aided in the building of homes, farming, and protection from attackers. Diet had made the people very healthy and strong.

People lived in villages with large oval structures that could house upward of thirty people! The roofs were thatched and supported with heavy beams and posts. The floors were earthen, and the walls coated it wood and skins.

Food, like rice and meats were stored in a designated storehouse, and as population grew, the structures became smaller and many.

Politics and power in villages were determined by a single chief with the strongest power and authority. Most of the time, the power resided with the males. But after decades of bloodshed between clans and tribes, the throne remained unfulfilled as it only brought with it death and destruction. It wasn't until 189CE did the first ruler of Japan finally take the throne: a mysterious figure simply called Queen Himiko.

It wouldn't be until the Yamato Period that the emperors would assume control of Japan, claiming descendance from Amaterasu herself...

...of course, this was a Japan that I knew very little of. A history that wasn't my own to consider...

I followed Ukanomitama across the Pacific Ocean to the lands of her ancestors; and the lands of Kita's ancestors. I was just an outsider who had been given the great honor to follow the 'way of the kami', an invisible path the connects all energy to nature.

I would occasionally glance down, smiling as I would whisper to my dearly departed friend "You are almost home!" It must have been nice to have a home where your descendances belonged. I didn't even know where my blood had originated from.

Within my hands, I could feel Kita responding to my sadness as I felt the rush of warmth again as it was so nice. Like a warm blanket from the dryer. It was wrapped around my body and soul.

My eyes peered forward as the last torii that I could see was like a vertical puddle of water, rippling. Uka walked through the puddle as it rippled and then went steady. I paused there, scared as I took a deep breath, thought breathing wasn't necessary when you are dead. I closed my eyes and stepped through, feeling the astral world leaving me and stepping into a realm that was well within the spirit realm.