Douglas A. Rist
HST 199K: History of Japan and Korea Instructor: Jeffer Daykin
Winter 2011
In the article, “The Swan-Maiden Revisited: Religious Significance of 'Divine-Wife' Folktales with Special Reference to Japan,” Alan L. Miller entreats us to reconsider the tale of the Swan Maiden. This tale, the motif of which can be found in both the East and the West, revolves around the story of a human male marrying a supernatural female who later disappears. Miller tells us that the logic of this motif can be found by delving into its religious meaning and associated religious symbolic structure.1
The Swan Maiden motif was quite popular in the 19th
and early 20th
centuries. Since then they have virtually disappeared. The tales themselves tended to be lumped with other groups such as animal spouses or “magic.” Those using Western schema of classification tended to either ignore the tales or subject them to such a level of atomization that they were no longer categorized as a recognizable group. Miller finds this odd as the tale is obviously very old and must have been quite popular to have lasted for as long as it has.2
Past studies on the topic, most of which date to 1958 or before, tended to focus on determining the historical origins of the tale – rather than on determining what the tale may have meant in a cultural or religious context. This obsession caused researchers to make jumps based on insufficient evidence (by today's standards). Rather than telling us what the tale may have meant or symbolized, scholars instead informed us that the tale originated in either Central Asia or India.3
Today, one may inform one's studies of folklore through inquiries into anthropology or religion. This was not the case prior to 1958, when such things were kept separate. This kept the researchers from seeing research that would have assisted greatly in understanding the Swan Maiden tale.4
Miller
1 Alan L. Miller, “The Swan-Maiden Revisited: Religious Significance of 'Divine-Wife' Folktales with Special Reference to Japan,” Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1 (1987): 56.
informs us that complications arose from the use of the now discredited culture-stage theory of
totemism. Instead of the animal representing a totemistic regression of the human into a baser and more primitive form, the animal is a sacred being which sanctifies and uplifts the human being. The animal's status, power and value are superior to that of humans in their ordinary state.5
Another complication arises from the insufficiencies of the Western schema of folktale classification. By lumping the Swan Maiden with Animal Brides and classifying these as being the counterpart of the Animal Husband, one conflates the distinct symbols represented by each group by falsely considering them both to be “Animal Spouses.” Even though both have the theme of a human married to an animal, there is nothing dangerous or repellent about the female's animal form. It is sublime. Contrast this to the male animal form (e.g. the Beast in “The Beauty and the Beast”) which is terrifying and base. Miller ties this to differences in the conceptions of human sexuality with regard to the male and the female.6
Miller then introduces us to two methodologies which he feels would be useful if applied to folklore. The first makes use of techniques designed to find meaning via the medium of the individual human psyche as pioneered by Freud and Jung7
. Freudian analysis of folklore fails with the Swan Maiden as the tale does not subscribe the Freudian system of interfamilial romance with its well known Oedipus and Electra complexes.8
Miller then asserts that folktales carry religiously significant meanings9
. These meanings may be from a past tradition no longer in practice, or they may reflect the understanding of a dynamic tradition still in practice today10
. Contrasted with Freud, Jungian theory does assist with analyzing this
5 Miller, 59. 6 Miller, 62. 7 Miller, 61. 8 Miller, 62. 9 Miller 67.
folktale, as it posits the animal as a mystical being.11 Miller makes the argument that the union of the
mystical animal with the mundane human must be a significant part of the belief structure of people where the Swan Maiden tale is (or was) told . If this were not the case, such a tale would have no significance and this element would have faded away.12
Another interesting element is the violation of the taboo against the miscegenation of the divine with the mundane, which is an underlying component of these tales.13
The second tool employed by Miller is Structuralism. Structuralism seeks the meaning of folktales within a collective psychology. It is also more concerned with literary analysis rather than with some psychological mechanism.14
This form of analysis is derived from the works of Mircea Eliade and Claude Lévi-Strauss. Eliade developed a method for understanding religious thought and actions through a dichotomy of the sacred and profane as put forth by Durkheim. While this has been quite useful with regard to religion, the technique has not been applied to folktales, which Miller obviously feels to be a mistake.15
The Japanese variation of the myth is probably the most clear. Folktales in Japan circulated freely among all social strata and the divisions between myth, legend and folktale (which are so important to the Western researcher) are difficult to apply.16
Japan was made by the gods and inhabited by sacred beings beyond counting. These beings, called kami, are everywhere and the Japanese believe themselves to exist amidst this throng. The forms are as varied as their number, but they do include many animals. Some examples would be creatures such as the fox, the bear, the swan, the carp, the catfish and the snake. This common knowledge of the the kami, both in animal and non-animal forms, is delineated and reinforced by various folktales and
legends.17
The Swan Maiden motif is very old in Japan. China is the only country in Asia that can lay claim to having records of tales that are older than those in Japan. The Fudoki (Records of Local Traditions) dates from the early 8th
century AD.18
Its version of the tale is summarized below.
A man sees a flock of swans descend to a lake where they transform into women by removing their feather cloaks. Struck by the beauty of one of the maidens, the man steals the maiden's cloak so that she cannot return to heaven. Trapped, she marries the man and they have children. After the children are born, the woman finds her cloak and returns to heaven, leaving behind her husband and their children.19
This forms the core of the Swan Maiden motif. Later versions append a quest by the husband to regain his lost wife. Miller differentiates between the motif and the tale by virtue of the inclusion of this quest.20
Using structural analysis, the tale is broken down as follows: [1] Lack (of a wife); [2]
Appearance of Mediating Elements (the Heavenly Swan Maidens); [3] The Theft (of the Cloak) & the Removal of the Lack (by marriage to the trapped maiden); [4] Marriage and Children; [5] Theft Negated (Cloak returned); [X] Disappearance of Mediating Element (Wife Returns to Heaven); [6] Lack (of Wife) Reinstituted; [7] Pursuit and Struggle for Mediation (Quest to regain Wife); [Y] Lack Removed (Wife Recovered); [8] Second Marriage.21
Both the motif and the tale are related by resonating themes. They both deal with the apparent opposition of Heaven and Earth as represented by the Divine and the Human. The tale, which include points 7, Y and 8, is strongly reminiscent of various transformation rituals (e.g. a Rite of Passage). The
tale element also adds a dimension to the motif which points to apotheosis, or a transformation of the Human to the Divine.22
Miller tells us that we can find evidence for his view by looking to the various myths and cultic structures of Northern and Eastern Asia. As similar myths have been told in Siberia, Korea and Japan, we can view this as support for his assertion. Miller declines to share the Korean versions of these myths, even in summary. He does, however, inform us that Korea has a strong tradition of Shamanism with which bird symbolism is associated and that both Korea and Japan have many stories of a divine or semi-divine couple founding clans, peoples and nations. Japan also has several examples of shaman priestesses (such as Himiko) and their consort. Miller posits this as symbolizing the divine feminine and the non-divine male and that these pairings are not surprising as the founder of the Imperial Clan was Amaterasu.23
As this tale is common in both Europe and Asia, it would be logical to try and reconstruct the cultic context. This is difficult as there is no clear evidence. One can infer some portion by claiming as relics various pre-Buddhist statues known as hitogami (man-kami). In the written record, one can interpret the stories of Susan-o, Jimmu and Yamato-takeru as supporting Miller's claim.24
Several of the songs in the Kojiki also associate the the symbols of the bird-female, the cosmic weaver and the divine feminine.25
Miller then brings us back to the tale. It is important to note that the Hero is one who is necessarily at risk. Both he and his cause are in danger.26
One must also bear in mind that folk heroes are not very “heroic” in the modern sense of the word. Folk heroes are more interested in winning than
being “noble.”27 It is interesting that in the Swan Maiden motif and tale, the hero is a thief.28
The assumptions of the Swan Maiden tale show us that the swan maiden is divine and regains heaven as her natural environment. She is not degraded by her dalliance with a mortal. Neither is the husband exalted by his association with the divine feminine. He still needs to embark on a quest to become worthy of heaven. One should also note that this tale does not depict any cosmic struggle of transpersonal forces. This struggle is not of order vs. chaos, nor is it of good vs. evil. Rather, it is the struggle between the mortal condition and the heavenly. It is a quest for the attainment of immortality and divinity. It is the story of the husband's apotheosis is pursuit of his love. It is attained not through some external agency but by the realization of his own inner power. This power is called tamashii in Japanese and refers to the concentration of “kami-ness” within a person. Miller points out in support of this that the husband, despite having ample opportunity, never attempts to gain heaven by donning the swan maiden's cloak.29
To summarize Miller's points, the symbolic elements of the swan maiden are very old. There is evidence of a cultic context for the bird and garment association which may have its source in the aboriginal Siberian shamans. The symbology of the transformative nature of the cloak reinforces the claim for its origins being with shamanism30. Miller then goes on to claim that these points can be
interpreted as indicative of some great divine feminine creatrix cult whose influence and teachings were so prevalent that they are still present today under the guise of the Swan Maiden tale.31
