From a European-Western perspective, much of what is related to the state of Japan, including its history and culture and the people who live there, seems not only foreign, but also in some ways inaccessible and incomprehensible. Those who do not deal with it explicitly often have no connection to Japan at all. This, of course, is also true of Japanese mythology. In contrast to Greco-Roman or Nordic-Germanic mythology, the level of knowledge about it in the West is rather low.

The enormous geographical and cultural distance ensures that it is rather unlikely to have one or even several persons in this particular area who are familiar with this topic. In other words, it is a niche interest in this country. Are you interested in filling one or the other educational gap in this direction? Perhaps you already have some basic knowledge about Japan and would like to look into its mythology next, or you are generally interested in how different cultures around the world are shaped by their respective mythologies.

In either of these cases, you have made the right decision in purchasing this book. The cultural idiosyncrasies of the world are many and varied, and each of them is exciting in its own right, offering much of interest to the observer. Japan is no exception. And that is what this book is all about.