How Ryu Took Root in Archipelago

Unknown Tribes Veiled in the Origins of Faith

Generally, the Ryu (Dragon) is spoken of as a legendary existence and is narrated as a fictional creature. However, even in modern times, there are many who do not doubt the actual existence of the Ryu, and there are indeed people in Japan who have seen or captured a Ryu. In fact, I myself have once seen a child Ryu in the mountains where they inhabit, but viewing the Ryu merely as a legend or a product of fiction is a discussion limited to our dimension, and we must premise that ancient people lived in a world completely different from ours. The fundamental basis of this was the primal pain experienced by humans in their earliest stages, which is the alienation from natural existence. In the process of the gradual progression of alienation from natural existence in human history, humans created rituals and began to enshrine gods in an attempt to fasten the hole in existence that had been torn by this alienation, and what is important here is that this is a psychological issue.

Significant manifestations of consciousness are deeply involved in this, and unless we at least premise this perspective, we cannot discuss the various life forms, not limited to the Ryu, that are said to have existed in various parts of the world in ancient times. In other words, what is truly important is not to adjudicate by making the axis of the question whether or not they actually existed within the category that we, in the current times, can capture as objects, but rather to discard such a heterogeneous way of thinking that is strongly limited to our era. Upon doing so, it is necessary to ponder how life existences such as the Ryu were born and how they related to and influenced the psychological issues of humans.

The standpoint for this lies in investigating the psychological discomfort and pain caused by the tearing of human existence itself due to the alienation from natural existence. I believe that the Ryu harbored primitive life within the diverse and unlimited intentions to fasten, fill, or encounter that tear. This is the way of thinking that the Ryu is an existence that does not exist outside of humans who have psychologically experienced the primal alienation from natural existence. Conversely speaking, the insight into the existence of the Ryu is always deeply intertwined with the originary events of the emergence of consciousness. Knowing the origin of consciousness can be said to correspond to knowing existences such as the Ryu, and at the same time, it is a very interesting theme related to pluralistic events ranging from human primal anxiety and pain to the existence of gods and the birth of faith.

We know that the Ryu holds a considerably ancient history, but the actual representation of existences regarded as the Ryu on the Japanese side is limited primarily to the Yayoi period onwards.