FFC
Presenter(s): Dominic Quinones
Advisor(s): Dr. Eileen Jankowski
In Japanese Mythology, Tsukuyomi, the God of the Moon, was the second of the “Three Noble Children” born from Izanagi, the God of the Land of the Living, and Izanami, the Goddess of Creation and Death. His siblings Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun, and Susanoo, God of the Storms, all shared their reign of the sky; however, their siblinghood and chemistry involved many challenges. For example, Amaterasu invited Tsukuyomi to the heavens for a meal created by the God of Food, but Tsukuyomi was displeased with the meal and killed the Food God, which led to Amaterasu to deeming Tsukuyomi an evil god. This incident resulted in the separation and creation of day and night, and Tsukuyomi was no longer allowed to interact with the sun. Tsukuyomi’s story strongly relates to Greek mythology’s story of Hades. Tsukuyomi and Hades both have two extremely powerful siblings that they share power over the world with, and both rule over dark parts of the world; Tsukuyomi rules over the night and Hades rules over the underworld. Due to the darkness associated with the areas over which they reign and complicated backgrounds, it’s easy to misunderstand both of them and make biased assumptions about them. However, as with most mythological figures, the binary forces they represent, both dark and light, offer an intriguing picture of both culture’s recognition of complications in their divinities.
The Power of History with a Ticking Bomb: Godzilla the Dangerous Hero
Presenter(s): Sophie Qu
Advisor(s): Dr. Eileen Jankowski
The famous monstrous movie series from Japan created back in the 1950s were named Kaiju. It has become a new genre of films featuring giant monsters. Among all the monsters that were created, Godzilla was the most influential one. The complete mythology of Godzilla was tightly related to the Japanese history, culture, and world events. It all started with dropping nuclear bombs onto the Japanese soil during WWII which have awakened the monsters under the deep sea. The significance of Godzilla fighting against other evil monsters wasn’t just action movies. World events were hidden in Godzilla’s story timelines. The appearance of Ghidorah was created after China was developing its own nuclear weapons in 1964. Rodan the fire demon was announced when the Soviet Union was establishing its nuclear power in 1956. Godzilla was the hero against new threats to Japan. Godzilla is a creation of the Japanese dragon that people had fear and respect to. Godzilla’s “personality” was created based on the Shinto god, Kami. She represented both good and evil, as well as the balance restorer of nature. The concept of using monsters to restore the balance of nature was the key plot used in the last movie of Godzilla: King of the Monsters. With trees growing everywhere and animals roaming freely turned into the result of the monsters destroying cities. At the end of the movie, humans were introduced as dangerous predators. The idea of mankind developed into the ultimate destruction to natural would be used for the future Godzilla movies.