MovieChat Forums > Daimajin (1968) Discussion > Anybody know anything about these legend...

Anybody know anything about these legends

posted 19 years ago by snagletooth
7 replies | jump to latest

Is there/are there really (mthologically) Maijin in Japanese folklore?

So what I get from the movie is that a 'good' god of some sort fought and defeated the Mainjin and encased him in the stone statue. Whenever prayed to/implored to properly, the good god lets the Maijin become unbound and reek havoc. The Maijon isn't really good or bad, just wild and wrathful and can unleash its wrath on the good as easily as the bad.....

Really loved the part where it extracts the spike the bad guys pounded into its helmet to try to break up the statue, plucks up the villian and places him against a post, gives him the most enraged look possible, and impales him to the post, effectively a cross.

Go Maijin!

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cjstevens1975 16 years ago

Not sure about any Japanese mythology, but it's similar to the Hebrew legend of the Golem.

[–] gldysrwombats 16 years ago

Samurai, giant stone golems, crucifixions, storms, earthquakes, impalings, statue stigmata...this movie has everything. I let some of my friends borrow it and they all wondered why they never heard of it.

[–] The_Real_Celsus 13 years ago

Well in wiki there is a pretty good summation:
Daimajin is based in part on the concept of the dharmapala or dharma guardian; a figure in the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism that serves as a spiritual protector of the sacred mysteries and the sangha or community of believers. They often take on fearsome attributes when their wrath is provoked. Daimajin closely resembles Hachiman, a Shinto deity that was incorporated into the Japanese Buddhist traditions as a dharmapala.

[–] LaLlama 11 years ago

It was possibly inspired by a very old silent flick called The Golem(1915), which itself was based on the Jewsih folklore.

[–] The_Real_Celsus 11 years ago

Or possibly on Hachiman, a Shinto deity that was incorporated into the Japanese Buddhist traditions as a dharmapala. :p