This is the story of how everything once existed in a state of uncertainty.
Out of the unmoving darkness came the first waters, first among all things that were to be made.
Many centuries passed, and after them many thousands of years; yet the ocean did not move.
And then, over the abyss, a deafening roar broke open the silence. The water trembled, foamed, rose in a spray of white – and from its depths, the first fire was born.
The flame spread across immeasurable space, and from the raging fire emerged the Phoenix. Tongues of flame wove themselves into its feathers.
Then it broke from the waters and ascended beyond measure, raising its wings until the heavens were enclosed beneath them.
And thus began the Birth of the Universe.
Karafuto: Prefecture - Mythology
These notes were gathered in the process of building a collection, but the process demanded a journey through immaterial territories too: cosmogonic myths, philosophical traditions and the particular melancholy and wonder of a place that exists at the very edge of the known world - Karafuto.
Geography and Philosophy
The southern part of Sakhalin Island, known to the Japanese as Karafuto, lies within the waters between Japan and Russia. It is a narrow vertical line of land between two worlds, and the very shape of the island, resembling a fish, already carries a symbolism of its own.
The word "prefecture" suggests the inclusion of something small within a larger system. Sakhalin, however, is a place where sand meets the wave, a line of contact between the cold stone horizon and the tongues of flame of the rising sun.
The mythology assembled on these pages is, at its core, a mythology of conflict: between water and fire, between the "self" and the cosmos, between what has been and what is yet to come. Karafuto is the name given to the moment of such contact!
The ancient Chinese legend of Longmen - 龍門, the Dragon Gate - follows the same logic. According to the legend, countless carp swim upstream against the powerful current of the river, yet only a few are capable or courageous enough to make the final leap over the waterfall. If a carp succeeds in crossing this threshold, it transforms into a mighty dragon!