Okami imps
Oct. 5th, 2011 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138Noodling about with some possible research/apopheny. This originally started as part of a thread on the Okamiworld forums, but I'm gradually disengaging from the site out of despair wrt lack of wiki spamproofing.
The bssic question is whether the color-coded musician Imps in the original "Okami" game have any systematic connection to the traditional Asian elemental framework(s).
Very messy list format as I type/paste in notes; may attempt to summarize into table form later.
Imps by order of introduction within the game:
Green (flute) < Red (stringed lute/boomerang) < Yellow (large drum/cannon) < Blue (flutes again?) < Black (small floating drums)
The most obvious hurdle is that the colors don't quite correspond with the pan-Asian elemental quintet--
Green (east, wood, spring),
Red (south, fire, summer),
Yellow (center, earth),
White (west, metal, autumn), and
Black (north, water, winter)
--there are no White Imps, and Blue isn't represented in this set. Blue is associated with the direction "up" and the element of "heaven/sky" in the archaic Chinese burial-artifact set of the Six Ritual Jades, but I don't know whether that entire sextet ever made it to Japan.
(The five imp colors also don't match the Japanese godai elements--
Void: Center, White
Wind: North, Green
Fire: South, Yellow
Water: West, Red
Earth: East, Blue
--this time, the elemental set doesn't include Black, and there's still no White Imp.
An alternate godai set doesn't quite match the Imps either--
Void: Center, Blue
Wind: North, Black
Fire: South, Red
Water: West, White
Earth: East, Yellow
--because there's still no White Imp, and this time Green is missing from the color set.
(I suppose it's possible that Amaterasu herself is considered to embody the color "White", which would explain its omission if the Six Ritual Jades color set is being used. Again, though, I don't have evidence that the Blue/Sky connection ever made it to Japan.)
Nevertheless, recklessly proceeding on the assumption that we're working from the Six Ritual Jades and accepting Blue as Sky/Air/Void etc., there's this interesting set of traditional musical associations (synthesis of both charts)--
West (autumn/white/metal): metal bells and stone chimes
South (summer/red/fire): silk-stringed lute/zither
East: (spring/green/wood): bamboo pipes
North: (winter/black/water): skin drums
Center/Earth: (yellow/earth): ?
Up/Void: (blue/air): ?
To reiterate the Imp characteristics--
(Amaterasu: metal reflectors/glaives or stone magatama beads)
Green Imp: bamboo flute
Red Imp: lute; "Stun" move specifically emphasizes cutting the strings
Yellow Imp: single large drum made of cannon-compatible fireproof material (clay? metal?); it also tends to burrow underground
Blue Imp: another flute? uses an airborne glider
Black Imp: small drums
The bssic question is whether the color-coded musician Imps in the original "Okami" game have any systematic connection to the traditional Asian elemental framework(s).
Very messy list format as I type/paste in notes; may attempt to summarize into table form later.
Imps by order of introduction within the game:
Green (flute) < Red (stringed lute/boomerang) < Yellow (large drum/cannon) < Blue (flutes again?) < Black (small floating drums)
The most obvious hurdle is that the colors don't quite correspond with the pan-Asian elemental quintet--
Green (east, wood, spring),
Red (south, fire, summer),
Yellow (center, earth),
White (west, metal, autumn), and
Black (north, water, winter)
--there are no White Imps, and Blue isn't represented in this set. Blue is associated with the direction "up" and the element of "heaven/sky" in the archaic Chinese burial-artifact set of the Six Ritual Jades, but I don't know whether that entire sextet ever made it to Japan.
(The five imp colors also don't match the Japanese godai elements--
Void: Center, White
Wind: North, Green
Fire: South, Yellow
Water: West, Red
Earth: East, Blue
--this time, the elemental set doesn't include Black, and there's still no White Imp.
An alternate godai set doesn't quite match the Imps either--
Void: Center, Blue
Wind: North, Black
Fire: South, Red
Water: West, White
Earth: East, Yellow
--because there's still no White Imp, and this time Green is missing from the color set.
(I suppose it's possible that Amaterasu herself is considered to embody the color "White", which would explain its omission if the Six Ritual Jades color set is being used. Again, though, I don't have evidence that the Blue/Sky connection ever made it to Japan.)
Nevertheless, recklessly proceeding on the assumption that we're working from the Six Ritual Jades and accepting Blue as Sky/Air/Void etc., there's this interesting set of traditional musical associations (synthesis of both charts)--
West (autumn/white/metal): metal bells and stone chimes
South (summer/red/fire): silk-stringed lute/zither
East: (spring/green/wood): bamboo pipes
North: (winter/black/water): skin drums
Center/Earth: (yellow/earth): ?
Up/Void: (blue/air): ?
To reiterate the Imp characteristics--
(Amaterasu: metal reflectors/glaives or stone magatama beads)
Green Imp: bamboo flute
Red Imp: lute; "Stun" move specifically emphasizes cutting the strings
Yellow Imp: single large drum made of cannon-compatible fireproof material (clay? metal?); it also tends to burrow underground
Blue Imp: another flute? uses an airborne glider
Black Imp: small drums