An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy
An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy
Wee Kek Koon
Opinion

Opinion

Reflections by Wee Kek Koon

How goddess myth gave divine justification to imperial elites

  • Also known as the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, along with China’s Nü Wa deity, are suggestive of an ancient matriarchal past
  • When creating mankind, the goddess fashioned handfuls of earth in her own image, which became the elites, before flicking mud from a branch, with each spatter becoming commonfolk

Wee Kek Koon
Wee Kek Koon

Updated: 10:37am, 15 Jun, 2019

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An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy
An image of Amaterasu, aka the Sun Goddess. Picture: Alamy
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Wee Kek Koon

Wee Kek Koon

Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past. He is constantly amazed by how much he can mine from China's history for his weekly column in Post Magazine, which he has written since 2005.