A guide to the mythical and religious elements
of the Naruto series.

A book that serves as a side-by-side commentary on the first season and Shippuden

Overview of the information in some major chapters

• Chapter 1: Land of Waves
• - Inari Mythology
• - The Kitsune in Japanese Folklore
• - Kakashi vs Zabuza being a modernisation of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro
• Chapter 5: Naruto vs Neji
• - The role of Confucian values in shaping the Hyuga clan
• - The adaptations of The Journey to the West, in terms of narrative value and characterisation of Naruto
• - The role that Taoism plays in providing an answer to Neji
• Chapter 7: Sannin Showdown
• - Adaptation of The tale of the Gallant Jiriaya for the three Sannin
• - How the story also influences the Konoha crush arc
• Chapter 8: Sasuke leaves the village
• - The possibility of the Egyptian Mythology of Osiris being a significant shaping of Sasuke's character
• - The nihilistic differences in Kimimaro and the old Neji
• Chapter 12: Culmination of the Uchiha
• - The story of the Shinto god Susanoo and the story of Yamata-no-Orochi being featured
• - Sasuke's personfication of Amaterasu
• - How the cave of Amaterasu's entrapment has been modernised in correspondence with the ideas of Plato's cave
• Chapter 14: Pain
• - The symbolism of Christ developing to fight Pain on his own
• - The psychological symbolisms found in Western alchemy, mapping onto Naruto's descent into hell
• - Naruto's TnJ with Nagato bearing resemblance to Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
• Chapter 18: Tests of Character
• - Zetsu's correspondence to the alchemical symbolism of the mandrake
• - How this carries over into the ideas of the homunculus, with Zetsu and Naruto articulating two different types
• Chapter 23: Squad 7 Reunited
• - The history of Indra and the Asuras in Hinduism
• - The combination of select Yokai and Shugendo rituals which forms the idea of the Ten-Tails
• - The history of Shugendo influencing Ninshu, and the division between Hagoromo's children Indra and Ashura
• Chapter 24: Endgame
• - Kaguya being adapted from The tale of the Bamboo cutter
• - The story of the Chinese Goddess of the moon and the elixir corresponding to the divine fruit
• - The story of Obito's redemption (also see Chapter 22.)