Naruto is one of the most successful mangas in the world.  It is one of the most well known and talked about mangas. On fanfiction.net the Naruto category has so far over 170,000 stories and growing every day. That shows how big a dedicated fanbase it has. Naruto follows a boy named Naruto who has the sprit of the Nine Tailed demon fox, Kyuubi, in him. Ninetails is the name of a Pokémon as well. So where did two different manga artists get the idea? Pokémon was created before Naruto, and they both have a fox based creature in their plotlines. Why is this? Where did the names Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru come from? Why is their summons the Gama family for Jiraiya, Katsuyu the slug for Tsunade and snakes for Orochimaru? How did Itachi get his first name and how does it relate to his personality. Why do fans make weasel references when talking about him? It’s rather simple really. The creator, Masashi Kishimoto, pulled much of the idea for his story from Japanese myth and folktale. It is amazing how much there is alike between the series and folktale and myth.
The main character Naruto is possessed with the Kyuubi demon sealed inside him. However there is another character about Naruto’s age with a similar feature to him named Gaara. Gaara has the one tailed demon raccoon sealed in him. Throughout the manga, Naruto and Gaara have an unspoken bond. Gaara is quoted as saying that Naruto motivated him to help others as to being a source of fear and is quoted as saying: "I am a relic they want me to get rid of, so why do I exist and live?” When he met Naruto and saw how he lived with a monster inside of him, he started to realize he wasn’t so alone and began to care more for the people of the Sand Village where he lived, eventually becoming Kazakage. However the connection is seen in Japanese myth when it comes to tales of foxes and raccoons. They are the most commonly mentioned animals with supernatural powers in Japanese lore both known to be mischievous like Naruto is or a frightening creature like Gaara and Naruto both are when their demons take over (Rubin). Looking more into folklore, one would find that Gaara and Naruto’s demons and how they are ripped from a Japanese Myth book.  Rubin goes on in his article that the fox often likes to appear as a woman and seduce men as a trick. That is awful a lot like Naruto’s sexy jutsu he uses on numerous male adult figures as a joke like Iruka, Ebisu and Jiraiya. Naruto is most sought after by the Akatsuki who want to capture and control all the tailed beasts. The reason they are after him the most is that Kyuubi is most powerful demon in the series. Well in Japanese folklore, the demon fox had many tails but in its most powerful form, it had nine tails (Hsieh).
While Gaara and Naruto’s demons are right from folklore, Itachi Uchiha’s name can be a sign of his life. Itachi is weasel in Japanese and in Japanese belief; weasels are a bad omen ("Itachi Uchiha"). Itachi’s life is nothing but a bad omen and misfortune. From the tender age of 4 he witnessed war and countless deaths which turned him cold and distant. While he was a brilliant student who graduated the Ninja Academy at the age of 7 and captain of Konoha’s ANBU Black Ops at 13 his life was none the less one that was hard and full of misfortune. Some sources speculate that Itachi’s name of ill-fortune is a reference to the fact he was ordered to kill his whole clan but it may be an illusion to the story of his life ("Itachi Uchiha"). When one first reads the manga, Itachi is painted a bad guy, one of pure evil and Sasuke is right to kill him and avenge the Uchiha clan. However reading into the later Shippuden Mangas, Itachi’s true motives are shown. In fact in Issue #400 called “In Hell” Mandara Uchiha says that Itachi kept an eye out for Sasuke and wanted him to be free of Orochimaru’s curse mark. He was there to make sure that the Uchihas were a clan to be respected, not feared like it is so believed of them. Itachi’s life was one of tough decisions and sacrifice for the good of the village. Looking on his life, Itachi can claim his name was one of misfortune just like the weasel that he is named for. Itachi was a bringer of ill omen to his clan with their murder but was also living a life of misfortune himself.
The Sannin, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru are characters with the most references in myth in the manga. They are all characters in the epic tale “Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari” or The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya. Jiraiya and Tsunade are main characters in that epic, only they are married. However Jiraiya has been known to have romantic-like intentions for Tsunade in the manga, well his is expressed by peeping on Tsunade but the tension can be seen. However, in Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari, Orochimaru wasn’t a former teammate and friend but rather Jiraiya’s former student ("The Gallant Jiraiya"). Both Orochimarus leave their sensei and learn snake magic. This is why Orochimaru in the manga can summon snakes, even though the snakes are not very responsive to him. In fact Orochimaru’s summons in the manga was controlled by Sasuke using a genjustu on him. The Japanese term for an ancient snake god is “Orochi” (Rubin). While nearing his death with his fight with Sasuke, Orochimaru turns into a snake form and according to ancient legend, people turn to snakes after death due to evil ways and unsatisfied desires (Rubin). Orochimaru was considered evil sure enough, using his students for test subjects and creating forbidden jutsus to bring the dead back to life and wanting to destroy Konoha, the leaf village . One can claim he was a very evil man.  In “Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari” Jiraiya and Tsunade team up to fight Orochimaru like in the manga # 170 The Battle of The Legendary 3 where Jiraiya and Tsunade team up to fight of Orochimaru after Tsunade turns down Orochimaru’s offer to bring her beloved and her brother back to life if she treats his arms that were cursed before the 3rd Hokage died defending the village. During the fight, Orochimaru’s summons has Tsunade’s in a bind when Jiraiya comes and rescues her. The Sannin are legendary in Naruto’s world as they are in the real Japanese Myth and folktales.
While on the surface, it seems that Masashi Kishimoto is a brilliant story teller with a vivid imagination of fox demons, misfortune weasels and snake summons, but he is a brilliant story teller when combining Japanese myth and folklore. Naruto is a wildly successful manga and one of the names synonymous with anime and manga. It is a rich epic story of revenge, aspiring to reach your dreams, defending your friends and living though the pain of losing them.  It’s a beautiful tale woven in Japan’s rich legacy of Myth and legend.


Works Cited
“The Gallant Jiraiya.” kiseido.com.  4 Dec. 2008 <http://www.kiseido.com/printss/ji.html>.
Hsieh, Henry. “The Japanese Origin of Kyubi in Naruto.” isnare.com.  4 Dec. 2008 <http://www.isnare.com/?aid=234739&ca=Entertainment>.
“Itachi Uchiha.” Narutopedia. 2 Dec. 2008.  4 Dec. 2008 <http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Itachi_Uchiha>.
Rubin, Norman A. “Ghosts, Demons and Spirits in Japanese Lore .” Asianart.com.  4 Dec. 2008 <http://www.asianart.com/articles/rubin/>.