Rainbows in Japanese Culture

Is it true that rainbows represented snakes in traditional Japanese culture, or was this claim by Sandaime just an embellishment?

what?

Sandaime tells Konohamaru that rainbows represented snakes "in old times." I'm curious as to whether this is true of Japanese culture or if it just holds in the Naruto Universe.

you read way too much into the anime

uh, hes not reading way too much into anything. he's just wondering if it's part of japanese mythology.

I did a little bit of research, but found no link between rainbows and snakes in Japanese mythology. I did, however, find some neat parallels between the Naruto universe and mythology. Orochi was a giant 8-headed serpent who was killed by a god named Susanoo. Orochi demanded virgin sacrifices, and was a cancer to the region in which he lived. While cutting Orochi's tails off, Susanoo found the sword of Kusanagi.

If you look back to episode 71, you see that Orochimaru uses the sword of Kusanagi against Sandaime. Orochimaru demands virgin sacrifices too.

These are just a few parallels, but maybe there's some foreshadowing here. In the mythology, Susanoo is the brother of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. If we look back to episode c. 95, Uchiha Itachi uses techniques called Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. Maybe there's a Magnekyo Sharingan technique called Susanoo, and maybe Uchiha Itachi will use it to kill Orochimaru. After all, we already know that Orochimaru is afraid of Itachi. There's an even more interesting possibility. Itachi told Sasuke that there was another living Magnekyo Sharingan user. Maybe this mystery person will kill Orochimaru. (OK, now you can accuse me of reading into the anime too much. ;-))

Oh man, all this speculation is getting my psyched for the new non-filler episodes!

this has been discussed a long while back

Jiraiya and Tsunade should be part of the same mythologies that Orochimaru is in

I think they're part of a different Myth.

Something about some guy named Jiraiya and how he's in love with Tsunade or something. I forget. Look it up on wikipedia.

It is called, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya." In the tale, Jiraiya, who was proficient in toad magic, was married to Tsunade, who was able to turn into a snail. Jiraya's one time follower, Yashagoro had been overcome by serpent magic and changed his name to Orochimaru, and then became Jiraiya's archenemy.

That's about it.

Thats pretty cool that there is actually a folklore story behind the 3 Sannin.

What else in Naruto is from folklore? I know about Kyuubis and those kind of demon beasts from 100 Stories, but my Japanese mythology is sorely lacking.

Both myths mentioned seem to fit pretty well, though I agree that the Gallant Jiraiya myth fits better. It looked to me that Jiraiya could have creamed Orochimaru during their battle, even if they were both in good shape. (Take it with a graim of salt -- I'm just a Jiraiya fanboy) Of course, this is all up to Kishimoto and it's up to him which mythology he decides to incorporate more fully. Time will tell.

But I just thought of some more enticing speculation. The mythological Orochi is said to have eight tails. Could it be that Orochimaru has Orochi sealed inside of him? It seems doubtful, but intriguing none-the-less. Could Orochimaru have "left" Akatsuki because they were after his biju?

Perhaps both myths coexist, and the reason to change his name to orochimaru was because of the legend of orochi.

I somehow doubt that Orochimaru has any kind of spirit inside of him because he would have certainly used it during the invasion of Konoha, especially in his fight against the 3rd. Naruto's Kyuubi protects him and lends him extraordinary power when he is on the edge or about to get killed, I would imagine the rest of the demons would be the same, and Oro got his friggin arms turned into concrete.

I think a lot of the mythology is just in there because Kishimoto likes it. I doubt it creates any substance for the series itself. By which I mean...the characters were inspired by the myth, but I don't think he's basing the events off of them.

Like not all characters named Zeus are thunder gods.