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Of all Great Nations, Konoha undoubtedly has the richest and the most researched mythology. Its well-defined pantheon of young gods and the epic cycles describing their battle against demon forces of Uchiha made it very popular, both in traditional story-telling and in modern media reinterpretations. Indeed, the stories of the Konohan nature-gods have been told and re-told so many times during two millennia since the standardization of Five Nations’ culture circle mythologies, that a researcher has her hands full sifting through apocrypha, adaptations, folk stories and poetic narratives, trying to find nuggets of true worth.
Still, a lot has been accomplished in this field since pioneering efforts of Patrik H. Wolkensturm who first pointed out (in hindsight obvious) solar symbolism of Father-and-Son rulers of old and new pantheon, Minato and Naruto. Indeed, as soon as the brilliant Minato, hope and support of his people, sacrifices his life in the battle against the demon-beast threatening the very existence of the land, he is reborn as the weak baby Naruto. Through tribulation, Naruto will grow up to be the splitting image of his father and shine as brightly over his fellow young gods and the whole of Konoha. Parallels with Sol Invictus, Svarog, Osiris-Horus, Balder and other reborn gods with sun-attributes are blinding, if you will pardon the pun.
Personally I find the most significant contribution to understanding of ancient Konoha lore to be that of Callidora Anagnostis. She was the first to recognise the ruling Triad of the young pantheon, in which Naruto (associated with Sun and altruism) is flanked by Sakura (personification of female skill/techne) and Sasuke (child of the demon line redeemed by Naruto). While the complex relationship of bright Naruto and dark Sasuke, with its appealing yin-yang, good-evil overtones, has always drawn much attention and inspired countless epics and ballads (including some decidedly bawdry ones), it took a woman's approach to correctly identify the importance of down-to-earth female strength of Sakura in balancing the volatility of the two male principles.
That said, this paper will not be dealing with much investigated and debated symbolism and significance of attributes of the young gods. Instead, I wish to focus on two elder gods, or rather gods of the interim generation between the elders who shaped the world and the new pantheon who redeemed it, Kakashi and Iruka, the Hunter and the Scribe. At first glance, they seem an incongruous couple: while Kakashi is well-known and much respected divinity closely tied to Minato-and-Naruto mythos that forms the core of Konohan mythology, Iruka is one of the fringe gods, most likely an imported divinity of no great significance. It is my position that this view is too simplistic, and overlooks some important elements that tie these two together. Indeed, they are much more similar than it would appear at the first glance.
There is no need to belabour Kakashi's connection to Minato and Naruto: it was more than adequately covered in Procopiu's seminal paper "Father Sun, Brother Moon" which also firmly established Kakashi's lunar symbolism. I do wish to express my scepticism about later interpretations that stress Kakashi's feminine side when in connection with Sun deities - although gender fluidity is common in many mythologies and present in Konoha pantheon, it is more properly ascribed to the young gods, especially Naruto, and does not really apply to Kakashi. Another quite popular theory posits Kakashi's foreign origin since his main attribute, Hunter/Hound, duplicates that of Inuzuka deities. Mosterin suggested that Kakashi originated in neighbouring Kumogakure and was imported into Konohan pantheon. While on the first glance acceptable, this theory has glaring weaknesses. Deities are usually imported when there are no counterparts in the host pantheon, or when the cultural influence of the exporting nation is overwhelming. Neither of those applies to Kakashi and Kumogakure: if he was an import, Kakashi would probably be subsumed into Inuzuka or at least wed into their clan; and Kumogakure was, if anything, under heavy influence of flourishing Konohan culture, and not vice versa. In such situation it is difficult to see one of Kumogakure pantheon becoming such an important and integral part of Konohan mythology. All the more since there is no trace of Kakashi or a similar deity in the original Kumogakure mythology.
So if not a loan from Kumogakure, where did Kakashi originate? Any attentive student of Konohan mythology will recognise him to be a bit of a foreign body, not quite fitting in with the rest of the pantheon. On the other hand, Kakashi doubtlessly belongs to ancient woods of Konoha, much more than he ever would in craggy Kumonogakure. This seeming contradiction can be solved very simply - by positing that it is the rest of Konoha's pantheon that are newcomers. The origin myths indeed describe Konoha’s divinities moving into their new territory, and it is well known that myths preserve memories of migrations of their peoples. In fact, recent archaeological and genetic studies strongly suggest that the people who would form the nation of Konoha migrated into territory now known under that name some 2500 years ago from the West, bringing their gods with them. When they arrived, their mythology clashed with pre-existing divinities of the autochthonous population, obliterating most of them and absorbing some - Hunter Kakashi being the foremost of the surviving native gods.
Let me elaborate: it is common for local divinities of the conquered people to be reinterpreted as demons by the conquering mythos. Elements of demonization are instantly recognisable in Kakashi - he has the fearsome, bloodthirsty aspect of the Hound, scourge of his enemies and bowing only to the ruling Sun deity. He is dehumanised by having his countenance covered at all times, and he is almost always portrayed as carrying a demon eye of Uchiha. Even more telling are the legends of young god Kakashi, before he was disfigured in the great war: they describe a beautiful Moon avatar, coupled with avatars of Sun and Earth in a triad which is so obviously mirrored in the later Naruto-Sakura-Sasuke one. The other two members of Kakashi's triad were turned into demons as the consequence of the war, which I think should be interpreted as the memory of invasion of Konohan people and the destruction it wrought on the autochthonous population. Sun-avatar Obito was subsumed into Uchiha demon clan, Kakashi said to have taken his eye, while Earth-avatar-become-demon Rin was killed by Kakashi. In this way, sacrificing all the connections with his original people, Kakashi has become an integral part of Konohan pantheon. This made him a lone and tragic figure as recounted in numerous stories.
On the other hand, his role as the mentor to the young gods forming the new Triad reflects the strong influence of the native culture and lore on Konohan settlers. This is also a well known anthropological phenomenon: invading people stamp their name and language on the autochthonous population, but they appropriate accumulated native wisdom, so that the native culture keeps living within the invading one. Kakashi also kept his Lunar aspect, cast now against Minato/Naruto instead of Obito. He is consistently portrayed as a fierce protector of Konoha, more precisely its territory, making him a quintessential land-god of a more ancient tradition. Finally, he is often portrayed as an interim head of the Konohan pantheon, preserving Minato's legacy for Naruto to inherit, which indicates strong and beneficial integration of the autochthonous people with Konohan invaders, and formation of common nation that we know as Konoha. While this reinterpretation of Kakashi may be bold, it is my firm belief that it is well rooted in established fact and previous mythological research.
Let me now turn to Iruka. This rather atypical divinity of book learning and writing also received his fair share of study, but most of it was due to his connection with the young gods, whom he was an instructor to. Since Iruka is portrayed with unusually dark skin, it is often surmised that he is also an imported divinity, and in his case there is really little doubt: it is more than likely that he came to Konoha together with books and writing he represents. I do wish to discard the theories linking him with Kirigakure - although his name and some attributes are obviously water/sea inspired, Kirigakure's divinities bear no resemblance to this tawny-skinned, fierce and compassionate god of learning. Obvious places to look for Iruka's origin are neighbouring large cultures from which Konoha and other Five Great Nations derived their writing system. Indeed, there is a Chinese deity whose dominion is protection of books from water, fire, bookworms and careless borrowers. Still, I would theorise that Iruka came from farther away, although certainly mediated through ancient Chinese culture.
As surprising as it may seem to us today, ancient world cultures were well connected, trading goods, stories and ideas over large distances. Although much slower than in the present, this connection was fruitful and left numerous traces in both western and eastern cultures. Silk Route was known to flourish for almost 2000 years, and there are strong indications that Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian and Far Eastern civilizations were connected even prior to that. I posit that Iruka is firmly connected to Middle Eastern and Mediterranean divinities of writing and scribes, as old as the written word itself. Indeed, many of these divinities of knowledge and writing are also connected with water: Saraswati, Hindu goddess of knowledge, arts and learning is certainly the best known, but I must also mention Egyptian goddess Seshat, scribe and inventor of writing (later subsumed/married to the scribe-god Toth); Greek oceanid Metis, personification of wisdom and cunning (spouse to Zeus and mother of Athena); Nabu, Assyrian god of wisdom and writing, sometimes worshiped as a god of water; and Nidaba, Sumerian goddess of writing and teaching later subsumed/married to Nabu. You will notice that gods of learning and writing are often female, later subsumed with their male lords/counterparts. Iruka is often portrayed with female attributes, even up to carrying a child.
This brings me to the lynchpin of my paper: the connection between Kakashi and Iruka. Invariably, it is the aloof and dangerous Kakashi who is paired with the kind and nurturing Iruka. However incongruous this pair may be at the first glance, they have inspired devoted and loyal following, as witnessed by numerous shared shrines and countless songs and romances of their meeting and courting. Indeed, outside the pantheon of young gods they are the most revered and popular divine couple. But there is more connecting the two besides the popular lore - I would suggest that they share a common origin, as well.
How can that be if Kakashi is originally an ancient land-god predating Konoha, while Iruka is an imported Indian or Middle Eastern deity? I posit that the book-learning aspect of Iruka is not all there is to this obscure but well-loved god, and would like to draw your attention to the stories of his youth. Just as it was for Kakashi, they contain valuable insight into his origins: they describe Iruka as full of mischief, a troublemaker... a trickster. I do not need to expound on Trickster gods or spirits of shamanic religions - they were also teachers of their people, bringing them divine light, either real or metaphorical. Since Iruka fits this role almost to a tee, I posit that modern-day Iruka came from merging of a primarily female goddess of writing and book-learning, who came with the introduction of written word into Konoha, with a primarily male Trickster divinity of cunning and native wisdom, himself older than come-lately Konohan people and originating in shamanic lore of the autochthonous people of Konoha.
Therefore the relationship of Kakashi and Iruka has much deeper roots than their devotees would believe, going back to distant past and the original settling of Konoha by nomadic hunter-gatherers at least 8000 years ago. It is not hard to imagine that among the most respected spirits venerated then were a hunter and protector of the land, with his pack of newly-domesticated dogs, and a teacher of nature’s secrets and new skills – fire, weaving, storytelling. The land-god and the trickster, they weathered all the changes history brought, adapting to new times, new culture, new roles. Still, through it all, they watched over their part of the world and taught its people, remaining always teachers and protectors of Konoha. Kakashi and Iruka still live in popular imagination today, and I see no reason why they would not continue to do so in the future: one dark and the other light, one serious and the other mischievous, forever exchanging their roles and aspects as they stand guard over what is theirs.
This concludes my talk. Thank you for your attention, and I'd be happy to answer your questions.