Eco-Horror, Abjection, and the Uncanny Presence of Water in "Floating Water"

Japan's attraction to water as a horror theme lies in a deep cultural and mythological identification with water as both source of life and uncontrollable, primitive force. Water is frequently employed in Japanese horror filmsand literature as a means of the uncanny, the supernatural, and the abject. In popular Japanese horror movies like The Ring and Dark Water, we witness how angry spirits take the form of water, tapping into its symbolic function as a medium between the dead and the living. This preoccupation with water as a horror element is especially noteworthy since, “water is the source of life, and that notion is especially strong in Japanese mythology where the country got its start after the demiurge Izanagi stuck his spear into Earth's primordial waters, pulled it out, and a solitary drop from it formed the first Japanese island” (Witzel 21). In Shintō belief, Japan's indigenous religion, the gods Izanagi and Izanami created Japan by stirring the original ocean with a spear, and the drops that fell from the spear formed the first Japanese island, Awaji.