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[Hide] (866.2KB, 1160x1600) Bumping with some more research (in part because I still had sage on before): In addition to being blatantly used for comparison with Super Mario (or perhaps Luigi, as the better jumper), “Super Kabuki” is a modernized kabuki dance drama that was created by Ichikawa Ennosuke III in 1986. The play is set during Japan’s medieval period, but incorporates modern Japanese mentality, and thematically focuses on the love between married couples, parents and their children, and friendship. I figure this is something to warrants at least a brief note.
https://archive.ph/hpik9
Additionally, on the concept of Metzabok saving the world (or at least the Lacandon) from a flood, Itoh seems to be referring to something called “Xurt’an Uburur” (or Xu’ul t’än U Bulul), Jach T’an for “The End of the World: Its Filling Up”, and is thought to specifically speak of a particularly awful hurricane which the Lacandon ascribe a spiritual explanation for. However, despite being a storm/rain related god, I have not found anything relating him to this mythical flood; if anything, with his storm related role, I’d have figured he’d be the one to commit it, if perhaps not the one to decide on it. “Xurt'an: The End of the World and Other Myths, Songs, Charms, and Chants by the Northern Lacandones of Naha'” (what a mouthful this book’s title is) instead has the gods T’uup and Ak’inchob responsible for saving the “best seeds” of humanity, two of each animal, seeds of all plants, and enough food to feed them for years in the safety of a giant canoe at Hachakyum’s request. Screenshots I’ve taken from book previews (messing around with script blocking can get past googlebook's preview exclusions) are at this mega zip for perusal:
https://mega.nz/file/5U8T1DrQ#TgNomEDoQPg4803HS9vi-y0Ru-INrSXJ7ipfqMIZSBY
Metzabok/Mensabak, meanwhile, has his own tale in that book. Not just a god of storms and rain, he also presides over the souls of humans. The tale speaks of how, jealous of Hachakyum having mortal assistants, he stole one, and accidentally killed it. Hachakyum, finding the corpse in Mensabak’s house, Hachakyum got Mensabak extremely drunk on balche’, and proceeded to lay into him, only forgiving him when Mensabak admitted to his crime, sang him a song and then puked “great torrents”. This related to a Lacandon ritual about dealing with liars: if they puke, they also puke out their crime and are cleansed; if they hold their balche’, they were innocent all along. Reminds me a bit of the whole "make the witch swim/walk on water" thing from witch trials, only instead of "damned if you do, dead if you don't", there's no real harm among the Lacandon.
https://mega.nz/file/5QcQGYBa#-20nsea1Jw1mHhDu-EmxPbO8MWl5D1oi_3y1xXnWQa0
Now, I don’t think these necessarily invalidate the information presented in Kouya, as while a lot of research clearly went into making the series realistic (to a certain degree), it could be Metzabok is having his role conflated with T’uup and Ak’inchob because it makes a more interesting story, or Itoh (the character) could be drunk and misremembering (I have to wonder how exactly his character would have heard Lacandon folklore…). My own thoughts are that the book specifically mentions these tales come from the village of Naha’, which while part of the Northern Jach T’an communities, is a fair distance away from that of Mensabak, so their own stories might have differences to ones Baku and/or Itoh have heard. Or the specifics of the story could vary within the same village depending on who's telling the stories.Regardless, I think it would make for some interesting lore to include in the notes.