Cultural views on the navel Early Japanese poems feature many references to the female navel. In some, the word "navel" actually refers to an indentation or hole instead of the belly button. The shape of the umbilicus of a newborn baby would be discussed at length. If a baby's navel points downward, the parents would brace themselves for a weakling child who will bring them woe. The thunder god Raijin, with his terrifying drums, great horns, and long tusks, was said to have an insatiable appetite for young navels, and mothers had to nag their youngsters constantly to keep themselves well covered up. Due to
Cultural views on the navel there it was stretched hither and yon. Where is its navel? Jerusalem. And its (Jerusalem's) navel itself? The altar." This passage describes how the centrality of the ancient city of Jerusalem and of the altar of the ancient temple of Jerusalem within cosmic framework was equated to the navel of a mother and the source of life. This is also seen in the Book of Jubilees 8:19 and Book of Enoch 26:1 where it is describes Mount Zion as "The center of the navel of the earth". In Samaritan tradition Mount Gerizim is described as the navel of the earth,