Ama-no-Nuboko- Japanese ArtifactArtifact · Weapon"Heavenly Jeweled Spear"
Also known as: Amenonuboko, Ame-no-Nuboko, and 天沼矛
Description
The jeweled spear given to Izanagi and Izanami by the heavenly gods. By stirring the primordial ocean from the Floating Bridge of Heaven, the brine that dripped from its tip formed Onogoro, the first island.
Mythology & Lore
The Stirring of the Sea
Before there was land, the world drifted like a jellyfish on the primordial waters. The heavenly gods, gathered on the High Plain of Heaven, gave Izanagi and Izanami a spear adorned with jewels and charged them with making the earth solid.
The two stood together on Ame-no-Ukihashi, the Floating Bridge of Heaven, and thrust the spear downward into the brine below. They stirred. When they drew the spear back up, drops of saltwater fell from its tip, piled upon themselves, and hardened into Onogoro-jima, the self-forming island: the first land.
Izanagi and Izanami descended to the island, raised a pillar called the Ame-no-Mihashira, and built a palace. From there they began the work of creating the islands of Japan and the gods who would inhabit them. The spear does not appear again. Its work was done in a single thrust. Onogoro-jima has been identified with Nushima, a small island near Awaji in the Inland Sea, where the creation myth still clings to the local geography.