Izanagi- Japanese PrimordialPrimordial"He Who Invites"

The Jeweled Spear

Izanagi and Izanami were the last of the divine generations who arose as heaven and earth took shape. The heavenly gods commanded them to consolidate the drifting land below and gave them the Heavenly Jeweled Spear. Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, the pair thrust the spear into the churning waters and stirred. When they lifted it, brine dripped from the tip and piled up to form Onogoro Island, the first solid ground. They descended to begin their work.

The First Marriage

On Onogoro Island, Izanagi and Izanami erected a great pillar and agreed to walk around it from opposite directions. When they met, Izanami spoke first: "What a handsome young man." Their first child was the boneless Hiruko, who could not stand even at age three. They placed him in a reed boat and set him adrift. Their second child, the island Awashima, was a mass of foam. Neither was counted among their offspring.

The couple ascended to heaven and consulted the elder gods, who determined through divination that the woman speaking first had been improper. They returned, repeated the rite with Izanagi speaking first, and creation proceeded. Izanami bore the eight great islands of Japan and then the kami who would inhabit every mountain, river, sea, and plain.

Kagutsuchi

The last child Izanami bore was Kagutsuchi, the kami of fire. His burning body scorched her as she bore him. Even as she lay dying, kami sprang from her body: gods of metal from her vomit, gods of earth from her feces, a goddess of water from her urine.

Izanagi crawled around her head and her feet, weeping. From his tears the deity Nakisawame was born at the foot of the trees on Mount Kagu. He buried Izanami on Mount Hiba, at the border of Izumo. Then grief turned to rage. He drew the ten-span sword Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and beheaded his son Kagutsuchi. From the blood that struck the rocks sprang Takemikazuchi, the thunder and sword god. From the dismembered body came eight mountain deities.

Yomi

Izanagi followed Izanami to Yomi-no-Kuni, the land of the dead. He found her in the darkness before the gates of the underworld and begged her to return. She replied that she had already eaten the food of Yomi and could not leave easily. She would petition the gods of the dead, but Izanagi must not look upon her.

He waited. The wait stretched on. He broke off a tooth from the comb in his hair, set it alight as a torch, and entered the palace. Izanami's body was bloated and rotting, crawling with maggots, and eight thunder deities had taken form in her decaying flesh: Great Thunder in her head, Fire Thunder in her breast, Black Thunder in her belly, Rending Thunder in her genitals.

The Boulder

Izanami sent the Ugly Females of Yomi after him. He fled up the dark passage toward the living world, tearing off his headdress and hurling it behind him. It transformed into wild grapes, and the hags stopped to devour them. He threw his comb. It became bamboo shoots. They stopped again.

The Eight Thunder Deities and fifteen hundred warriors of Yomi followed. At the base of the slope called Yomotsu Hirasaka, the boundary between death and life, Izanagi found three peaches growing at the pass. He hurled them at the army, and the peaches, holding the vital power of the living world, routed the forces of death.

Izanami herself came shrieking up the passage. Izanagi heaved a boulder into the mouth of the pass and sealed it. From opposite sides of the stone, husband and wife spoke their last words. Izanami declared: "I will strangle one thousand of your people every day." Izanagi answered: "Then I will build one thousand five hundred birthing huts every day." Every day one thousand die and one thousand five hundred are born. The bond between them was severed.

The Three Noble Children

Polluted by death, Izanagi traveled to the river mouth at Tachibana in Hyuga to perform misogi, purification by water. As he washed his face, the three greatest kami were born. From his left eye came Amaterasu, the sun goddess. From his right eye came Tsukuyomi, the moon god. From his nose emerged Susanoo, the storm god.

Izanagi removed his sacred necklace, shook it so the beads clinked, and gave it to Amaterasu, entrusting her with rule of the High Plain of Heaven. Tsukuyomi he appointed to govern night. Susanoo he commanded to rule the sea. But Susanoo did not take up his domain. He wept and howled ceaselessly, longing for his dead mother, until the green mountains withered and the rivers dried up. Izanagi banished him from heaven.