Tsukuyomi- Japanese GodDeity"Moon God"

Born from Purification

When Izanagi returned from the polluted land of Yomi, stinking of death and pursued by the furies of the underworld, he stripped off his garments and plunged into a river at Tachibana in Himuka to wash the filth of the dead from his body. The purification produced deity after deity, but the three greatest emerged last. From his left eye came Amaterasu, the sun. From his right eye came Tsukuyomi, the moon. From his nose came Susanoo, the storm.

Izanagi divided the cosmos among them. Amaterasu received the High Plain of Heaven. Susanoo was given the seas. Tsukuyomi was entrusted with the realm of night, yoru no osu-kuni. The Nihon Shoki adds that he was to share governance of the heavens alongside his sister, ruling the dark hours as she ruled the light. His name carried his purpose: tsuki, the moon; yomi, to count or to read. He was the Counter of Months, the deity who marked time by the waxing and waning of his own light.

The Feast of Uke Mochi

Amaterasu sent her brother down from the heavens to visit the food goddess Uke Mochi on her behalf. Uke Mochi received him with all the ceremony due a child of Izanagi and declared she would prepare a feast worthy of a god of heaven.

She turned to face the sea, and fish came pouring from her mouth. She turned toward the mountains, and game burst forth from her body. She turned toward the rice paddies, and grains spilled from within her onto the banquet table.

Tsukuyomi watched in silence. He was a deity born from purification, washed into existence at the moment Izanagi cleansed himself of death's contamination. That a goddess should produce food from the orifices of her own body was, to the moon god, an abomination. He drew his sword and killed her.

What Grew from the Body

From the slain goddess's corpse came the foundations of human civilization. Rice grew from her eyes, millet from her ears, wheat and beans from the rest of her body. Silkworms crawled from her head. Amaterasu sent attendants to gather these gifts and established them as the staples of Japanese agriculture.

In the Kojiki, this same killing is attributed not to Tsukuyomi but to Susanoo, and the victim bears the name Ōgetsu-hime. The myth circulated in different traditions before the chronicles were compiled, and different hands assigned it to different gods. The Nihon Shoki gives the story to the moon, and with it Tsukuyomi receives his only defining act.

The Separation

When Amaterasu learned what Tsukuyomi had done, her judgment was immediate. "You are a wicked deity," she declared. "I will not look upon you again."

The sentence was permanent. From that day forward the sun and moon dwelled apart, Amaterasu ruling the day, Tsukuyomi the night, circling the same sky but never meeting. The Nihon Shoki records that this is why the sun and moon light the world in turn, each occupying the hours the other has vacated.

After the separation, the myths fall silent. Amaterasu withdrew into the Heavenly Rock Cave and was coaxed back in triumph. Susanoo was banished to earth and slew the eight-headed serpent. The imperial line descended from heaven and conquered Yamato. Through all of it, Tsukuyomi is absent. He rules the night alone.

The Counter of Months

Before the adoption of the Chinese solar calendar, Japan measured time by lunar cycles. The word tsukiyomi, "moon-reading," meant counting months by the phases of the moon: each new moon began a new month, each full moon marked its middle. The lunar calendar governed when to plant, when to harvest, when to hold festivals.

The autumn custom of tsukimi (月見, "moon-viewing") preserves traces of this older reverence. Families gather to watch the harvest moon, offering rice dumplings and pampas grass. At Tsukiyomi Shrine in Ise, part of the Grand Shrine complex, Tsukuyomi is enshrined alongside his agricultural associations. A second Tsukiyomi Shrine in Kyoto's Nishikyō ward traces its origins to the fifth century, when the court dispatched an envoy to the Korean kingdom of Baekje and established the shrine upon his return.