Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾) or Izanaki (イザナキ), formally known as , is the

creator deity A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatris ...

(''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'') of both creation and life in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...

. He and his sister-wife

Izanami , formally known as , is the creator deity of both creation and death in Japanese mythology, as well as the Shinto mother goddess. She and her brother-husband Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of primordial deities that manifest ...

are the last of the seven generations of primordial deities that manifested after the formation of heaven and earth. Izanagi and Izanami are held to be the creators of the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a archipelago, group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to t ...

and the progenitors of many deities, which include the sun goddess

Amaterasu Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (''kami'') of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the ''Kojik ...

, the moon deity

Tsukuyomi , or simply or , is the moon god in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. The name "Tsukuyomi" is a compound of the Old Japanese words and . The '' Nihon Shoki'' mentions this name spelled as , but this ''yumi'' is likely a variation in ...

and the storm god

Susanoo __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory chara ...

Name

His name is given in the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' (ca. 712 AD) both as ''Izanagi-no-Kami'' (伊邪那岐神) and ''Izanagi-no-Mikoto'' (伊邪那岐命), while the '' Nihon Shoki'' (720 AD) refers to him as ''Izanagi-no-Mikoto'', with the name written in different

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

(伊弉諾尊). The names ''Izanagi'' (''Izanaki'') and ''Izanami'' are often interpreted as being derived from the verb ( historical orthography ) or ''iⁿzanap''- from Western Old Japanese 'to invite' , with ''-ki'' / ''-gi'' and ''-mi'' being taken as masculine and feminine suffixes, respectively. The literal translation of Iⁿzanaŋgî and Iⁿzanamî are 'Male-who-invites' and 'Female-who-invites'.

Shiratori Kurakichi Shiratori Kurakichi (白鳥庫吉, March 1, 1865 – March 30, 1942) was a Japanese historian and Sinologist who was one of the pioneers of the field of "Oriental History". Biography Shiratori graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and joined ...

proposed an alternative theory which instead sees the root ''iza-'' (or rather ''isa-'') to be derived from ''isao'' (historical orthography: ''isawo'') meaning 'achievement' or 'merit'. The etymological origin of the verb is suggested to be a precursor to the Middle Korean lemma ''yènc''- meaning 'to place/put on

he top of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

reconstructed as ''*yenc-a'' (place-INF) in OK. This does coincide with other related mythological figures related to a source in the Korean peninsula like Susanöwo.

Mythology

In the ''Kojiki''

The birth of the land

The ''Kojiki'' portrays Izanagi and his younger twin sister Izanami as the seventh and final generation of deities that manifested after the emergence of the first group of gods, the

Kotoamatsukami In Shinto, is the collective name for the first gods which came into existence at the time of the creation of the universe. They were born in Takamagahara, the world of Heaven at the time of the creation. Unlike the later gods, these deities were ...

, when heaven and Earth came into existence. Receiving a command from the other gods to solidify and shape the Earth (which then " esembledfloating oil and riftedlike a jellyfish"), the couple use a jewelled spear to churn the watery chaos. The brine that dripped from the tip of the spear congealed and turned into an island named Onogoro (淤能碁呂島). The two descended to the island and, setting up their dwelling, erected a 'heavenly pillar' (''ame no mihashira'') on it. Izanagi and Izanami, realizing that they were meant to procreate and have children, then devised a marriage ceremony whereby they would walk in opposite directions around the pillar, greet each other and initiate intercourse. After Izanami greeted Izanagi first, Izanagi objected that he, the man, should have been the first to speak. True enough, the first offspring that resulted from their union, the 'leech-child'

Hiruko , also transliterated or called or , is the Japanese god of fishermen and luck. He is one of the , and the only one of the seven to originate purely from Japan without any Buddhist or Taoist influence. Origins as Hiruko In medieval times, Ebis ...

, was considered imperfect and set adrift on a boat of reeds. Izanagi and Izanami then also begat the island of

Awa Awa (or variants) may refer to: People * Awa (given name), notable people named Awa or Hawa * Awá (Brazil), an indigenous people of Brazil * Awa-Kwaiker, an indigenous people of Colombia and Ecuador Languages * Awa language (China) or Wa (Va) ...

(淡島 ''Awashima''), but this too was not counted among their rightful progeny. Japan yashima

Izanagi and Izanami then decided to repeat the ritual, with Izanagi greeting Izanami first. This time, their union was a success, with Izanami giving birth to some of the various islands that comprise the Japanese archipelago (with the notable exceptions of Shikoku and Hokkaido), which include the following eight islands (in the following order): * Awaji-no-Ho-no-Sawake (淡道之穂之狭別島) *The double-named island of Iyo (伊予之二名島 ''Iyo-no-Futana-no-Shima'', modern

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

) *The triple islands of

Oki Oki or Ōki may refer to: Places *Oki District, Shimane, a district in Shimane Prefecture, Japan *Oki Islands, an archipelago in the Sea of Japan *Oki Province, a former province of Japan *Ōki, Fukuoka, a town in southern Japan *Oki Airport, the ...

(隠伎之三子島 ''Oki-no-Mitsugo-no-Shima'') *Tsukushi (筑紫島, modern

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

) *

Iki IKI may refer to: * Internationales Kulturinstitut in Vienna * Iodine potassium-iodide, a chemical compound * Russian Space Research Institute originally known as IKI RAN * Iki Airport, IATA code Iki or iki may refer to: * Iki Island, a Japanese ...

(伊伎島) * Tsushima (津島) * Sado (佐度島) *Ōyamato-Toyoakitsushima (大倭豊秋津島, modern

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

) The two then proceeded to beget the various deities who are to inhabit these lands. Izanami, however, was badly injured and eventually died after giving birth to the fire god

Kagutsuchi Kagutsuchi (カグツチ; Old Japanese: ''Kagututi''), also known as Hi-no-Kagutsuchi or Homusubi among other names, is the kami of fire in classical Japanese mythology. Mythology Kagutsuchi's birth burned his mother Izanami, causing her death ...

. In an act of grief and rage, Izanagi killed Kagutsuchi with his ' ten-grasp sword'. More gods manifest into existence out of Izanami's excreta, Kagutsuchi's blood and mutilated remains, and Izanagi's tears.

Descent into Yomi

Izanagi, wishing to see Izanami again, went down to

Yomi is the Japanese word for the land of the dead (World of Darkness). According to Shinto mythology as related in ''Kojiki'', this is where the dead go in the afterlife. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is (mostly) impossible to return ...

, the land of the dead, in the hopes of retrieving her. Izanami reveals that she had already partaken of food cooked in the furnace of the underworld, rendering her return impossible. Izanagi, losing his patience, betrayed his promise not to look at her and lit up a fire, only to find that Izanami is now a rotting corpse. To avenge her shame, Izanami dispatched the gods of thunder (known as the

Yakusanoikazuchi Yakusanoikazuchi or ikazuchi is a collective name for the eight kami of thunder in Japanese mythology. Each one represents a different type of storm. Ikazuchi (雷) literally means thunder in Japanese. Mythology Some tellings say that the eight ...

), the "hags of Yomi" (予母都志許売 ''

Yomotsu-shikome , in Japanese mythology, was a hag sent by the dead Izanami to pursue her husband Izanagi, for shaming her by breaking promise not to see her in her decayed form in the Underworld ( Yomi-no-kuni). Also recorded by the name , the name may have be ...

''), and a horde of warriors to chase after him. To distract them, Izanagi threw the vine securing his hair and the comb on his right hair-knot, which turned into

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago ...

and

bamboo shoots Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including ''Bambusa vulgaris'' and ''Phyllostachys edulis''. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and b ...

that the hags devoured. Upon reaching the pass of Yomotsu Hirasaka (黄泉比良坂, the 'Flat Slope of Yomi'), Izanagi took three

peaches The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fuz ...

from a nearby tree and repelled his pursuers using them. He then declared the peach fruit to be divine and bade it to grow in the land of the living to help people in need. When Izanami herself came in pursuit of him, Izanagi sealed the entrance to Yomi using a huge boulder. Izanami then pronounces a curse, vowing to kill a thousand people each day, to which Izanagi replies that he will then beget a thousand and five hundred people everyday to thwart her.

Purification (''Misogi'')

Izanagi, feeling contaminated by his visit to Yomi, went to "

he plain of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

Awagihara (i.e. a plain covered with '' awagi'') by the river-mouth of Tachibana in Himuka in

he island of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

Tsukushi Tsukushi may refer to: Places *Tsukushi Province, old Japanese province, subsequently divided into **Chikuzen Province, old Japanese province, part of Fukuoka Prefecture without south and east Fukuoka **Chikugo Province, old Japanese province, th ...

" and purified himself by bathing in the river; various deities came into existence as he stripped off his clothes and accouterments and immersed himself in the water. The three most important ''kami'', the "Three Precious Children" (三貴子 or ) – the sun goddess

Amaterasu Ōmikami Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the Solar deity, goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major Kami, deities (''kami'') of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary ...

, the moon deity

Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto , or simply or , is the moon god in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. The name "Tsukuyomi" is a compound of the Old Japanese words and . The '' Nihon Shoki'' mentions this name spelled as , but this ''yumi'' is likely a variation in ...

, and the storm god

Susanoo-no-Mikoto __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory charac ...

– were born when Izanagi washed his left eye, his right eye, and his nose, respectively.

Izanagi and Susanoo

Izanagi divides the world among his three children: Amaterasu was allotted

Takamagahara In Japanese mythology, Takamagahara (高天原, "Plain of High Heaven" or "High Plain of Heaven", also read as Takaamanohara, Takamanohara, Takaamagahara, or Takaamahara), is the abode of the heavenly gods (''amatsukami''). Often depicted as locate ...

(高天原, the "Plain of High Heaven"), Tsukuyomi the night, and Susanoo the seas. Susanoo did not perform his appointed task and instead kept crying and howling "until his beard eight hands long extended down over his chest," causing the mountains to wither and the rivers to dry up. After saying to his father that he wished to go to his mother's land, Ne-no-Katasu-Kuni (根堅州国, the 'Land of Roots'), a furious Izanagi then expelled Susanoo "with a divine expulsion," after which he disappears from the narrative.

In the ''Nihon Shoki''

While the first generations of ''kami'' including Izanagi and Izanami are implied in the ''Kojiki'' and the ''Nihon Shoki'''s main narrative to have manifested independent of each other, one variant cited in the ''Shoki'' instead describes them as the offspring of Aokashikine-no-Mikoto (青橿城根尊), another name for the goddess Ayakashikone-no-Mikoto, of the sixth of the first seven generations of gods. Another variant meanwhile portrays Izanagi as the offspring of a deity named Awanagi-no-Mikoto (沫蕩尊) and the fifth-generation descendant of the primordial deity Kuninotokotachi-no-Mikoto. In the ''Shoki'''s main narrative, the couple first begets the following eight islands after performing the marriage ceremony (in the following order): *Awaji (淡路洲), which "was reckoned as the

placenta The placenta is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate mater ...

, and their minds took no pleasure in it" *Ōyamato-Toyoakitsushima (大日本豊秋津洲) *The double-named island of Iyo (伊豫二名洲) *Tsukushi (筑紫洲) *Oki (億岐洲) and Sado (佐度洲), born as twins *

Koshi Koshi or Kōshi may refer to: Places *Koshi River, a river in Nepal *Koshi District, Niigata, a former district in Niigata Prefecture, Japan *Koshi Province, a historic province of Japan *Kōshi, Kumamoto, a city in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan *Kos ...

(越洲), what is now known as the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

*Ōshima (大洲), identified with the island of

Suō-Ōshima is a town and an island located in Ōshima District, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Suō-Ōshima was formed on October 1, 2004 from the merger of the former towns of Ōshima, Kuka, Tachibana and Tōwa, all from towns of Ōshima District. As ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

*Kibi-no-Kojima (吉備子洲), identified with the Kojima Peninsula in southern

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

(formerly the province of Kibi) Both Ōshima and Kibi-no-Kojima are not reckoned among the eight great islands in the ''Kojiki'', instead being identified as being born after them. The other remaining islands, such as Tsushima (対馬島) and Iki (壱岐島), are said to have been produced by the coagulation of the foam in sea water (or freshwater).

References

Bibliography

* * *Philippi, Donald L., tr. (1968/1969). ''Kojiki''. University of Tokyo Press. .

External links

* *Izanagi on th
Japanese History Database
{{Authority control Creator gods Japanese gods Shinto kami Creation myths Creator deities Divine twins Incest in mythology Health gods