Onogoroshima (''

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 ...

'': ''Onogoro-shima''; '' Nihon Shoki'': ''Onogoro-jima'') is an important

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

. ''Onogoro'' literally means "''muddy sea has the ability to bind rocks and stones accumulated to form a bridge''".

Shinto account

According to the

, Onogoroshima was created (''

kuniumi In Japanese mythology, is the traditional and legendary history of the emergence of the Japanese archipelago, of islands, as narrated in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. According to this legend, after the creation of Heaven and Earth, the gods Izanag ...

'') when the divine couple

Izanagi 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 (''kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can b ...

and

Izanami , 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 ...

churned the sea with the

Amenonuhoko is the name given to the spear in Shinto used to raise the primordial land-mass, ''Onogoro-shima'', from the sea. It is often represented as a naginata. According to the Kojiki, Shinto's genesis gods Izanagi and Izanami were responsible for cre ...

(heavenly spear) from their vantage point on the floating bridge of heaven.Kurano, ''Kojiki'', page 53 When they raised the spear from the ocean, drops fell from the spear, forming the island. They built a

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

on top with a great

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

in the middle. The siblings walked around this pillar in opposite directions, and when they encountered each other, they were married. This island is where

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, Ebi ...

(Ebisu) was born. The island is mentioned only three times in the

, at ch.3:3, ch:7:25, and ch.111:32.Philippi's translation, p. 49, p. 57, and p. 306.

Real-world placement

In his ''

Kojiki-den The ''Kojiki-den'' (古事記伝) is a 44-volume commentary on the ''Kojiki'' written by the ''kokugaku'' scholar Motoori Norinaga. Overview The ''Kojiki-den'' is a commentary on the ''Kojiki'', an eighth-century work of Shinto historiography an ...

'', a commentary on the Kojiki, the great

Kokugaku ''Kokugaku'' ( ja, 國學, label= Kyūjitai, ja, 国学, label=Shinjitai; literally "national study") was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars worked to r ...

scholar

Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of ''Kokugaku'' active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies. Life Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka in Ise Province (now part of Mie Pre ...

asserted that it referred to one of the small islands near Awajishima (e.g. Nushima or

Tomogashima is a cluster of four islands in the Inland Sea, off Wakayama, Wakayama, Japan. The four islands are , , , and . The islands form part of the Setonaikai National Park. History The islands were used by Buddhist monks for Shugendō. The folklore ...

). On the island of Nu/ Nushima (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 沼島), there is a shrine commemorating both Izanagi and Izanami, Onogoro-jinja (

: 自凝神社) on top of a sacred hill revered by all Japanese is where the first island of Japan is created – i.e. Nushima, then followed by other creation of islands.

Folklores of the Area surrounding of Onogoro Island

; Nushima (沼島) : Nushima is a mysteriously shaped island like a '' magatama'' from the sky, located 4.6km above the southern sea of Awaji Island. In 1994, an island where a very rare rock was discovered and is called "''Sayagata-shūkyoku'' (鞘型褶曲, i.e. "Sheath-shaped Fold)", which is regarded as the "''Chikyū-no-Shiwa'' (地球のしわ, i.e. "Wrinkle of the Earth")" is a 100 million years old. : Kamitategamiiwa

There are many rocks and reefs on the shoreline of Numashima, and on the southeast coast, a towering giant rock “''Kamitategami-Iwa'' (上立神岩)” with a height of about 30 metres which looks like a spear, has become a reminiscent symbol and icon that became the origin of the "Birth of the Japanese nation" ('' kamiumi''). This rock, which appears as in mythology, is also called "''Ame-no-mihashira'' (天の御柱, "the Pillar of Heaven") and is said to be the one Izanagi and Izanami descended to.

Notes

References

*Donald L. Philippi tr. ''Kojiki'', Princeton University Press, Tokyo University Press, 1969 * {{Jmyth navbox long Ancient Japan Locations in Japanese mythology Mythological islands Shinto Islands of Japan