Onogoroshima ('' Kojiki'': ''Onogoro-shima''; '' Nihon Shoki'': ''Onogoro-jima'') is an important island in Shinto. ''Onogoro'' literally means "''muddy sea has the ability to bind rocks and stones accumulated to form a bridge''".

Shinto account

According to the Kojiki, 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'') of both creation and life in Japanese mythology. He and his sister-wife Izanami are the last of the seven generations of ...

and

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 manifested ...

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 , formally known a ...

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

'', a commentary on the Kojiki, the great Kokugaku 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 P ...

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 In Japanese mythology, the story of the occurs after the creation of Japan ('' Kuniumi''). It concerns the birth of the divine (''kami'') descendants of Izanagi and Izanami. Story According to the Kojiki, various gods were born from the relatio ...

''). 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