Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

Izanami and Izanagi. 

Sketch from Nine Years in Nipon by Henry Faulds.

Source: Flickr.

Izanagi and Izanami

Izanami, the goddess of Love, gives birth to all beings other than Izanagi: the “worlds,” gods, men, sea, mountains, the earth. She brings all knowledge and resources from the world to men, including water, fire, and light.

I love the image of a flowering bud shooting up from an infinite void of chaos and a “night-blooming flower” fluttering down, becoming the sun and moon, respectively. Izanagi and Izanami come from the blossoms of these flowers.

I also love the image of Izanagi and Izanami standing up above the earth, not able to see down into it, and fishing into a “cauldron” to find and create land.

The husband and wife circle around the Pillar of the Earth until they meet each other again; they do this twice and then hold hands and their reign over the world begins.

Izanami gave birth to the deities of different parts of the earth: trees, rivers, mountains, and other “miracles of Nature.”

Their best-loved daughter, the Sun Goddess, is Amaterasu, and their best-loved son, the Moon God, is Susa-no-wo.

Even though she gave birth to all the gods and men of the earth, and to the earth itself, Izanami is exiled because she wants the gods to work for the people of earth (her Earth Children), and the gods become jealous. They are upset because they feel they are above humans and should therefore not have to work for them, because that would be raising humans up above their natural rank.

Izanami is kicked out by her own children and goes down to Earth, where she gives birth to the God of Fire (Kagu-tsuchi) and declares him to be a monster. She is near death but knows that Kagu-tsuchi is a monster, so she also gives birth to the God of Water before dying.

Izanagi goes down through a hole in the earth to the portal of Yomi, and he tries to find and speak to Izanami, but she simply answers that she cannot come back and he should leave. Izanagi continues to look for her, going through Yomi (which is a dangerous thing to do) and eventually giving up in failure. He can hear Izanami moaning but cannot get to her, for when he tries to touch her, she vanishes forever. It’s interesting to me that the gods have such a tragic fate in this story, whereas usually gods have things pretty easy and humans get the rough treatment.

Bibliography: The Romance of Old Japan, by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Link to the reading online.