Week 7 Story: Izanami and Tacibana

"Matsu no shima in Night Rain" by Kawase Hasui.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Tacibana glanced at her watch and was surprised to find that it was almost 2 in the afternoon. It was difficult for her to keep track of the time, even after all these millennia, because the land of Yomi receives no sunlight. Living (used loosely here, for Tacibana and all her neighbors were long-dead) in the underworld wasn’t so bad once she got used to it, but she never stopped missing the sun.

Although she hadn’t slept since her earthly life, she often lounged on the silk sheets of her bed, as she was doing now. She raised herself up until she was vertical, her feet hovering just above the wooden floor, and started toward the library.

The spirits, both mortal women and goddesses, were beginning to drift into the conference room. When Tacibana reached the front entrance of the library, she turned and glided down to join the gathering group. The white-walled room was rather quiet, as are most places in the land of the dead, with only whispering voices and the occasional soft whoosh as two spirits brushed past each other.

Tacibana lowered herself onto a chair and looked across the circle. Quickly she put her head down, her pale cheeks somehow flushed despite her lack of blood. She glanced up again and confirmed it to herself: the famous goddess Izanami was really here, at her support group! What problems could the co-creator of the world have? wondered Tacibana.

The group had been meeting for a few centuries – quite recent for Yomi standards. The women, wronged by their loved ones in life and still holding onto the pain that should have been let go of at their death, met monthly to talk to and support each other in their various griefs. So why was Izanami, the most beautiful and life-giving force in any realm, here?

“I am here because, like all of you, I was deeply hurt by my loved ones,” sang out Izanami. “But I was hurt not just by my loved ones, but by my very own children. And not only was I hurt by my children, I was hurt by them because my love was too great. The ever-expanding love I felt, and feel, for my Earth Children caused me shame among my God Children, and that is what I cannot let go of. To be shamed for my loving actions, to be exiled for selflessness…I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.”

Silence fell upon the group, and many women nodded solemnly, but none more solemnly than Tacibana, who knew the pain of being outcast for her love and self-sacrifice.

Izanami took the silence as a beckoning to explain herself. She went on, “From the beginning I was there. Izanagi and I came from blossoming flowers, and we descended to walk around the Pillar of the Earth. By him I gave birth to the Earth and to all its gods and people; I crafted and released the mountains and rivers and dirt. I gave all of myself for the world. And I loved my God Children and my Earth Children so intensely that I wanted each to have everything. But when I asked my God Children to use their dominion to aid my Earth Children, they exiled me. I was cast out, down to Earth, where I bore two more children and died alone. I did everything I could for all my children, and I was sent to my death because I loved too much. It’s difficult to know whether I made the right choice by being ever-loving and self-sacrificial, for my less charitable children are still reigning today.”

“I question my choices in the same way, my goddess,” ventured Tacibana. “I gave everything, even my life, for my husband, even though for much of our marriage he was unfaithful and even hateful to me. The image of our life together is me running toward him through fire, the ends of my hair singed and my skin black from the flames, tearing off my burning clothes and carrying his sword.”

Tacibana stopped for a moment, remembering that day. Her husband had been away with his army, but because of her great devotion to him she could sense that he was in trouble. She had grabbed his sword off its hooks and run through the night to him. When she arrived, the whole campsite was in flames, but she ran through them to her beloved. As he cut the grass with the sword to push back the fire, she had been elated, thinking that finally he would see her value and his infidelities would cease.

“And the next day, he sent me home because my skin and hair made me hideous in his sight. And he went off to see his siren lover. That’s the image of our marriage.”

Izanami looked her up and down. “And you sacrificed yourself for this man? Do you regret it?” she asked.

Tacibana looked back at her. “No,” she said. “No, I don’t think so. The memory is painful to me and I hate that our marriage is summed up in such a horrible story, but I’m proud of what I did for my husband. I find my strength in my forgiveness and devotion. When I first arrived here in Yomi, I wondered whether I had made the right choice, sacrificing myself for someone who never would have done so for me. But I am not weak because of my great love; I am strong because of it. To love over and over again after each wrongdoing is strength. My husband was weak, but I was strong for the both of us. And in the underworld, my strength keeps me going more than earthly justice could. Yes, I am happy to call my love too great for Earth.”

Author’s Note: This story is a retelling of a series of stories in Japanese mythology. In “Izanami and Izanagi,” the goddess Izanami gives birth to all the world and the beings in it, but she is exiled from the heavens because the gods resent her love for her Earth Children. She dies on Earth shortly after her exile. In “The Grass-Cleaving Sword,” a mortal character named Tacibana runs through fire to deliver a sacred sword to her husband, Yamato. He saves himself and his army with this sword, but the next day (in the story “The Sacred Sword”) he sends Tacibana home because he thinks she is ugly due to the effects of the fire on her hair and body. Later, in “The Dragon,” Tacibana gives up her life as a sacrifice so that he can continue to live. I was outraged by Yamato’s treatment of Tacibana. He cheats on her throughout their marriage and is constantly annoyed by her despite her sweet devotion to him. I could not believe that he found her scorched skin and hair ugly, when they so directly proved her love for him! I saw a pattern in the stories of Izanami and Tacibana: they were hurt and rejected because of their self-sacrificial love. I decided to write a story in which they meet and discuss their struggles and whether it is good or bad to practice self-sacrificial love.

Bibliography: "Izanami and Izanagi," "The Grass-Cleaving Sword," "The Sacred Sword," and "The Dragon" from The Romance of Old Japan by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Link to the reading online.