According to the Shinto myths, Izanagi and Izanami were not the first gods. Other primordial beings existed before they did. However, Izanagi and Izanami are responsible for the creation of many of the other Kami, and it was they who created Japan. As such, I’d like to talk about the duo.
Originally the world was made of a kind of sludge-y water. Izanagi and Izanami stood upon the bridge of heaven - a rainbow - and stirred the sludge with a jeweled spear. When they pulled the spear from the water, some dripped down the spear and created the first island.
Izanagi and Izanami descended to this island and were wed. However, during the ceremony Izanami, the woman, spoke first. Due to this, their first child was born deformed. The other gods conferred and told Izanagi and Izanami to repeat their wedding ceremony, but to have the male speak first this time. Izanagi and Izanami complied, and all was well.
The duo gave birth to many children. These included the islands of Japan (sounds like a painful labor...) and numerous gods of the elements - waterfalls, trees, and the like.
Tragedy struck when Izanami became pregnant with Kagutsuchi, the god of fire. His flames burned her during childbirth, and Izanami died.
Izanagi immediately chopped Kagutsuchi into pieces (such a wonderful father, right?), but it was too late - his wife was gone. In his grief, Izanagi decided to go to Yomi, the Japanese land of the dead, to bring his wife back to life.
Yomi is a dark and gloomy place. Izanagi was able to find Izanami, but he could not see her face. Izanami agreed to return to the land of the living, but asked her husband to not look at her. She left him for a brief time, ostensibly to grab something, but an impatient and worried Izanagi followed her and lit his comb as a candle.
What he saw horrified Izanagi, for his wife was decayed and covered with maggots. (I’d probably be horrified too!) Izanami had eaten the food of the dead, and thus could not leave Yomi - for she had become a part of it.
Enraged that Izanagi had seen her, Izanami chased him through the underworld, sending demons to block his path. Izanagi escaped by throwing three peaches he found at the demons (who apparently don’t like fruit), chasing them away. Izanami almost caught Izanagi at the outskirts of Yomi, but he was able to roll a boulder over the entrance, forever sealing her inside.
Furious, Izanami swore that she would kill a thousand humans a day to punish Izanagi. The god responded that he would give life to fifteen hundred humans a day to thwart her. It was in this way that Izanagi and Izanami came to embody life and death.
I hope you enjoyed reading about Izanagi and Izanami! They’re an interesting duo, and their story bears remarkable similarities to the Greek myth of Orpheus, along with the fairy tale The Witch. I also find it interesting that the three mythologies we’ve looked at so far each have a female goddess of the Underworld - the Norse Hel; the Greek Persephone, who shares the rule of the Underworld with her husband Hades; and now Izanami. Izanami’s tale also proves wrong the old saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” - it obviously does!
As always, feel free to email me or comment below. I’ll be back on Friday with a post about Amaterasu and her interactions with her trickster brother, Susano. See you guys then!
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