Izanagi and Izanami

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The Kojiki (see Kojiki) and the Nihongi (see Nihongi), the primary sources for Japanese (see Japanese entries) pre-Buddhist or Shinto (see Shinto entries) mythology, tell of the mythological age that began with events surrounding the first couple, Izanagi and Izanami. When at the beginning of time chaos was overcome by the separation of Heaven and Earth, the first parents were created. Izanami was the passive principle—the “female who invites.” Izanagi was the active principle—the “male who invites” (see Yinyang). When the first couple thrust a jeweled spear into the maternal waters below, the central island of Japan was formed. The couple decided to marry and did so after developing a courtship ritual in which the male was dominant and in which the details of the procreative act were discussed. From their union came the islands of Japan and eventually the sun goddess, the source of all Japanese emperors, Amaterasu (see Amaterasu).

The Izanami-Izanagi cycle contains a particularly dark myth in which Izanagi goes to the Land of the Dead (see Underworld) in search of his wife, who had been killed, in effect, by giving birth to fire. When he arrives, he finds that Izanami, like Persephone in the Greek underworld, had already eaten of the fruit of the Dead and therefore could not return with her husband to life. Izanami orders Izanagi not to look at her body, now deformed by death, but he disobeys, and Izanami, insulted, chases him to the very gates of Yomi (see Yomi), the Underworld. Having wrongly visited the Underworld, Izanagi is plagued by bad luck until he is able to wash in sacred waters, after which he isolates himself on a distant island. His wife becomes queen of the Underworld.