CHAPTER XIX
Rival Deities of Life and Death, Sunshine and Storm
Izanagi visits Hades—Origin of Thunder Deities—The Flight from Hades—Japanese Version of the “Far-travelled Tale”—The Sacred Peach Tree—Izanami as Goddess of Death—Births of Sun and Moon from Eyes of Izanagi—The Sun-goddess’s Necklace—Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous Male Deity”—Connection with Typhoon and Rain—A Japanese Indra—Vitalizing and Blighting Tears of Deities—Deities Born from Jewels and Sword—The Harrying of Heaven—Flight of Sun-goddess—How Light was Restored—The Sacred Mirror—Banishment of Susa-no-wo.
After Izanagi had slain his son, the fire-god, and brought into being new gods, including dragons, he was seized with longing to see Izanami once more. Accordingly he set out to find her in Yomi (“Yellow stream”), the dark Hades of the Underworld. “The orthodox Japanese derivation of Yomi,” says Chamberlain, “is from yoru, ‘night’, which would give us for Yomo-tsu-kuni some such rendering as ‘Land of Gloom’.” Another view is that “Yomi” is a mispronunciation of “Yama”, the name of the Aryo-Indian god of death.[1]
When Izanagi reached the gloomy dwelling of his sister, she raised the door, and he spoke to her, saying: “Thine Augustness, my lovely young sister! the lands that I and you made are not yet finished; so come back”. She replied out of the darkness: “It is sorrowful that you did not come hither sooner, for I have eaten of the [[358]]food of Yomi. Nevertheless, it is my desire to return. I will therefore speak with the kami of Yomi.”[2] She added in warning, “Look not at me!”
Izanami then went back to the place she had come from. She tarried there for so long a time that Izanagi grew impatient. At length he felt he could not wait any longer, so he broke off the end tooth of his hair-comb, which is called the “male pillar”, and thus made a light, and entered.[3] He found his sister. Her body was rotting, and maggots swarmed over it. The Ko-ji-ki proceeds:
“In her head dwelt the Great Thunder, in her breast dwelt the Fire Thunder, in her belly dwelt the Black Thunder, in her private parts dwelt the Cleaving Thunder, in her left hand dwelt the Young Thunder, in her right hand dwelt the Earth Thunder, in her left foot dwelt the Rumbling Thunder, in her right foot dwelt the Couchant Thunder; altogether eight thunder deities had been born and dwelt there.”
Horrified at the spectacle, Izanagi drew back suddenly; whereupon his sister exclaimed, “You have put me to shame!” and became angry.
Here Izanagi has broken a taboo, as did the Japanese youth who married the dragon-maid, Abundant Pearl Princess, and as did the husband of Melusina in the French legend. It was an ancient custom in Japan to erect “parturition houses”. These were one-roomed huts to which women retired so as to give birth to children unseen. Ernest Satow tells that on the island of Hachijo, until comparatively recent times, “women, when about to become mothers, were … driven out to the huts on the mountain-side, and according to the [[359]]accounts of native writers, left to shift for themselves, the result not infrequently being the death of the new-born infant”.[4] It was taboo for a man to enter a “parturition house”. Apparently Izanami had retired to a “parturition house” in Yomi.