Enraged against Izanagi, because he had put her to shame, Izanami commanded the Ugly Females of Yomi to pursue and slay him.
At this point in the mythical narrative begins a version of the widespread folk-story about the young man who makes escape from his enemy or enemies, and in the course of his flight throws down articles that are transformed into obstacles, or into things which tempt the pursuers to tarry and eat.[5]
The first article that Izanagi cast down behind him was his wreath or head-dress, which was instantly turned into grapes. This is according to the Ko-ji-ki; the Nihon-gi makes the head-dress the second obstacle. His pursuer (Ko-ji-ki) or pursuers (Nihon-gi), having devoured the grapes, resumed the chase. Then Izanagi, as he fled, broke his hair-comb and threw it down; it instantly turned into bamboo sprouts. While these were being pulled up and eaten, he continued his flight.
The Ko-ji-ki (but not the Nihon-gi) here introduces another set of pursuers. Izanami, finding that her brother had outwitted the Ugly Female (or Females), “sent the eight Thunder-Deities with a thousand and five hundred warriors of Hades to pursue him. Izanagi, drawing the ten-grasp sabre that was augustly girded on him, fled forward, brandishing it in his back hand (brandishing it behind him); and as the demons still [[360]]continued to pursue him, he took, on reaching the base of the Even Pass of Hades,[6] three peaches that were growing at its base, and waited and smote (his pursuers therewith) so that they all fled back.”[7]
Having thus rid himself of his pursuers, Izanagi addressed the peaches, saying: “As you have helped me, so must ye help all living people in the Central Land of Reed-Plains, when they are troubled and harassed”.
Here we have not only a native name of China (“Land of Reed-Plains”) applied to Japan, but also the sacred Chinese peach, a symbol of the Great Mother, the Western Queen of Immortals (Si Wang Fu). The story of a hero’s flight from the Underworld has not survived in China, if ever it existed there. It is, however, found in the myths of Scandinavia.
In the Nihon-gi (Aston) the comment is added to the peach incident: “This was the origin of the custom of exorcising evil spirits by means of peaches”.
The peach, like the bean, was in Japan a symbol of the mother-goddess, as was the shell in Egypt and the pig-shell in Greece.
Izanami herself was the last to pursue Izanagi. When he saw her coming, Izanagi blocked up the Pass of Yomi with a huge boulder of rock, which it would take a thousand men to lift, and he stood on one side of it, while she stood on the other to “exchange leave-takings” (Ko-ji-ki), or to pronounce the formula of divorce (Nihon-gi).
