A Guide to Mythology

by Helen A. Clarke

Then, moving round this Pillar, they met and gazed on one another with charmed eyes. The Mother of Mankind cried joyfully: “Behold! I have met with a lovely Youth!” And Izanagi cried back: “Behold! I have met with a lovely Maiden!”

So the Sekirei first taught the Gods the ways of Love, and are honored and cherished in Japan to this day.

But Izanagi remembered how Izanami had been the first to speak, and in his displeasure said wrathfully: “I am a Man, and should by right have spoken first!”

When the first child born to them was ugly and deformed, they put him in a boat made of camphor-wood, and he sailed away to sea and became the God of the fisherfolk. His children are the hairy men who live in some of the islands of Japan to this day.

Then the Gods passed round the Pillar a second time, and Izanagi spoke first. So his anger was appeased, and they lived greatly content.

Together they made the eight islands of Japan, and placed them at the summit of the globe. But the land was hidden—becovered with mists—so Izanagi sent forth the God of the Winds. He, blowing lustily, rent the clouds, and the earth lay as a bride unveiled, shimmering with silver dew on her green pastures.

Next came the Food-Spirit to comfort mankind, the Sea Gods, the Mountain Gods, the Gods of the River-mouths, the Tree Gods, and the Earth Goddess. Last of all was born the fierce Fire God, Kagu-tsuchi. Now, this God was of such a hot and fiery temper that he burned his Great Mother, and she suffered change and departed to the Lower World.

Then Izanagi was wroth, and cried aloud: “Oh, that I should have given my Beloved in return for a single child!”

And his sorrow was so great that he crawled round her head and her feet, and from the tears that he shed sprang up the Goddess of Weeping. Then he took his ten-span sword and hewed Kagu-tsuchi in three pieces, and each piece sprang into life as the Spirit of Thunder, the Spirit of Mountains, and the Spirit of Rain.

Now, Izanagi loved his wife so greatly that he could find no rest or peace on earth; and, after wandering long in search of comfort and finding none, he determined to seek her, even in the realm of Departed Spirits. His way lay through a long and gloomy passage where few have trod, right through the center of the earth, till he came at length to the Gate of Everlasting Night, to the Kingdom of Yomi, the Ruler of the Under World. He knocked at the Gate and cried aloud: