The Nihongi tells us that—
‘Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of Heaven (the rainbow) and held counsel together, saying “Is there not a country beneath?” Thereupon they thrust down the “Jewel-Spear of Heaven,” and groping about with it, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the point of the spear coagulated and formed an island which received the name of Onogoro-jima or the “Self-Coagulating Island.” The two deities thereupon descended and dwelt there. Accordingly they wished to be united as husband and wife, and to produce countries. So they made Onogoro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land.’
The Kojiki says that Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by all the heavenly deities ‘to regulate and fully consolidate’ the floating land beneath. But all the accounts, the Kojiki included, proceed to represent the islands of Japan as having been generated by them in the ordinary manner. We have therefore three distinct conceptions of creation in Japanese myth—first, as generation in the most literal sense; second, as reducing to order; and third, as growth (Musubi).
‘The two deities having descended on Onogoro-jima erected there an eight-fathom house with an august central pillar. Then Izanagi addressed Izanami, saying, “Let me and thee go round the heavenly august pillar, and having met at the other side, let us become united in wedlock.” This being agreed to, he said, “Do thou go round from the left, and I will go round from the right.” When they had gone round, Izanami spoke first and exclaimed, “How delightful! I have met a lovely youth.” Izanagi then said, “How delightful! I have met a lovely maiden.” Afterwards he said, “It was unlucky for the woman to speak first.” The child which was the first offspring of their union was the Hiruko (leech-child), which at the age of three was still unable to stand upright, and was therefore placed in a reed-boat and sent adrift.’
Izanagi and Izanami then procreated the islands of Japan with a number of other gods, among whom were Iha-tsuchi-biko (rock-earth-prince), Oho-ya-biko (great-house-prince), the Wind-gods, a variety of marine deities, Ame no Mikumari (the heavenly water distributor), the god of Moors (who is also the god of Herbs and Grasses), the god of Trees, the gods of Mountains and Valleys, and the goddess of Food. The last deity to be produced was the god of Fire, Kagu-tsuchi, also called Ho-musubi (Fire-growth). In giving birth to him, Izanami was burnt so that she sickened and lay down. From her vomit, fæces, and urine were born deities which personify the elements of metal, water, and clay. When Izanami died, Izanagi, in his grief and rage, drew his sword and slew Kagu-tsuchi, thereby generating a number of other deities, two of whom, named Take-mika-tsuchi and Futsunushi, were favourite objects of worship in later times.
The creation of the Sun and Moon is variously accounted for. Some say that they were the children of Izanagi and Izanami, others that they were born from the lustrations of Izanagi when he returned from Yomi. A third child, Susa no wo, the boisterous and unruly Rain-storm god, was produced at the same time.
When Izanami died she went to the Land of Yomi, whither she was followed by her husband. But as she had already eaten of the food of that region, he could not bring her back with him. She forbade him to look on her, but he persisted and saw that she was already a putrid corpse. Izanami then complained that he had put her to shame, and caused him to be pursued by the Ugly Females of Hades and other personifications of corruption and disease who dwelt there. She herself had become Death personified. Izanagi, in his flight, flung down various objects which delayed his pursuers—a well-known incident of myth—until he reached the Even Pass of Hades, where he pronounced the formula of divorce.
When Izanagi returned to earth he bathed in the sea in order to remove the pollution incurred by his visit to Yomi, and in so doing produced a number of deities, some of whom are Ocean-gods and others associated with the ancient Japanese ceremonies of religious purification.
Susa no wo and the Sun-Goddess.—Susa no wo (the Rain-storm god) was at first appointed to rule the Sea, but he preferred to join his mother, Izanami, in Hades, and was accordingly despatched thither by his father. Before taking his departure, however, he ascended to heaven to take leave of his elder sister Amaterasu, the Sun-goddess. All the mountains and rivers shook, and every land and country quaked as he passed upwards. Amaterasu, in alarm, armed herself as a warrior with sword and bow, stamped her feet into the hard ground up to her thighs, kicking away the earth like rotten snow, and, confronting him like a valiant man, challenged him to declare the reason of his coming. Susa no wo protested that it was only a friendly visit, and as a proof of his good intentions proposed that they should produce children between them by each one crunching in his mouth and spurting out fragments of the sword and jewels worn by the other. One of the children thus born was called Masaya a katsu kachi hayahi ama no oshihomimi, the forefather of the present Imperial dynasty. There were seven others who figure largely in the genealogies of the Japanese nobility.
But the true nature of the Rain-storm god was not long repressed. He destroyed his sister’s rice-fields, defiled the sacred hall where she was celebrating the harvest festival, and flung a piebald colt that had been flayed backwards into the sacred weaving-room where the garments of the gods were woven. The Sun-goddess had borne his previous outrages with calmness and forbearance, but this last (a malicious magical practice?) was beyond endurance. She retired in disgust and shut herself up in the Rock-cave of Heaven, leaving the world to darkness. This proceeding of Amaterasu was followed by dire results. ‘The voices of the evil deities were like unto the flies in the fifth moon as they swarmed, and a myriad portents of woe arose.’ The gods, in consternation, held an assembly in the dry bed of the River of Heaven (the Milky Way) to devise means for inducing her to emerge from the cave, and a number of expedients were adopted which were evidently borrowed from the ritual of the time when the myth became current. The deities who were specially concerned with this duty are obvious counterparts of the actual officials of the Mikado’s Court, and included a prayer-reciter, an offering-provider, a mirror-maker, a jewel-maker, a diviner, with—according to some accounts—many others. All this is most convenient for the genealogists of later times. Amaterasu at length reappeared, to the great delight of everybody. Susa no wo was fined in a thousand tables of offerings and expelled from Heaven. Before proceeding to Yomi, he went down to Earth. Here he appears in a totally new character as the Perseus of a Japanese Andromeda, whom he rescues from a huge serpent, having first intoxicated the monster. Of course they are married and have numerous children. Her name, Inada-hime (rice-land-lady), is probably not without significance as that of the wife of a Rain-storm god. Another story represents him as the murderer of the Food-goddess, who had offended him by producing viands for his entertainment from various parts of her body. But a different version ascribes this crime to the Moon-god, and gives it as the reason why the Sun-goddess refused to have any further relations with him. This, of course, explains why the two luminaries are not seen together.