The "Even Pass of Yomi" takes the place of the water to be crossed of other mythologies. Grimm, in his 'Teutonic Mythology,' says that "to Death is ascribed a highway levelled, smooth, and kept in repair, on which the dead travel."
On returning from Yomi, Izanagi's first care was to bathe in the sea in order to purify himself from the pollutions which he had contracted by his visit to the Land of Yomi. A number of deities were generated by this process, among whom were the Gods of Good and Ill Luck, and certain ocean deities held to be the ancestors of some families of local chieftains and worshipped by them. The Sun-Goddess was born from the washing of his left eye, and the Moon-God from that of his right, while a third deity, named Susa no wo, was generated from the washing of his nose. To the Sun-Goddess Izanagi gave charge of the "Plain of High Heaven," and to the Moon-God was allotted the realm of night. Susa no wo was at first appointed to rule the sea, but he cried and wept till his beard grew down to the pit of his stomach. He wept the green mountains bare and the seas and rivers dry. Izanagi inquired of him, "Why dost thou continually weep?" He answered, "I wish to follow my mother to the Nether Land." Izanagi said, "Go, as thy heart bids thee," and drove him away.
Another account of the birth of these three deities says that they were born to Izanagi and Izanami on earth before the descent to Yomi. The Sun-Goddess was sent up to Heaven by the "Pillar of Heaven," which then served as a means of communication. Heaven and earth were still "not far separated." Ame no mi-hashira (Heaven-august-pillar) is one of the names of the Wind-God. An island is described as "Heaven's single pillar." Other myths speak of the Ama no iha-bune, or Rock-boat of Heaven, as used for communication by the deities. There is also mention of an Ama no hashidate (Heaven-bridge-erection) which is distinguished by Hirata from the "Pillar of Heaven." He thinks the former was a sort of pier used by the Rock-boat of Heaven. A spit of land two miles long and 190 feet broad near Miyadzu in Tango is now called by this name.[69]
Ame, or the firmament, where the Gods live, is to be distinguished from Oho-sora, the Great Void, which is the space between heaven and earth.
Izanagi's ablutions (harahi)[70] represent a wide-spread rite. They remind us of Juno's lustration by Iris after a visit to Hades, and of Dante's immersion in Lethe when he had completed his ascent through Purgatory and was preparing for admission to the circles of Paradise. Alcestis, after her rescue by Herakles from Thanatos, had to be purified, and was not allowed to speak for three days. We have in the Japanese myth the counterpart of a custom described by Chinese travellers to Japan centuries before the Kojiki and Nihongi were written. It was then, we are informed, the practice, when the funeral was over, for the whole family of the deceased to go into the water and wash. Lustration is a wide-world practice,[71] and the myth was clearly suggested by it, not vice versâ.
Izanagi's career having come to an end, he built himself an abode of gloom in the island of Ahaji, where he dwelt in silence and concealment. Another account says that he ascended to Heaven, where he dwelt in the smaller Palace of the Sun.
It will be observed that Izanagi was not immortal, and that he did not go to Yomi when he died.
Susa no wo.--The mythical narrative now turns to the doings of the Sun-Goddess and her brother Susa no wo (the rainstorm personified).
Susa no wo, before proceeding to take up his charge as Ruler of the Nether Region, ascended to Heaven to take leave of his elder sister, the Sun-Goddess. By reason of the fierceness of his divine nature there was a commotion in the sea, and the hills and mountains groaned aloud as he passed upwards. The Sun-Goddess, in alarm, arrayed herself in manly garb, and confronted her brother[72] wearing her royal necklace of jewels, and armed with sword and bow and arrows. The pair stood face to face on opposite sides of the River of Heaven.[73] Susa no wo then assured his sister of the purity of his intentions, and proposed to her that they should each produce children by biting off and crunching parts of the jewels and swords which they wore and blowing away the fragments.[74] Eight children born in this way were worshipped in after times as the Hachôji, or eight princely children. They figure largely in the Shôjiroku genealogies of Japanese noble families. Through one of them, named Masa-ya-a-katsu-kachi-haya-hi-ama-no-oshi-ho-mi-mi, the Mikados trace their descent from the Sun-Goddess. A-Katsu means I conquer. The allusion is to Susa no wo's having triumphantly proved the purity of his intentions by producing male children.[75]
Susa no wo's subsequent proceedings were very rude and unseemly. He broke down the divisions between the rice-fields belonging to his sister, sowed them over again, let loose in them the piebald colt of Heaven, and committed nuisances in the hall where she was celebrating the solemn festival of first-fruits. The climax to his misdeeds was to flay a piebald colt of Heaven with a backward flaying and to fling it into the sacred weaving-hall where the Sun-Goddess was engaged in weaving the garments of the deities. She was so deeply indignant at this last insult that she entered the Rock-cave of Heaven and left the world to darkness.