Izanami-no-Mikoto

Author: O no Yasumaro

Time Period: 501 CE–1000 CE; 1851 CE–1900 CE

Country or Culture: Japan

Genre: Legend

Overview

The Japanese legend of “Izanami-no-Mikoto”credits the female spirit, or deity, of Izanami no Mikoto with the creation of the islands of Japan and many of its kami, or fellow spirits, together with her male counterpart, Izanagi no Mikoto. Contemporary scholars have argued that this legend represents the point where the original Japanese creation myth begins.

In “Izanami-no-Mikoto,” the heroine, Izanami, comes into being at the same time as her male counterpart, Izanagi no Mikoto. Together, they stand on the heavenly bridge overlooking a swirling mass below. With a divine, jeweled spear, they stir the ocean beneath them. With this, they create the island on which they come to live.

Now the male deity turning to the left, and the female deity by the right, they went round the pillar of the land separately. When they met together on one side, the female deity spoke first and said:—”How delightful! I have met with a lovely youth.” The male deity was displeased, and said:-”I am a man, and by right should have spoken first. . . . This was unlucky. Let us go round again.”

Upon this the two deities went back, and having met anew, this time the male deity spoke first, and said:—”How delightful! I have met a lovely maiden.”

Nihongi

Izanami and Izanagi marry on the island in a carefully designed ceremony. At their wedding ceremony, however, Izanami, the woman, speaks before Izanagi, the man. This upsets propriety and has different consequences in different versions of the legend. Izanami and Izanagi then repeat their marriage ceremony in the correct order of speaking. They procreate and begin to fill the world with more islands and more kami, as well as a human child.

When Izanami gives birth to the kami of fire, she dies in childbirth. Distraught, Izanagi follows her into Yomi, the land of the dead. Izanami greets him but tells him he is too late, as she has eaten already the food of Yomi, the land of the dead. She implores him not to look at her, but Izanagi disobeys. When he lights a part of his comb for a view, he is horrified to see his wife’s rotting corpse. Enraged at being seen in such a state, Izanami turns on Izanagi and sends eight ferocious, ugly females after him. Their relationship ends in a climactic dispute with severe consequences for emerging humanity.

“Izanami-no-Mikoto” is presented in the two oldest existing works of Japanese literature and historiography. Working from both oral and written sources that no longer exist, Japanese nobleman O no Yasumaro wrote the Kojiki, or Record of Ancient Matters, in 710 CE. He did this in response to a request from Empress Gemmei, who asked for a true record of Japan’s history. This history includes later the genealogy of the emperors and noble families in the text following what is now considered the mythical era of spirits like Izanami no Mikoto.

Around 714, Empress Gemmei asked for another history of Japan, with a stronger focus on the emperors. This task was accomplished under the leadership of Prince Toneri, a half brother of the empress. Prince Toneri, working with O no Yasumaro as well, opened his work with the creation of the world. Known as Nihongi (Japanese chronicles) or Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), this work included an expanded version of the legend of “Izanami-no-Mikoto,” including the texts of many variants of the legend. In 1882, English Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain presented his translation of the Kojiki before the Asiatic Society of Japan; he published his translation in Kobe, Japan, in 1919. In 1977, Donald Philippi translated the Kojiki again. The Nihongi was translated and published in English in 1896, by British diplomat William George Aston. This work contains the most elaborate form of “Izanami-no-Mikoto” and is used as the source text for this analysis.

An analysis grounded in new historicism, cultural criticism, and archetypal criticism illustrates how the legend was transcribed and published at a critical moment in the Yamato period of Japan. At the time, the ruling elite of the nation sought to transcribe its own history and present it in part according to the older Chinese model of historiography. This analysis distinguishes the Japanese from the Chinese elements by following the annotations of the English translators and the work of contemporary scholars of the source texts. An archetypal analysis looks at the creation myth and the quest story after Izanami’s untimely death, while also examining its consequences for human society. Finally, a feminist analysis looks at the character of Izanami from both traditional Japanese and contemporary perspectives.

Summary

Both the Kojiki and the Nihongi agree that the female kami Izanami no Mikoto and the male kami Izanagi no Mikoto were created in a pair at the same time. They were the seventh generations of kami—Japanese spirits or deities—brought into being at the beginning of the universe. Because Izanami and Izanagi came into existence at the same time, they are often referred to as “sister” and “brother.” This, however, is more of a convention to indicate their generational closeness, rather than an exact biological reference.

The two spirits, Izanami and Izanagi, find themselves “on the floating bridge of Heaven” looking at a floating mass below (Aston 10). Their names can be translated as meaning “female-who-invites” and “male-who-invites” (6). Yet translator William George Aston suspects that this is a false folk etymology. Instead, their names, for Aston, are a reference to a real geographical location: Iza in Japan.

As Izanami and Izanagi stand on the heavenly bridge, in the Kojiki, they are commanded by the higher heavenly deities to act. In the Nihongi, they act out of curiosity by themselves. In both versions, they “thrust down the jewel-spear of Heaven” and together stir the mass below (11). When the saltwater of the ocean drips from their spear and coagulates, it creates the island of Ono-goro-jima. Izanami and Izanagi decide to live on this new island and become husband and wife. For their marriage ceremony, they erect a pillar, either in the middle of the island (Nihongi) or in the middle of their house (Kojiki). They perform a marriage ceremony in which they both circle the pillar in opposite directions. Izanami speaks first, though, creating a problem as the proper gender order has been violated.

In the Kojiki, and in the variants recorded in the Nihongi, the couple’s first child is born deformed because of this act. It is called a leech-child, born without extremities, and the parents send it away on the ocean in a reed boat. Later Japanese tradition turns the child into the kami and Buddhist deity of Ebisu.

In the main version of the Nihongi, Izanagi objects immediately to Izanami’s speaking first at their wedding, and they repeat the ceremony with him speaking first. Because they correct their wedding ceremony mistake immediately, Izanami and Izanagi successfully produce many islands through their mating. Eventually, they set themselves to the task of producing kami themselves. Their first creation is the sun kami Amaterasu Omikami, whom they create together. However, in the Kojiki and in the variant versions the Nihongi quotes as well, the correct wedding ceremony is performed only after the leech-child is born, and the sun kami has not yet been created. In both versions, the creation of islands comes before the creation of kami.

Tragedy strikes when Izanami gives birth to Kagu tsuchi, the kami of fire. His birth burns her so severely that she dies, even though she is a kami. Distraught, Izanagi “crawl[s] at her head, and crawl[s] at her feet, weeping and lamenting” (Aston 23). Angry with the child who caused his beloved wife’s death, Izanagi cuts Kagu tsuchi in three parts with his sword. Thereupon each part of the dead child becomes a spirit, or god, itself. The blood dripping from Izanami’s sword creates the rocks believed to lie in the bed of the Milky Way. The blood creates more spirits as well.

Once Izanami is dead, Izanagi visits her in Yomi, the land of the dead. This is associated with night, and he talks to her in darkness. In a heartrending speech, Izanami indicates that things have changed for them: “My lord and husband, why is thy coming so late? I have already eaten of the cooking-furnace of Yomi. . . . I pray thee, do not thou look upon me” (Aston 24). Izanagi decides to defy this severe injunction. Lighting a tooth of his comb, he looks at Izanami. To his horror, he sees her decomposing corpse, where “putrefying matter had gushed up, and maggots swarmed” (23). While he is shocked, Izanami gives vent to her great anger born out of shame to be seen thus. Enraged, she sends “the eight Ugly Females of Yomi” to pursue him (25).

To aid his escape, Izanagi throws his black headdress to the ground, turning it into grapes, which the females devour, giving him some time ahead. Then, he throws down his comb. It changes into bamboo shoots, which provide another time-delaying meal for the women. Finally, Izanami herself appears, pursuing Izanagi.

Reaching the exit of the land of the dead, Izanagi pulls a heavy rock and positions it to block Izanami’s path out of Yomi. Facing each other across the blocking rock, Izanagi pronounces his divorce from Izanami. With utter politeness, Izanami utters her threat in response: “My dear Lord and husband, if thou sayest so, I will strangle to death the people of the country which thou doest govern, a thousand in one day” (Aston 25).To this, Izanagi replies that he will make sure his people bear fifteen hundred babies a day. He terminates their standoff by throwing down his staff, girdle, shirt, trousers, and shoes to bar Izanami’s passage from Yomi. Izanagi goes to a river to cleanse himself of the pollution of Yomi. Notwithstanding an earlier version of her creation before, the Nihongi follows the Kojiki and tells that when Izanagi washes his left eye, the sun kami Amaterasu is born. Two other kami follow.

With Izanami in Yomi, Izanagi assigns domains for his three spirit children. Sun kami Amaterasu is to rule over heaven, moon kami Tsuki-yomi to rule over the night, and the third child, Sosa no wo no Mikoto, to rule over the land. However, Sosa continually weeps and, when challenged by his father, he tells him he wants to follow his mother to Yomi. Angrily, Izanagi tells him to do so and casts him out.

With his part in creation and population of the universe finished, Izanagi retires. He builds himself a place on a remote island and lives there “in silence and concealment” (Aston 34).

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