Japanese Mythology
Japanese Creation Myth: The Story of Izanagi and Izanami
Tasked by their primordial elders, the lovers Izanagi and Izanami were tasked with taming the chaos of the world and gave birth to many of Japan’s most important deities.
The world was young, floating like oil in a vast and empty cosmos. Earth swirled around itself, sunken in silence and chaos, drifting through the endlessness as a jellyfish drifts through the sea. Seven generations of kami had formed since the creation of the universe; the Age of Gods was coming to an end.
The zōka sanshin—Amenominakanushi, Takamimusubi, and Kamimusubi—the ‘three kami of creation’ resided in Takamagahara, the world of Heaven; formless and ethereal, the three primordial gods came into existence singularly and created the realms of Heaven and Earth.
Following them came the Kamiyonanayo. The first two generations of Kamiyonanayo were, like their precursors, hitorigami; they came into being alone. The five final generations of Kamiyonayo, however, came into being in pairs of opposite sex, siblings and spouses at the same time.
The last of the Kamiyonanayo were Izanagi and Izanami. From Takamagahara, the two stood on the…
