Episode 2She Begged Him Not to LookIzanagi and Izanami in Yomi, the Land of the Dead
Izanami dies after giving birth to the god of fire, and her husband Izanagi goes down to the land of the dead to bring her back. She asks him for one thing: don't look at her. He looks. With a great boulder between them, they trade vows of death and birth and part forever. Then, as Izanagi washes himself clean, the children of the sun, the moon and the storm are born.
Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi: The Kojiki Land of the Dead Myth
The Story in the Kojiki: Fire, Grief, and a Journey to Yomi
This myth comes from the first book of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by the court official Ō no Yasumaro in 712 CE. Izanagi and Izanami are the divine husband and wife who shaped the islands of Japan. After that, they go on to produce a long line of gods. Their last child is Kagutsuchi, the fire god, and his birth burns Izanami so badly that she falls ill. Even while she is sick, more gods are born from her vomit, feces and urine, including gods of metal, clay and water. Then she dies.
Izanagi crawls around her body weeping, grieving that he has traded his beloved wife for a single child. A goddess, Nakisawame, is born from his tears. He buries Izanami on Mount Hiba, on the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hōki. Then he draws his long sword and cuts off Kagutsuchi's head. Still more gods, including the thunder-and-sword god Takemikazuchi and eight mountain gods, spring from the blood and the body. The Kojiki never says why Izanagi kills his son. Retellings often call it rage or revenge, but that is a later interpretation, not something the text states.
The Forbidden Look and the Flight from Yomi
Izanagi follows his wife to Yomi, the land of the dead. She comes to meet him at the closed door of a hall, and he begs her to come back, because the land they were making together is not finished. Izanami is not cold to him. She says she wishes he had come sooner, because she has already eaten food cooked at the hearth of Yomi (yomotsu-hegui), which binds her to that world. Still, she wants to return, and she will ask the gods of Yomi for permission. She asks only one thing: while she is gone, he must not look at her.
She stays inside so long that Izanagi can't wait any longer. He breaks a tooth off the comb in his hair, lights it as a torch, and goes in. There he sees her body crawling with maggots, with eight thunder gods sitting on it, one each on her head, chest, belly, genitals, both hands and both feet. Terrified, he runs.
Izanami cries that he has shamed her and sends the Yomotsu-shikome, the hags of Yomi, after him. Izanagi throws down his vine headdress, which turns into wild grapes, and then comb teeth, which sprout into bamboo shoots. Each time, the hags stop to eat, and he gains ground. Next the eight thunder gods come after him with an army of 1,500 warriors of Yomi. He runs on, swinging his sword behind him. At the foot of the slope Yomotsu Hirasaka he picks three peaches from a tree there and strikes his pursuers with them, and they all flee. He thanks the peaches by giving them a divine name and asks them to help the people of the living world whenever they suffer.
The Boulder, the Vows, and the Birth of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo
Last of all, Izanami herself comes after him. Izanagi blocks the slope with a boulder so heavy that a thousand people would be needed to move it. Standing on either side of it, they formally end their marriage. Izanami vows to strangle a thousand of his people every day. Izanagi answers that he will then build fifteen hundred birthing huts every day. The Kojiki says this is why a thousand people die and fifteen hundred are born each day. Izanami becomes the Great Deity of Yomi, and the text identifies the slope with a real place in Izumo.
Feeling polluted by the foul land he has visited, Izanagi purifies himself in a river at Awagihara in Tsukushi, in Kyushu. He chooses a spot by noting that the upper current is too fast and the lower one too slow. Many gods are born from his discarded clothing and from the washing. Finally, washing his left eye produces Amaterasu, the sun deity. His right eye produces Tsukuyomi, the moon god, and his nose produces Susanoo, the storm god. Overjoyed, Izanagi gives Amaterasu his necklace and puts the three in charge of the High Plain of Heaven, the realm of night, and the sea.
What the Myth Means: Death, Pollution, and Purification
At its core this is a myth about where death comes from. In this story, mortality comes from a broken promise and a marriage ending across a boulder, and birth keeps a little ahead of death. It also expresses a strong concern with impurity: death and decay are polluting, and water washes that pollution away. Many scholars link Izanagi's washing to misogi, the ritual purification by water that is still part of Shinto practice.
Readers often compare the story to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where a forbidden look also loses the dead for good, and to the Persephone myth, where eating food in the underworld binds a person there. The peaches may reflect Chinese beliefs that peaches ward off evil, though this is one theory among several. Since the myth ends with the birth of Amaterasu, it also sets up the later Kojiki stories that trace the imperial line back to the sun deity.
What the Manga Adds or Changes
KOJIKI: Chronicle of the Gods follows the order of events in the Kojiki, but a comic has to show many things the text never describes. The original mostly lists names of gods. It says almost nothing about what anyone looks like, what Yomi looks like, or how the characters feel. The manga's designs for Izanagi and Izanami, the hags of Yomi, the thunder gods and the army are the artists' own creations. So are the look of Yomi and how graphic Izanami's decayed body appears. Items that do appear in the text, such as Izanagi's hair loops, comb, vine headdress and sword, are kept.
The manga also shortens the long lists of gods born before Izanami's death and during the purification. It interprets things the text leaves open, such as Izanagi's emotions when he kills Kagutsuchi, how long he waits, exactly how he uses the peaches, and what age the three noble children appear when they are born. When the manga shows these moments, treat them as dramatization rather than details from the original.
Where to Read It
The full original story is in the first book of the Kojiki, and several English translations are available if you want to read the source. For a visual way into the myth, Episode 2 of KOJIKI: Chronicle of the Gods tells the story from Izanami's death to the birth of the sun, the moon and the storm. All episodes on Manga Portal are free to read with no sign-up required. Start with Episode 1 for the creation of Japan, or continue on to see what Susanoo does next.
Characters in this episode
Izanagi
The male creator god who goes down to Yomi to bring his dead wife back, breaks his promise not to look at her, and later purifies himself in a river, giving birth to the sun, moon and storm deities.
Izanami
The female creator goddess who dies giving birth to the fire god, becomes the ruler of Yomi, and vows to take a thousand lives each day after Izanagi shames her.
Kagutsuchi, the fire god
Izanami's last child, whose birth causes her death; Izanagi beheads him, and many gods are born from his blood and body.
Yomotsu-shikome, the hags of Yomi
The first pursuers Izanami sends after Izanagi, who stop to eat the grapes and bamboo shoots that spring from the things he throws behind him.
The Eight Thunder Gods
Gods who sit on Izanami's decaying body and lead an army of 1,500 warriors of Yomi against Izanagi until the peaches drive them back.
Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo
The three noble children born from Izanagi's left eye, right eye and nose, who are given rule over heaven, the night and the sea.
FAQ
Why did Izanami go to the underworld?
Izanami died from burns she suffered giving birth to Kagutsuchi, the fire god. When she died, she went to Yomi, the land of the dead. Because she had already eaten food cooked in Yomi, she could not simply leave.
Why did Izanagi look at Izanami?
Izanami told him to wait and not look at her while she asked the gods of Yomi whether she could return. She stayed away so long that Izanagi lost patience. He lit a comb tooth as a torch and saw her rotting body, which had thunder gods sitting on it.
Who created Japan in mythology?
In the Kojiki, the islands of Japan were created by the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami. Afterward they gave birth to many gods of nature. Izanagi alone later produced Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo.
What is Yomi in Japanese mythology?
Yomi is the land of the dead in the Kojiki, a dark and polluted place. Its entrance, the slope Yomotsu Hirasaka, was sealed with a huge boulder by Izanagi. After that, Izanami ruled Yomi as its great deity.
How were Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo born?
After escaping Yomi, Izanagi washed himself in a river to remove the pollution of death. Amaterasu was born when he washed his left eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye, and Susanoo from his nose. He then gave them heaven, the night and the sea to rule.
