First off, Japanese mythology is way, way, way (several more ways) too complicated to even begin to cover in detail here. But looking at the broad strokes: Folks will notice that much of Japanese mythology is tied to Japan’s geography and physical landscape. The creation of “the world” involves the creation of the Japanese islands, particularly standout natural features like mountains and caves associated with particular gods and events. And of course, biological life being what it is, creation started with sex. Plus there are generations of incest, infanticide, the underworld, some “she-devils,” eye washing that produced the moon, and … Listen, just roll with it, okay?
Japanese creation myth focuses on the male essence Izanagi and the female essence Izanami, who sexed existence into being and were also brother and sister. They pushed a spear down from the sky and into the ocean and “stirred the brine till it went curdle-curdle” to make Japan’s original landmass, per Sacred Texts. But, Izanami broke protocol by being the first to speak when they met, so their tryst wound up producing deformed children. They tried again the proper way, and presto: instant 14 islands of Japan. Some of these islands, it should be noted, were named things like Prince-Good-Boiled-Rice and Luxuriant-Sun-Youth.
Thus begins the birth of innumerable minor spirits, elemental gods like Kagutsuchi the fire god, the well-known sun goddess Amaterasu, and eventually the emperor, who was a living descendent of the gods. That’s quite a family reputation to live up to.
[Featured image by Welcome Images via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 4.0 DEED]
