other · mythology

Kojiki — Record of Ancient Matters

712 CE (written); oral tradition much older · Early Japanese (Nara Period) · Japan

The Age of the Gods — Creation of the Islands

1Before heaven and earth were separated, and the In and Yo not yet divided,
2They formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits
3And contained germs.
4The purer and clearer part was thinly drawn out, and formed Heaven,
5While the heavier and grosser element settled down and became Earth.
6The finer element easily became a united body, but the consolidation of the heavy and gross element was accomplished with difficulty.
7Heaven was therefore formed first, and Earth was established subsequently.
8The names of the Heavenly Deities who came into existence in the Plain of High Heaven were:
9First: The Master of the August Centre of Heaven.
10Next: The High Creator.
11Next: The Divine Creator.
12These three Deities were all Deities born alone, and hid their persons.
13Izanagi and Izanami — the Male Who Invites and the Female Who Invites —
14Were commanded by the heavenly deities to make, consolidate, and give birth to the drifting land.
15Giving them the Heavenly Jewelled Spear, the heavenly deities entrusted the mission to them.
16So Izanagi and Izanami, standing upon the Floating Bridge of Heaven,
17Pushed down the Jewelled Spear and stirred with it, whereupon,
18When they had stirred the brine till it went curdle-curdle,
19And drew the spear up, the brine that dripped down from the end of the spear
20Was piled up and became an island.
21This is the Island of Onogoro.

Izanami's Death and the Underworld

22Hereupon Izanami gave birth to the deity of fire, whereat she suffered such burns
23That she sickened and lay down.
24The words that she spoke as she lay in the sickness of death:
25Ah! my darling, my lovely young lord!
26It has come at last — this passing away.
27So she passed away.
28And Izanagi was disconsolate,
29And lay weeping and wailing round her bed.
30Then Izanagi descended to Hades to bring back Izanami.
31When he arrived, Izanami came out from the hall.
32"My lovely lord," said she, "enter not in, for I have already eaten of the cooking-furnace of Hades."
33But Izanagi, torchlight in hand, entered to see her.
34And what he saw was maggots swarming, and the sound of thunder rolling in the body of Izanami.
35He fled in terror.
36Then Izanami was enraged: "He has shamed me!"
37She sent the shikome — the ugly females of Hades — to pursue him.
38He threw down his black head-dress, and it became grapes, which they stopped to eat.
39He threw his comb, and it became bamboo shoots, which they stopped to eat.
40And he escaped.

Amaterasu and Susanoo

41When Izanagi washed his left eye, Amaterasu the Great Divinity Illuminating Heaven was born.
42When he washed his right eye, Tsukuyomi, Lord of the Moon, was born.
43When he washed his nose, Susanoo, the Impetuous Male, was born.
44And Izanagi gave sovereignty over the sun to Amaterasu,
45Sovereignty over the night to Tsukuyomi,
46And sovereignty over the sea to Susanoo.
47But Susanoo wept and howled with a wailing that shook mountains and made seas dry up.
48He said: "I desire to go to the Nether Land where my deceased mother is."
49And so Izanagi, enraged, expelled him.
50Susanoo went to his sister Amaterasu to bid farewell.
51And Amaterasu, suspicious of her wild brother, met him armed.
52But they exchanged gifts — jewels for sword —
53And from the jewels and sword, children were born.
54Yet Susanoo, in his wildness, destroyed the rice paddies his sister had made,
55Defiled her weaving hall, and threw a flayed horse through the roof.
56Amaterasu, in grief and anger, hid herself in a cave of heaven.
57And the world became dark. Evil spirits rioted.
58Eight million gods assembled to lure her out.
59They placed a great tree before the cave, hung jewels on it,
60And the goddess Ame-no-Uzume danced wildly, baring herself,
61And the eight million gods laughed.
62Amaterasu, curious about the laughter, peeped out —
63And the gods pulled her out, and light returned to the world.

notes

The Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters") is Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled in 712 CE under the orders of Emperor Tenmu and completed in the reign of Empress Genmei. It records Japanese mythology from the creation of the islands through the reign of Empress Suiko (628 CE). The first book, describing the Age of the Gods, is the foundational text of Shinto — the indigenous Japanese religion — and contains the creation myth of the islands of Japan by the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami, the birth of the gods from Izanagi's purification after his visit to the underworld, and the great myth of Amaterasu's retreat into the cave of heaven and the ruse by which she was brought back. The cosmology is strikingly parallel to other ancient mythologies: a primordial chaos, a separation of heaven and earth, a divine couple who create the world, a descent to the underworld, and a solar deity whose absence plunges the world into darkness. The Kojiki was written using Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds and words — an archaic and difficult system that only specialists could read until Motoori Norinaga's landmark commentary (1798). Translation after Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882). Public domain.

currently held: Shinpukuji Bunko, Nagoya (oldest manuscript, 1372 CE)

ShintoCreationJapaneseCosmologyUnderworld

related texts

The Prose Eddaother · c. 1220 CE (written); oral tradition much older

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