At the beginning of the world there was nothing.
Literally nothing except for Chaos, the void of which everything began. Japanese mythology doesn’t say if Chaos was a sentient being, but, one day something strange happened in the primordial soup. Particles appeared within Chaos and started moving around and creating something. From those particles came the universe, constantly expanding and soon they became the clouds and Takamagahara, the home of the gods. Finally, the rest of the particles came together and condensed into Earth.
During this time of creation, five primordial gods were created. The first three were Ame-no-Minakanushi (the Central Master), Takamimudubi (the god of agriculture), and Kamimusubi (the ancestral god of five grains). Then came Umashi-ashi-kabi-hikoji – the god of energy, who went into hiding the minute he came into being – and Ame-no-toko-tachi, the god of heaven, who also went into hiding.
I guess those two had social anxiety or acne and didn’t want to be seen.
They were called the Kotoamatsukami and were completely ambiguous and formless in appearance. The three remaining gods seemed pretty content just chilling out in Takamagahara, doing whatever formless gods do, but Chaos wasn’t done creating things just yet. Two more gods arose and settled in Takamagahara. Their names were Kuni-no-Tokotachi and Toyo-kumono. Kuni-no-Tokotachi was born of a reed that popped up between Heaven and Earth and this time he actually had a form. Toyo-kumono, however, rose out of nowhere and declared himself the god of the Seven Generations and thus the Quintet of the Most Unpronounceable Names was formed…plus the other two.
It might be at this point where you’re thinking, “Well, we have five gods plus two other gods with social anxiety. This seems like enough. No more gods.” Did I mention this is Japanese mythology? Of course, there were more than seven gods!
After a while, Kuni-no-Tokotachi must’ve gotten bored as he looked around Takamagahara. He saw three divine blobs floating around, his buddy Toyo-kumono, who actually looked like a human, and himself. Kuni-no-Tokotachi looked down at himself. He looked human – just like Toyo-kumono – and was obviously male, not ambiguous like the other three. He felt lonely with just the four other gods. We need more, he thought. So, getting to work, he started creating five pairs of gods.
Toyo-kumono walked up behind Kuni-no-Tokotachi as he worked, creating more gods, this time with definite genders and form. “Uh…watcha doing?” Toyo-kumono asked.
“Creating gods. We need more here,” Kuni-no-Tokotachi said.
“Why?”
“Well, think about it. This place is huge. There aren’t many gods here and the ones we do have are kinda…boring. They don’t do much and are kinda blobby. I intend to fix that.”
“Okay. I’ll help.”
So the two gods got to work, creating the pairs of gods. Soon, five gods and five goddesses were walking around Takamagahara, semi-confused and admiring their new forms. They were much better than just being blobs. The new gods had hands and feet and could actually do things. Kuni-no-Tokotachi admired his work. He pointed at each pair “Okay, I’m gonna name you two Uhijini and Suhijni; you guys Tsunuguhi and Ikuguhi; you can be Ōtonoji and Ōtonobe; Omodaru and Aya-kashiko-ne; Izanagi and Izanami. Yes. Those’ll be your names.”
“Uh, can’t we go with names like Bob, Billy, Martha, Mary, Fluffy…” Omodaru suggested.
“No, no, no. We’re going to go with the most divine sounding names I could think of off the top of my head,” Kuni-no-Tokotachi interrupted. “Now, come with me and I’ll introduce you to the other gods. I’m sure they’ll love you guys.”
The other gods met the newcomers and were immediately like, Why can’t I look like that and what is with your names? Even though the other gods were jealous of the newest additions to their group, they still accepted them in, even if they did hate trying to pronounce all those vowels. They would’ve preferred Bob, Billy, Martha, Mary and Fluffy. Now they would have to change their name from “The Quintet of the Most Unpronounceable Names” to “The Cardinal of the most Unpronounceable Names” and that just didn’t have the right ring to it.
For a while, the gods were pretty happy. They got to float around with more gods, look at what they created, and go, Okay, we’re good. No more creating stuff.
Then they got bored and started creating things again, though this time it wasn’t completely the idea of Kuni-no-Tokotachi.
This time, the first three gods had the bright idea of populating the Earth. They looked down from Takamagahara and thought that it was boring just having some random ball floating around in the cosmos with nothing interesting happening on it. They thought about how great it would be to have people who kinda looked like them sending offerings their way. What to do…
“Izanagi! Get over here!” Ame-no-Minakanushi yelled.
Izanagi ran over, ready to report for duty. He was a tall guy – muscular, handsome, and with long hair and a trimmed beard. “What’s up?”
“See that giant floating ball down there?” Ame-no-Minakanushi asked.
“Yeah.”
“Go populate it. Create humans, animals, whatever. Get creative.”
“Where will they live?”
“See that island chain down there? Kind of small; easy to miss.”
“Yep.”
“That’s Nippon.”
“Okay.”
“Go populate it. Take your sister with.”
“Izanami?”
“Yes. You’re both creative types. Now go.”
“Do I get anything to create stuff with?”
Ame-no-Minakanushi sighed. He liked these new gods, but they could be dense sometimes. He tried to wave his hand before realizing he didn’t have hands. A magical spear appeared. It was imbedded with magic jewels and inscriptions. The tip was completely gold and the shaft was made out of polished pine wood. “There. That should help you,” he said.
Izanagi grabbed it and immediately was filled with a sense of newfound power. He had the ability to create life itself. He could create entire valleys, rivers, anything he wanted. “Sweet,” he muttered.
“Now go,” Ame-no-Minakanushi said.
“I’m going.” Izanagi rushed off to get Izanami and get to work.
The two crossed the Celestial Bridge between Takamagahara and Earth and arrived on the sacred island of Onodoro, the first island in the Japanese archipelago. “Wow,” Izanami said. “This place needs some help.”
The ground was completely barren and dry. It was dusty and quiet, with absolutely no animals living there. The wind blew some dirt into the gods’ faces. Izanagi picked up a handful of dry dirt. There were some rocks and that was it. Even the rocks didn’t have anything super interesting about them. They were as dull and grey as the dirt around them. “Yeah…we have a lot of work to do,” Izanagi agreed.
The two started the layout of how they wanted the islands to look, with Izanagi drawing the design in the dirt as he and Izanami talked about how they wanted it to look. “Okay, so I’m thinking we can do some pine trees along the coast….” Izanami dictated.
“Uh-huh,” Izanagi agreed.
“Maybe do a bunch of bamboo so the people can have something to make things out of.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Maybe create some mountains here, here, and here.”
“Okay.”
“Do you think we should create a bunch of fluffy creatures too?”
“Absolutely. Maybe some cute, fluffy dog-looking things with stripes.”
“Those would be so cute!”
“I know, right?!”
The two gods worked together in harmony, creating mountains and valleys, growing pine trees and bamboo, creating humans and adorable, fluffy dog-looking things with stripes. Finally, the job was done and Onodoro was fully populated. During that time however, Izanami had grown close – very close – to Izanagi. They both felt the same way for each other and Izanami decided to propose marriage to Izanagi and get cuddly.
It is at this point that you should feel free to run around screaming “EEEEWWWWW!” while washing your eyes out with iodine. “The two are siblings!” you might be saying. “That’s gross!”
To that I say: that was the way the ancient Japanese writers wrote it. They weren’t really concerned about divine incest.
Originally, Izanami planned to have divine children with Izanagi. She was hoping for little baby gods and goddesses who were super noble, because I guess 10 existing gods wasn’t enough. However, after she gave birth, she realized her plan had gone horribly wrong. Instead of having cute little baby gods and goddesses, she had accidently given birth to deformed beings. The couple set the children out to sea and petitioned the other gods as to what they did wrong.
Now, if I were the gods I would’ve said, “You played hanky-panky with your sibling. That’s why your kids are deformed. You’re not supposed to do that! What’s wrong with you people?”
Instead, the gods told them that their children were deformed because Izanami had been the one to propose, not Izanagi, therefore distorting the union. Upon hearing that news, Izanagi immediately rushed to do things the right way – the right way being proposing to Izanami and not the other way around. Izanami said yes and a few months later she gave birth to the next generation of gods and created the rest of the island chain of Japan.
Now we should be done creating gods right. Izanami and Izanagi are married (gross), they have kids, so a bunch of new baby gods and goddesses are running around, and everyone’s happy right?
Wrong.
Izanami wanted to have even more noble children, so one day, she went up to Izanagi and said, “Honey, you know how we have a bunch of noble children right now?”
“Yeah. I think if we were to go back to Takamagahara right now, the other gods would hate us because it’d be so cramped.”
“Yes, well, I think we should try again. One last time maybe. To have the most divine child (or children) out of all of them.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Sure. What could possibly go wrong?”
Something did go wrong. Horribly wrong. Izanami was right about it being the last time having kids.
When she was pregnant, it was clear something was wrong from the start. She almost always seemed very pale and sweaty. She wasn’t as lively or energetic as she used to be. When the time came for her to give birth, she gave birth to Kagu-tsuchi, the god of fire. However, when Kagu-tsuchi was born, Izanami was severely burned and died. Izanagi was so heartbroken and angry that he killed Kagu-tsuchi, thus creating a bunch more deities.
He buried Izanami’s body on Mt. Hiba before going out and looking for her soul. He traveled to Yomi, the Japanese underworld, knowing that her spirit would be there. As long as she hadn’t done anything stupid like eating the fruit of Yomi, she’d be able to leave and still be with Izanagi to help raise the scads and scads of children they had.
Izanagi traveled through the depths of Yomi and didn’t like it in the slightest. The place was corrupt and evil. It smelled like dead things, and bugs were everywhere. Monsters lurked behind every corner. Finally, he found Izanami, but something was off. She was looking down, and her skin was pale and…was it moving? Izanagi turned the light of the lantern to Izanami and screamed like a little girl. Izanami was in an advanced process of decomposing. Maggots and worms burrowed their way through her eye sockets and skin. Pieces of flesh were rotting off of her. She had eaten the fruit of Yomi and it had destroyed her divine purity. She turned her head up at Izanagi and he screamed even louder before running out of there as fast as she could.
Outraged that her husband would leave her, Izanami chased after him and sent monsters as revenge. With his dead wife and hundreds of monsters on his heels, Izanagi got out of Yomi and blocked the exit with a boulder, creating a separation between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Izanami ran smack-dab into the boulder and screamed “If you leave me, I’ll make sure a thousand people die every day!”
“And I’ll bring 1,500 back every day!” Izanagi screamed back, before running away from the entrance of Yomi.
Izanagi headed to the nearest body of water to perform a ritualistic cleansing. He felt dirty from his time in Yomi and needed time to think. He took off his clothes and got in. As he bathed, the first kami and yokai were created as well as something else. While bathing, Izanagi was crying, and somehow the tears from his left eye created a goddess. Her name was Amaterasu, and she was the brightest goddess Izanagi had ever seen. The tears from his right eye created Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, who wasn’t as bright as his sister, but still glowed and had a certain charm about him. From Izanagi’s snot came the youngest brother, who was named Susanoo. Maybe that was the noise Izanagi made when he sneezed him out and everyone else said, That’s your name now.
Izanagi looked on at his Three Noble Children. They all just stood there, processing what was going on. Amaterasu looked around her and thought, How did I get here?
Tsukuyomi had similar thoughts, though his main one was: Does my sister have an off switch. Too bright!
Then there was Susanoo, the youngest, looking at his two older siblings and thinking: I literally got sneezed out of my dad’s nose. I will never live this down.
Izanagi quickly got dressed and explained what was going on to his newest children. They were still confused, but at least had some idea of what was happening. They listened as their father explained that he was going back to Takamagahara, but before he did that, he assigned them specific roles. Amaterasu was to be the goddess of the sun, which made sense given she was the brightest and the most beautiful. Tsukuyomi became the moon god, which he was pretty happy with. The moon wasn’t too bright, and he’d still get a nice gig with his sister, who he was close with. Susanoo, on the other hand, got the sea, which he wasn’t too happy about. How come they get the cool jobs? he thought.
To top it all off, Izanagi quickly got his spear and plucked all the gems off it before putting it on a string and giving it to Amaterasu. “You’re now the ruler of all the other gods, dear daughter.”
“I was literally just born,” she said.
“You’ll do great. I’ll try to visit you, so until then…bye!” Izanagi said before he crossed the Celestial Bridge and went back to Takamagahara, leaving Amaterasu to be the new ruler of the gods and from her came a great line of emperors and heroes.
The Tanuki Corner 
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