Izanagi

The Creator of the Islands

Domain: Creation & Life
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Water
Relics of Power: Heavenly Spear Ame-no-Nuboko

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5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Japanese

Region

Japanese archipelago

Period

c. 500 BC – present

The kami of Shinto have been worshipped in Japan since time immemorial, in thousands of shrines across the archipelago. The imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the cult coexists with Buddhism brought from the mainland. Festivals (matsuri) and purification rites keep these beliefs alive to this day.

Matsuri fill the streets with processions of portable shrines (mikoshi), drums, and dances. The great shrine of Ise, dedicated to Amaterasu, is rebuilt every twenty years, and at hatsumode millions visit the shrines at New Year to ask for blessings.

At a glance

Izanagi (Izanagi-no-Mikoto, recorded in historical annals with the sacred characters 伊邪那岐命 or 伊奘諾尊) is the foundational primordial male deity of Shinto cosmogony, belonging to the seventh generation of primordial celestial spirits (Kamiyo Nanayo). Commissioned by the primordial heavenly deities to solidify the drifting earth and entrusted with the jewel-encrusted heavenly spear Ame-no-Nuboko upon the Floating Bridge of Heaven (Ame-no-Ukihashi), he stirred the primordial waters to form the seminal island of Onogoroshima. Together with his sister-consort Izanami-no-Mikoto, he performed the sacred nuptial circumambulation around the Heavenly Pillar (Ame-no-Mihashira), bringing forth the eight great islands of Japan (Oyashima-kuni) and a myriad of kami governing mountains, winds, oceans, and trees. Following Izanami's tragic death while giving birth to the fire deity Kagutsuchi, Izanagi descended into the shadowy subterranean realm of Yomi-no-Kuni to bring her back; however, upon breaking the funerary taboo by kindling a bamboo comb-tooth as a torch and beholding her decomposing flesh, he was pursued by subterranean furies and Izanami herself to the slope of Yomotsu Hirasaka, where he permanently sealed the boundary between the living and the dead with the immense boulder Chibiki-no-Iwa. Performing the inaugural water purification rite (misogi-harae) at the river mouth of Tachibana in Hyuga province to cleanse the death contamination (kegare), Izanagi generated numerous cleansing deities along with the Three Noble Children (Mihashira-no-uzu-no-miko): Amaterasu from his left eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye, and Susanoo from his nose, before retiring into his sacred dwelling on Awaji Island.

9 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The celestial spear, the floating bridge of heaven and the first island Onogoro

Family

Izanagi

Unions

Izanami

Children

KagutsuchiAmaterasu-Omikami (born from the washing of Izanagi's left eye)Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto (born from the washing of Izanagi's right eye)Susanoo-no-Mikoto (born from the washing of Izanagi's nose)Hiruko (the leech-child cast adrift after the flawed nuptial rite)Awashima (the flawed foam island of the first rite)

Genealogy according to Kojiki, Livro 1 (seções 3 a 11); Nihon Shoki, Livro 1; Kogo Shui; Engishiki (Livros 8 e 9-10)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

O no Yasumaro (comp.) / Basil Hall Chamberlain (trans.), The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters (Book 1, Sections 3–11). translation: Basil Hall Chamberlain, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Tokyo, 1919. read
Prince Toneri (comp.) / William George Aston (trans.), Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 (Book 1, Chapters 1 and 2). translation: William George Aston, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., London, 1896. read
Imbe no Hironari / Genchi Kato and Hikoshiro Hoshino (trans.), Kogoshui: Gleanings from Ancient Stories. translation: Genchi Kato and Hikoshiro Hoshino, Zaidan-Hojin-Meiji-Seitoku-Kinen-Gakkai, Tokyo, 1926. read
Court of Yamato (comp.) / Donald L. Philippi (trans.), Norito: A Translation of the Ancient Japanese Ritual Prayers (Engishiki, Book 8). translation: Donald L. Philippi, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990. read

Studies

William George Aston, Shinto: The Way of the Gods. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1905. open
Daniel Clarence Holtom, The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1938. open
Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1975. open
Helen Hardacre, Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press, New York, 2017. open

Name and epithets

The divine name Izanagi-no-Mikoto consists of classical Old Japanese elements meticulously investigated by Kokugaku nativist scholars, foremost among them Motoori Norinaga in his foundational commentary 'Kojiki-den'.

In the ancient sources

Kojiki (古事記), 712 CE. Japan's oldest extant dynastic and mythological chronicle compiled by O no Yasumaro, detailing the brine-stirring, the island births, the descent into Yomi, and the purification at Hyuga.

The myths

The Churning of the Chaos and the Formation of Onogoroshima. As recorded in the opening chapters of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the primeval deities dwelling in the High Plain of Heaven (Takamagahara) looked upon the na…

Worship and archaeology

The ritual framework of Shinto derives its most foundational doctrine from Izanagi through the institution of misogi-harae (ritual purification by water).

How the god was depicted

In classical Japanese religious art, emakimono handscrolls, and modern woodblock prints (such as works by Tosa school painters, Utagawa Kunisada, and Kobayashi Kiyochika), Izanagi is depicted as a regal, athletic chieft…

What scholars debate

. In modern academic scholarship and historical criticism (notably through the works of Tsuda Sokichi, Helen Hardacre, Nelly Naumann, and C.

After antiquity

The myth of Izanagi played an essential role in Japan's intellectual revival during the Edo period, when Kokugaku scholars such as Motoori Norinaga championed the narrative of the Kojiki as the ultimate expression of th…

Did you know?

The location of Izanagi-jingu on Awaji Island forms part of an intriguing geographic alignment known as the 'Izanagi Sun Line': a straight east-west line drawn through the shrine perfectly intersects the grand shrine of…

Codex relic

Heavenly Spear Ame-no-Nuboko. A jewel-encrusted halberd with which he stirred the primordial ocean and created the first island.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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