Izanami

Izanami (Izanami-no-Mikoto, venerated in Shinto annals under the divine characters 伊邪那美命 or 伊奘冉尊) is the primordial mother goddess of Japanese cosmogony, co-creator of the Japanese archipelago and eternal sovereign queen of the netherworld (Yomi-no-Kuni). Descending from the heavens alongside her brother and consort Izanagi-no-Mikoto, she stirred the primeval oceanic chaos with the jeweled spear Ame-no-Nuboko and conducted the foundational nuptial circumambulation around the Heavenly Pillar on Onogoroshima. While their initial courtship produced the imperfect leech-child Hiruko because Izanami broke ceremonial decorum by speaking first, their properly reenacted ritual brought forth the eight ancestral island provinces of Japan (Oyashima-kuni) and a multitude of benevolent kami inhabiting mountains, oceans, mists, and trees. Her glorious era of procreation ended in catastrophe when giving birth to the elemental fire god Kagutsuchi fatally scorched her entrails, though even from her agonizing death throes she gave birth to essential deities of metalworking, pottery, and freshwater springs. Following her demise into the subterranean caverns of Yomi, she ate the food from the hearth of the dead (yomotsu hegui) and assumed the shadowy throne of the netherworld. When Izanagi violated his solemn promise and illuminated her decomposing form swarming with maggots and thunder deities, Izanami pursued him in divine wrath to the boundary of Yomotsu Hirasaka, where the former lovers severed their cosmic bond across the great boulder Chibiki-no-Iwa, forever balancing daily mortal deaths against daily human births.

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

The land of the dead Yomi, the fire that killed her and the sealing boulder

Primary sources

• O no Yasumaro (comp.) / Basil Hall Chamberlain (trans.), The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters (Book 1, Sections 3–9). 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
• Kadobe no Omi and Miyake no Omi Kanatari / Michiko Y. Aoki (trans.), Izumo no Kuni Fudoki (in Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki). translation: Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki, Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, 1997. 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
• 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
• Daniel Clarence Holtom, The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1938. open