Izanami's Death and the Separation of the World (Izanagi's Purification)
In giving birth to the fire god Kagutsuchi, Izanami is burned and dies [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗. Izanagi descends to the Land of Yomi to bring her back; finding her decayed and attended by the 'devils of rotting,' he flees, and the two are separated at the threshold—the mythic origin of the divide between the clean world of the living and the polluted realm of the dead [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗. Fleeing to the world of the living, Izanagi performs a ritual purification (misogi), washing his body; from his washed body-parts a series of kami are born, and the separation is made permanent [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗. This is the foundational myth of death, impurity (kegare), and purification in Japanese religion [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗[S2]S2 · *Nihon Shoki* ('Chronicles of Japan', 720 CE) — PRIMARY TEXT (annalistic + mythographic) — (translation: G. Cameron, 1968; see Internet Arch.
Shinto is a living religious tradition. These narratives are presented as the tradition's own mythic heritage, with the historical layers (Kojiki 712 CE, Nihon Shoki 720 CE, shrine engi) made visible. Modern state-Sinto and pop-culture readings are labeled separately from the primary texts.
The details of the Yomi episode—the 'hedge' of hedges, the exact point of no return, which body-parts birth which kami, and the sequence—differ between the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗[S2]S2 · *Nihon Shoki* ('Chronicles of Japan', 720 CE) — PRIMARY TEXT (annalistic + mythographic) — (translation: G. Cameron, 1968; see Internet Arch.
The Fire Birth
The Descent to Yomi
The Separation
The Purification
Variants of this story (2)
The full descent, the discovery of decay, the flight, the threshold-separation, and the purification with the birth of kami from the washed body-parts.
A related account with different wording of the descent, the separation point, and the subsequent purification.