Japanese Pantheonweapon
Ame-no-Nuboko
- Land Creation
- Chaos Ordering
- Divine Authority
- Primordial Power
The Heavenly Jeweled Spear used by Izanagi and Izanami to churn the primordial sea and create the first Japanese islands. It is the divine tool of creation itself.
About Ame-no-Nuboko
Jeweled spear over the brine
The Kojiki has the heavenly gods give Izanagi and Izanami the ame-no-nuboko, the heavenly jeweled spear. From the Floating Bridge they stir the sea; the salt that drips curdles into Onogoroshima, first island. The Nihon Shoki keeps variants. It is a cosmogonic tool, then gone from the narrative. No shrine displays the spear. The gesture is the myth: heaven's jewel-spear, dripping land. Later scenic identifications of the Floating Bridge are not the object itself.
Origin
Given to the primal divine couple by the older heavenly gods to bring order to the chaos below the heavens.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Kojiki
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
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