Japanese Pantheon
Izanagi
Also known as Izanagi-no-Mikoto
- creation
- life
- sky
Male primordial deity who, with Izanami, created the Japanese islands and many kami. After Izanami's death, he performed the first purification ritual.
About Izanagi
Izanagi, who stirred the sea
Izanagi-no-Mikoto, with Izanami, is commanded to make land. Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, he dips the jeweled spear Ame-no-Nuboko into the brine. The drops that fall harden into Onogoro, the first island. The pair then circumambulate a pillar, give birth to the islands of Japan and to many kami, and set the pattern of male and female speech that later texts still argue about.
Yomi and the breaking
Izanami dies bearing the fire kami Kagutsuchi. Izanagi follows her to Yomi, lights a torch, and sees her decaying body. She pursues him in rage; he blocks the pass with a boulder. She vows to kill a thousand people a day. He answers that he will cause one thousand five hundred to be born.
Purification
Washing in the river at Awagihara, he produces further kami from his soiled garments and from the water itself. From his left eye Amaterasu, from his right Tsukuyomi, from his nose Susanoo. Shinto purification rites still point back to that washing: pollution is real, and it can be rinsed into new gods.
Origin story
Izanagi and Izanami were commanded to solidify and create land. Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, Izanagi thrust his spear into the chaos. Drops fell and formed the first island.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Izanagi
After leaving Yomi he washed in the sea, and the sun, moon, and storm were born from that washing. Shrine Shinto still treats misogi and harae as the working form of that story. He is invoked as a kami of beginnings and of making things clean, not as a distant creator who left.
Sacred sites
- Izanagi Jingu on Awaji, tied to the island-birth cycle
- Shrines that keep the Izanagi-ryu of ritual purification in western Japan
Festivals
- Shinto harae and misogi
- New-year purification
Family
Relationship sources
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) — Izanagi spouse of Izanami: Divine couple who created Japan
O no Yasumaro · Basil Hall Chamberlain, A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki (1882; reprinted May 1919); Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription · Kojiki, Volume I, Section V (Birth of the Eight Islands)
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) — Izanagi spouse of Izanami: Divine couple who created Japan
O no Yasumaro · Basil Hall Chamberlain, A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki (1882; reprinted May 1919); Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription · Kojiki, Volume I, Section IV (Courtship of the Deities The Male-Who-Invites and the Female Who-Invites)
O no Yasumaro · Basil Hall Chamberlain, A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki (1882; reprinted May 1919); Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription · Kojiki, Volume I, Section X (The Purification of the August Person)
O no Yasumaro · Basil Hall Chamberlain, A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki (1882; reprinted May 1919); Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription · Kojiki, Volume I, Section X (The Purification of the August Person)
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) — Izanagi parent of Susanoo: Susanoo born from Izanagi's nose
O no Yasumaro · Basil Hall Chamberlain, A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki (1882; reprinted May 1919); Internet Sacred Text Archive transcription · Kojiki, Volume I, Section X (The Purification of the August Person)
In the atlas
Where Izanagi appears
Artifacts
In the museums
Izanagi in art
Real objects in public collections, released into the public domain by the museums that hold them. Dates refer to when each object was made. Objects made within the tradition come first, later depictions after.
(opens the museum record)Later depiction
The God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami (opens the museum record)
An Edo-period hanging scroll the museum titles The God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami, depicting the primordial couple credited in Shinto myth with creating the islands of Japan.
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 (trans. Chamberlain), Sect. X
Appears in
Ancient and classical works featuring this figure.
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters)
The Male-Who-Invites, creator who churned the islands of Japan and journeyed to the underworld of Yomi (Chapters 3-10)
Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan)
Primordial male deity whose ritual dialogues established ancient customs of marriage and purification (Age of the Gods, Book I)
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.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
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Genealogy
Family tree
Izanagi's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.