Male primordial deity who, with Izanami, created the Japanese islands and many kami. After Izanami's death, he performed the first purification ritual.
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.
Primary Sources
Historical texts and references
“Nay! hideous! I have come to a hideous and polluted land,—I have! So I will perform the purification of my august person.”
Worship & Cult
How Izanagi was venerated in ancient times
Sacred Temples
•Izanagi Jingu on Awaji, tied to the island-birth cycle
•Shrines that keep the Izanagi-ryu of ritual purification in western Japan
Festivals & Celebrations
Shinto harae and misogiNew-year purification
Worship Practices
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.
