Izanami

The Goddess of the Land of the Dead (Art from Green willow and other Japanese fairy tales)

### Aliases

Izanami-no-Mikoto, Izanami-no-Kami, She-Who-Invites, Queen of Yomi, Goddess of Creation and Death, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, Goddess of Death, the Embodiment of Creation and Death

### Affiliation

Takamagahara, Yomi (Personal Realm), Kamiyonanayo

## Physical Description

### Spirit of

Creation, Death, the Dead, Motherhood, Femininity, Earth

## Relatives

### Offspring

Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Ebisu, Kagu-tsuchi, Raijin, Fujin, Amatsu-Mikaboshi (Dark self)

**Izanami-no-Mikoto**, simply known as **Izanami**, is the deity who is the twin-sister and wife of Izanagi. She is the co-creator deity of Japan venerated by Shintoists and mother of many deities. After her death, she became the goddess of the underworld in this case being the realm of Yomi.

## Overview

Izanami is the Goddess of Creation and Motherhood, being the mother goddess of the Shinto pantheon and the co-founder of the universe and Earth, having brought order to the planet along with Izanagi using the Amenonuhoko, a powerful spear forged in the Heavens, with the blood of the creator deity Izanagi.

Izanami is the wife and twin sister of Izanagi, with her being the female creative principle and her husband the male creative principle, both of whom are creative forces that shaped the world and are considered the father and mother of planet earth. She is also an Demiurge and the mother of Amaterasu, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi and Kagu-tsuchi.

## Appearance

In her original appearance, she was a beautiful woman with fair, delicate skin and long, dark hair. Her beauty was such that she even enchanted her twin brother, Izanagi, who also had great beauty, with the two relating to each other.

Izanami's common appearance in ancient times was that of a young Japanese woman, with short graying hair, fair skin and bloodshot eyes. Izanami's appearance was rather thin, though curvy, giving her a more androgynous appearance. Her clothes were usually white tunics with red accents. When Izanami fell and became a "demon", her appearance changed drastically, with his body now rotting and having several open wounds with maggots and insects crawling in them, giving her a corpse-like appearance, with eight thunders coming out of her body, giving her a hideous and frightening appearance in contrast to her former goddess beauty.

As a "demon", Izanami manifests as a frightening and sinister woman, with pale skin representing death, with dark hair and eyes with black sclera and golden irises, possessing an attractive and mature figure. Her clothes are in the same Japanese style, like a kimono, but very worn, with several rips in the clothes exposing her skin. In her current human form, Izanami appears as a beautiful fair-skinned woman with very long black hair, possessing a very attractive figure even by the standards of pagan gods of beauty such as Asherah or Aphrodite. Her outfit consists of a white or red kimono.

## History

### Creation of the World

The first gods Kunitokotachi and Amenominakanushi summoned two divine beings into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and charged them with creating the first land. To help them do this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear decorated with jewels, named Amenonuhoko (heavenly spear). The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Ame-no-ukihashi ("floating bridge of heaven"), and churned the sea below with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the spear, Onogoro was created. They descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island.

Izanami helped stir the oceans on the Bridge of the Heavens, and settled down with Izanagi on Earth during the year 60,000,000 BCE, along with other gods such as Zeus, Odin, El, Brahma, among others, with the pair of twin gods settling in the east, more specifically in the region where present-day Japan is located, on their island.

### Marriage and Children

Eventually they wished to be wed, so they built a pillar called Ame-no-mihashira ("pillar of heaven") and around it they built a palace called Yahiro-dono. Izanagi and Izanami circled the pilla r in opposite directions and, when they met on the other side, Izanami spoke first in greeting. Izanagi did not think that this was proper, but they mated anyhow. They had two children, Hiruko ("leech-child"), who later came to be known in Shintoism as the god Ebisu, and Awashima, but they were born deformed and were not considered deities.

They put the children into a boat and set them out to sea, then petitioned the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They were told that the male deity should have spoken first in greeting during the marriage ceremony. So Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, this time Izanagi speaking first when they met, and their marriage was finally successful.

### Izanami's Death

Izanagi and Izanami lived peacefully for thousands of years but all that changed when Izanami gave birth to Hi-no-Kagutsuchi. The flames her newborn son emitted burned her to the point that she died, devastating her husband. Izanagi , furious and grieving, killed Kagutsuchi, creating dozens of deities in the process. He then buried his wife on Mt. Hiba.

After her death, Izanami went to Yomi, the Japan version of Hell. As she ate from its furnace, she was trapped in Shinto Hell. Desperate for freedom, she went to ask the deities from the Netherworld to allow her to leave Hell.

### Izanagi's Failure

When Izanagi went to get his wife, she made her husband promise not to look at her, while she was occupied. However, while Izanami was sleeping, Izanagi disobeyed by taking the comb that bound his long hair and set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, Izanagi was greeted by the sight of the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami with the Eight Thunders protruding from her body. She was now a rotting corpse of flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her ravaged body. Crying out loud, the scared Izanagi could no longer control his fear which caused his death-ridden wife to wake up.

He was scared by his wife's appearance and left Yomi.

Izanami, ashamed and angered by Izanagi’s actions, send Yomotsu-Shikomes and Yomotsu-Ikusas after him, causing him to seal the entrance of Yomi with a boulder.

After that day, Izanami cursed the Earth, vowing to kill 1,000 living beings every day, with Izanagi responding to his wife's threat by saying that every day he would create 1,500 more living beings, and thus their marriage was over.

Eventually, Izanami became Yomotsugami, the goddess who rules the Land of the Dead.