Japanese Myth 1A

THE UNDERWORLD

it’s been written that in the beginning the Gods created heaven and earth …the god Izanaki (Izanagi) and the goddess Izanami created the islands of Japan ( Izanaki (Izanagi) and his sister Izanami married, and bore the islands) and also other gods (deities).

Their fruitful union formed many great and powerful things until one day, when Izanami gave birth to the god of fire Kagutsuchi (fire deity), Izanami died from the burns.

Izanaki felt he could not live without his wife, so he went to the underworld to see her.
When he saw her, she said, “I already have eaten the food of the underworld, so I can’t come back to you. But since you are here to see me, I’ll ask the god of the underworld if I can go with you. You have to promise me one thing. Do not try to get a look at me until I come back here.” However, Izanaki could not wait and he went to the palace of the underworld. There he saw his wife’s dreadful body with worms crawling all over it, and the terrifying gods of thunder. Immediately Izanaki ran away and he used a big rock to block his wife from running after him. That is the rock which divides the underworld and this world.

this lower part is taken from wiki

Izanagi is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shintoism, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as “male who invites”, or Izanagi-no-mikoto.

He and his spouse Izanami bore many islands, deities, and forefathers of Japan. When Izanami died in childbirth, Izanagi tried (but failed) to retrieve her from Yomi (the underworld). In the cleansing rite after his return, he begot Amaterasu (the sun goddess) from his left eye, Tsukuyomi (the moon god) from his right eye, and Susanoo (tempest or storm god) from his nose. The story of Izanagi and Izanami has close parallels to the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it also has a major difference. When Izanagi looks prematurely at his wife, he beholds her monstrous and hellish state and she is shamed and enraged. She pursues him in order to kill him. She fails to do so, but promises to kill a thousand of his people every day. Izanagi retorts that a thousand and five hundred will be born every day.

There are similarities also between Izanami and Izanagi on the one hand, and the Mayan deities Itzamna and Ix Chel. Among the Maya as among the Yamato, the male god is a gentle deity, creator of the sun and moon, while the female goddess (Ix Chel in Central America) is only benevolent while in company of her husband. If isolated from him, she becomes a malevolent goddess of floods, destruction and death. She has a serpent growing from her head, much like Izanami in Yomi.

God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami

God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami were married to each other. Izanami could give birth to anything. One day she created the island of Japan. Izanami died when she gave birth to the god of fire from deadly burns during labor. By then she had given birth to 14 islands and 35 gods.

God Izanagi was desperate about the loss of his beloved companion and went down to the underworld to search for Izanami. He also found her. Izanami told Izanagi to wait for her. But he should not turn his head and try to look at her until she would be back.

the guy did not do what his wife told him and followed her instead. In the palace of the underworld he found her in an appalling condition. Terrified, God Izanagi ran away and blocked the entrance to the underworld with a huge rock so that his wife could not follow him.