In Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami...

, the , is the story that describes the legendary birth of the celestial and earthly world, the birth of the first gods and the birth of the Japanese archipelago

Japanese Archipelago

The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...

.

This story is described first hand at the beginning of the Kojiki

Kojiki

is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami...

, the first book written in Japan (712), and in the Nihon Shoki

Nihon Shoki

The , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical...

 (720). Both form the literary basis of Japanese mythology and Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

. However the story differs in some aspects between these works with the most accepted for the Japanese being the one of the Kojiki.

Story

At the beginning the universe was immersed in a beaten and shapeless kind of matter, sunk in silence. Later there were sounds indicating the movement of particles. With this movement, the light and the lightest particles rose but the particles were not as fast as the light and could not go higher. Thus, the light was at the top of the Universe, and below it, the particles formed first the clouds and then Heaven, which was to be called . The rest of the particles that had not risen formed a huge mass, dense and dark, to be called Earth.

When Takamagahara was formed, the first three gods of Japanese mythology appeared:
and.

Subsequently two gods emerged in Takamagahara from an object similar to a reed-shoot:
and

These five deities are known as Kotoamatsukami

Kotoamatsukami

In Japanese Shinto, Kotoamatsukami is the collective name for the first gods which came into existence at the time of the creation of the universe...

 appeared spontaneously, did not have a definite sex, did not have a partner (hitorigami

Hitorigami

Hitorigami are kami which came into being alone, as opposed to those which came into being as male-female pairs. According to the Kojiki, this group included the "three deities of creation" and the "separate heavenly kami.". They are described as hiding themselves away once they achieved awareness...

) and went into hiding after their emergence. These gods are not mentioned in the rest of the mythology.

Kamiyonanayo

Subsequently two other gods arose:
and

These gods also emerged spontaneously, did not have a defined sex and nor partner and hid at birth.

Then, five pairs of gods were born (total of ten deities), each pair consisting of a male deity and a female deity:
and his younger sister (and wife) , and his younger sister (and wife) , and his younger sister (and wife) , and his younger sister (and wife) and and his younger sister (and wife)

All deities from Kuni-no-koto-tachi to Izanami, are collectively called as .

Following the creation of Heaven and Earth and the appearance of these primordial gods, Izanagi and Izanami went on to create the Japanese archipelago

Japanese Archipelago

The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...

 (Kuniumi

Kuniumi

In Japanese mythology, the is the traditional and legendary history of the emergence of the Japanese archipelago as narrated firsthand in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. According to this legend, after the creation of Heaven and Earth, the gods Izanagi and Izanami were given the task of forming a...

) and gave birth to a large number of gods (Kamiumi

Kamiumi

In Japanese mythology, the story of the occurs after the creation of Japan and refers to the birth of the kami, descendants of Izanagi and Izanami.-Story:...

).