From Izanami to Toyotama-hime: The Kojiki Line from Creation to the Imperial Ancestors

Izanami and Izanagi stir the brine into the first island and marry by circling a pillar. Bearing the fire god Kagutsuchi kills her, and in Yomi she becomes the first death the Kojiki records, then vows to strangle a thousand of the living each day.

Izanagi follows her into Yomi, lights a comb tooth and breaks his promise not to look. He escapes by throwing down a peach and sealing the pass with a boulder, and from the washing of his face in a river are born the three noblest kami.

Born from Izanagi's right eye, Tsukuyomi kills the food goddess Uke Mochi at a feast, in the Nihongi account. Amaterasu vows never to look on him again, which is why the sun and moon keep separate skies.

Told from her own side, Uke Mochi's feast is an act of hospitality, with rice from the land, fish from the sea and game from the mountains. The Nihongi credits her body with cattle, silkworms and grain.

When her brother Susanoo defiles her hall, Amaterasu seals herself in the cave of Ame no Iwato and the world goes dark. The assembled gods hang a mirror and curved jewels outside, and her own reflection draws her out.

Omoikane devises the plan that ends the darkness. The Kojiki credits to him the long crowing birds, the forged mirror, the jewel strand and the divination, with the dance called for only once all else is in place.

Her dance on an overturned tub makes the gods laugh and draws Amaterasu to the cave door. She later steps forward alone to question the radiant figure blocking the heavenly descent, and becomes the wife of Sarutahiko.

Expelled from heaven, Susanoo comes to Izumo and slays the eight headed serpent Yamata no Orochi by making it drunk on sake. The sword he finds in its tail is sent to Amaterasu and becomes one of the three imperial regalia.

Sarutahiko waits at the crossroads of eight roads and guides Ninigi's descending party. The Kojiki then records his abrupt death by drowning at Azaka in Ise, when a shellfish clamps onto his hand.

Sent down by his grandmother Amaterasu with the mirror, sword and jewel, Ninigi rules the earth. He doubts that Konohanasakuya-hime's pregnancy is his, and the Kojiki also ties human mortality to his choice of bride.

Answering Ninigi's doubt, she shuts herself in a doorless hut and sets it alight. She bears Hoderi, Hosuseri and Hoori unharmed in the fire, and mothers still pray to her for safe birth.

Hoori loses his brother Hoderi's fishhook and travels to the sea king's palace to recover it. Back on land he uses the tide jewels to subdue Hoderi, whose submission the Kojiki gives as the origin of the Hayato's service.

The sea king Watatsumi summons every fish to his palace and learns from a sea bream where the hook is lodged. Before that, he seats Hoori on eight layers of skins, recognizing a grandson of the heavenly gods.

The sea king's daughter sees Hoori's reflection in the well beneath the cassia tree and falls in love before he speaks. They live in the sea palace three years, and she later takes her dragon form to give birth.