Izanami

deity sky Japanese single tradition · 9

Izanami is a deity in Japanese mythology who is the parent of Ebisu, though she disowned Ebisu for being deformed.

↻ synthesized from 9 sources

When

First attested
700 CE
Attested period
0 – 2020
Historical notes
Mentioned in Kojiki (c. 712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE).

Relationships

sibling of
Izanagi
consort of
Izanagi
manifested by
Atago Gongen

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“one of Izanagi and Izanami's first children, though they disowned him for being deformed.”

#5023 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“These examples include Baldr in Norse mythology and the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl in Aztec mythology to the Japanese Izanami. The Japanese god Izanami dies giving birth to the child Kagu-tsuchi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Musubi (causer of fire) and Izanagi goes to Yomi, the land of gloom, to retrieve her, but she has already changed to a deteriorated state and Izanagi will not bring her back, and she pursues Izanagi, but he manages to escape.”

#12062 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“In the Kojiki, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo were born when Izanagi went to "[the plain of] Awagihara by the river-mouth of Tachibana in Himuka in [the island of] Tsukushi" and bathed (misogi) in the river to purify himself after visiting Yomi, the underworld, in a failed attempt to rescue his deceased wife, Izanami.”

#12436 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“While similar in many aspects, the version of the tale of Izanagi and Izanami in the Nihonshoki differs from the Kojiki version in that Izanagi does not descend into the Underworld (Yomi), instead residing permanently on the island of Awaji in a temple.”

#12686 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“In Shinto and Japanese mythology, Izanami gave humans death, so she is sometimes seen as a shinigami. However, Izanami and Yama are also thought to be different from the death gods in Western mythology.”

#13759 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5