Izanami
Izanami is the first woman and the co-creator of the islands with Izanagi; she dies giving birth to the fire kami Kagutsuchi and goes to Yomi, the land of the dead, where Izanagi follows her.
The 'dark goddess' reading popular in Western occultism is a modern overlay; in Shinto she is the ruler of the dead, a figure of kegare and grief, and shrine practice approaches her with the rites of the boundary. Pluto, Monday and the zodiac are Western overlays. The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki differ on her death and on the order of the first births, and the tradition holds both.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Pluto
Offerings
- Offerings
- WaterSaltRiceA lamp in the darkFlowers at a boundary
Sacred timing
- Sacred Timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- Izanami-no-MikotoIzanami no OkamiThe Female Who InvitesYomotsu Okami
- Gender Expression
- Feminine
- Titles
- The Female Who InvitesMother of the LandRuler of YomiLady of the Yellow Spring
- Symbols
- Yomotsu hirasakaThe boulderThe comb thrown downYomiThe thousand and the fifteen hundredThe wagtail
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- ToneGrave courteousAddressIzanami-no-MikotoMother of the LandRuler of YomiRelationshipNot a patron she is the one who keeps the deadWarningShe asked him not to look and he lookedResonanceThe grieving those who tend ancestral rites those at a death
- Modern Practice
She is approached at death and at the ancestral rites rather than for favours: the offering is water, salt and a lamp, made at the boundary of a house or a grave, and the practice is to name the dead and let them be dead. Japanese Buddhism later took her into funeral rites, while the Shinto shrine tradition keeps her at a small number of sites.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- CreationDeathThe underworldChildbirthGriefThe boundaryThe earthTransformation
- Mythology Summary
Izanami is the first woman and the co-creator of the islands with Izanagi; she dies giving birth to the fire kami Kagutsuchi and goes to Yomi, the land of the dead, where Izanagi follows her. The Kojiki has her warn him not to look at her; when he lights a torch and sees her decay, she is shamed and enraged, sets the hags of Yomi on him, and at the pass of Yomotsu Hirasaka vows to kill a thousand people a day, to which he answers that fifteen hundred will be born. She remains there as Yomotsu Okami, the ruler of the dead.
- Related Deities
- IzanagiSusanooEreshkigalHelPersephone
Details
One of 3,120 entries in the Grimoire — the whole library, every cross-reference, is free to take. Take the whole thing Is it wrong somewhere?
Referenced by 2
Every entry that names Izanami, grouped by the system it comes from.
More in Deities
The entries either side of this one in the same catalogue.
All of Deities →New entries, when they land
Occasional notes when a section of the grimoire is added or revised. No account, no tracking across sites, and one line to leave.