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Mainstream Japanese myths, as generally recognized today, are based on the Kojiki and some complementary books. The Kojiki or "Record of Ancient Things" is the oldest recognized book of myths, legends, and history of Japan. The Shintoshu explains origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective while the Hotuma Tutaye records a substantially different version of mythology.
One notable result of Japanese mythology is that it explains the origin of the Imperial family, and assigned them godhood until the end of World War II.
A lot of deities appear on the stage of Japanese mythology, and many of them have multiple aliases. Furthermore, some of their names are so long that they can be tedious for the majority of readers. This article therefore lists only the most prominent names, and gives them in abbreviated form. Readers should be aware that other abbreviated forms are also in use.
In this article, proper names are written in a historical manner. In this article, underlined h, y, and w denote silent letters; they are omitted from modern spelling. This underlining convention is peculiar to this article. Other syllables are modernized as follows (see also Japanese Romanization systems). Note that something in between are also used.
By historical reasons, k, s, t, and h are sometimes confused with g, z, d, and b respectively.
The first gods summoned two divine beings into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and charged them with creating the first land. To help them do this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spearA spear is an ancient weapon, used for hunting and war. It consists of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material faste decorated with jewels, named Amenonuhoko (heavenly spear). The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Amenoukihashi (floating bridge of heaven) and churned the sea below with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the spear, they formed into the island Onogoro (self-forming). They descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island. Eventually they wished to be mated, so they built a pillar called Amenomihashira and around it they built a palace called Yahirodono (the room of eight footsteps?). Iznagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions, and when they met on the other side Izanami, the female deity, spoke first in greeting. Izanagi didn't think that this was the proper thing to do, but they mated anyhow. They had two children, Hiruko (watery child) and Awashima (island of bubbles) but they were badly-made and are not considered deities.
They put the children into a boat and set them out to sea, then petitioned the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They were told that the male deity should have spoken first in greeting during the marriage ceremony. So Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, and this time when they met Izanagi spoke first and their marriage was then successful.
From their union were born the ohoyashima, or the eight great islands of the Japanese chain:
They bore six more islands and many deities. Izanami was killed however by giving birth to the child Kagututi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Masubi (causer of fire). In anger, Izanagi killed Kagututi. His death also created dozens of deities.
The gods borne from Izanagi and Izanami are symbolic of important aspects of nature and culture, but they are too many to mention here. The fact that it was necessary for the male deity Izanagi to take the lead position while the female deity Izanami had to be second has led to a false perception that this is an implied discrimination against the female gender.