Kojiki

Almost all the myths that are still surviving came from this book.

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Influence

Buddhist and Shinto beliefs heavily dictate Japanese myths, since they are the 2 main religions practiced in Japan.

Izanagi and Izanami

After the gods came from the splitting of the Earth and the Heaven, the older gods ordered Izanagi and Izanami to create the islands of Japan. Izanagi and Izanami then went to the floating bridge of heaven, and churrned the primeval ocean with a heavenly spear. From the drops of the spear, the island Onogoro was formed. Izanagi and Izanami then went their to marry. They performed the ritual and got married, but their first child was deformed. The error was that Izanami, a woman, spoke first. Izanagi and Izanami performed the ritual again, this time, Izanagi spoke first. Then they gave birth to eight children, who became the islands of Japan. They then started giving birth to many other gods that represented aspects of nature, but when Izanami gave birth to Kurotsuchi, the god of fire, she got a terrible burn and started dying. She was still giving birth to other gods too, while she was dying. Izanagi was enraged after his wife's death and killed Kurotsuchi, of whose blood emerged even more gods. Izanagi then decided to go to Yomi, the land of the dead, to bring his wife back. It was very dark there, and when he reached Izanami, she explained that she couldn't leave after eating the food there, but still made arrangements to leave. She did warn Izanagi to not look at here. Izanagi was so anxious about seeing his wife, that he lit a torch to see her. He was horrified at the sight of a rotting corpse instead of his wife, and Izanami was furious that Izanagi betrayed her wishes. Izanami then sent many hideous female spirits and thunder gods to catch Izanagi. Izanagi escaped them, and Izanami herself. When he reached the land of the living, he moved a giant boulder, which block the passageway between the worlds. Izanami cursed that she will cause the death of 1,000 people per day. Izanagi countered this by saying that he would give birth to 1,500 people per day. Izanagi and Izanami then divorced. Izanagi then felt unclean, and took a bath to purify himself. Gods both good and evil emerged from his discarded appendages, and three major gods appeared when he washed his face. Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, was born from his left eye, Tsukiyomu, god of the moon, was born from his right eye, and Susano-o, the god of storms, was born from his nose. Izanagi was very proud of his noble children and divided his kingdom up among them.