Raising their sights a step up the evolutionary ladder they began giving birth to a long line of deities. They then bore six lesser islands (15A-15F). Great Eight Islands) is a traditional poetic name for Japan. Returning to the business of country procreation they gave birth to the eight major Japanese islands, 14A -14H in the table. Section 4 - Birth of Islands and Various Deities (Kami 14-34)ĭescending again to Earth they repeated the ceremony of walking round the Pillar of Heaven but this time Izanagi was the first to speak and all was well. Divine divination revealed that the root of the problem was, as Izanagi had seemingly known all along, that Izanami, the woman, had spoken first. Troubled by these two unhappy births the two returned to the Plain of High Heaven to check with the assembled Deities there as to why this problem had occurred.
They then gave birth to the island of Awa, and were equally displeased with this: an island being more troublesome to dispose than a baby, all that happened to it was that along with the leech child it was not considered as one of their official offspring. They were displeased with this and, reminiscent of a similar event in Ancient Egypt, they placed the child in a reed basket and let it float away. At this stage Chamberlain reverts to English. Having completed the circuit the female said “How pretty! a lovely youth!” The male responded, saying, “How pretty! A lovely maiden!” He then criticized her saying that it was not the woman’s part to speak first, but overcoming this breach of manners they entered into conjugal relations and a leech child, Hiruko, was born (#13 in the table). I desire to unite my source of my masculinity to thy source of femineity.” They then went through a courtship which consisted of the female walking round the Pillar of Heaven from the left, the male from the right. “Then the Male Deity asked the Female Deity, saying:- “Is there anything formed in thy body?” She answered and said:-“My body has a place completely formed, and called the source of femineity.” The male god said:-“My body again has a place completely formed and called the source of masculinity. At this point, Chamberlain, Victorian as he was, breaks out into Latin, although his fellow Victorian, Aston, chooses to stay with English. The couple descended to this island and made it the central pillar of the land. Section 3 - Courtship of Izanagi and Izanami (Kami 13) As they withdrew it the drops of brine falling from the point of the spear fell back to Earth and coagulated to form the island of Onogoro. So the Couple Who Invite stood on the Floating Bridge of Heaven ( Ame-no uki-hashi) and thrust the Heavenly Spear into the morass below. Aston devotes a footnote more than a page long to discussing whether or not this spear was a phallic symbol. They were either given or found a Heavenly Jewelled Spear ( Ame-no-nuboko) to separate the land from the sea. The Nihon Shoki has the couple spontaneously deciding to start said work. The Kojiki has Izanagi and Izanami (in Chamberlain’s translation “His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites and her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites”) being given a mandate by the Seven Heavenly Kami to “make, consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land” that was the Earth.
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