Izanagi and Izanami

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Izanagi and Izanami. The paired ‘male who invites’ and ‘female who invites’ in Japanese mythology. They are of the seventh generation of gods who are required to undertake creation—including, in the Nihongi, Amaterasu. They stand on the floating bridge of heaven and stir up the matter of creation with a spear thrust into the depth of the ocean. Izanami is destroyed in the making of fire and goes to the land of Yomi (death). Izanagi searches for her, and when he finds her, he disobeys her command not to look at her. He lights a torch and sees her decaying body. Yomi tries to catch him so that he cannot return to the living and warn them about death, but he escapes. Izanami threatens in her anger to kill a thousand beings every day, but Izanagi responds by promising to bring one and a half thousand to birth. So begins the process of life and death.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions