Izanami-no-Mikoto (framed)

11" x 14" in a 16" x 20" quality rose gold frame.

Progenitor Goddess of Creation and Death, of Beginnings and Ends. Mother of Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Susano'o and several other deities. Her name Izanami literally “she who invites”.

Izanami and her brother, Izanagi, appeared after heaven and earth separated from chaos, tasked with the duty of creating life. They stood on a heavenly bridge and stirred the primeval seas from above with a jeweled spear. The eight droplets that fell from this spear created eight new deities, which eventually became the islands of Japan. They soon got married and Izanami gave birth to another eight children—deities of the seas, the fields, the mountains, the winds, the trees that populated the land. Then Izanami died giving birth to her final child, Kagutsuchi, the fire deity. She made her final journey to the Yomi no Kuni, the shadowy land of the dead.

Grief stricken and unable to let go, Izanagi followed and asked his wife to return with him to the living realm. Izanami could not since she had already tasted the food of the underworld and was now one with the dead. Izanagi refused to leave her in Yomi and planned to take her while she slept; however, as he set alight a torch, he saw Izanami’s decaying form riddled with maggots and impurities. Izanagi ran away in cowardice, abandoning his wife. Izanami woke up to her husband fleeing with haste and chased him, horrified that her husband had betrayed her. She sent all sorts of spirits and demons to hunt him down through the tunnels of the underworld. Izanagi managed to escape back to the realm of the living and pushed a boulder at the mouth of the entrance to Yomi, sealing it forever. Izanami screamed from behind the stone, declaring she would destroy 1,000 residents of the living every day. Izanagi replied he would counter that and give life to 1,500 new residents.

And with that, their marriage ended and Izanami became the Queen of the Underworld. Izanagi bathed to purify himself of Yomi. Amaterasu was born after washing out his left eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye, and Susanoo from his nose.