Read, reflect, pray
Kojiki: The land of Yomi and the slope of parting
Kojiki · Story 3 of 22
黄泉の国と、別れの坂
Beyond the longing to meet again.
English translation of this site’s published story summary and reading notes. This is a selected reading guide, not a complete translation of the ancient chronicle.
Story summary
Grieving Izanami’s death, Izanagi kills Hinokagutsuchi. More deities arise from blood on the sword and the fire deity’s body. Izanagi then journeys to Yomi, the land of the dead, to meet Izanami again.
Izanami tells him not to look at her while she asks whether she can return. Unable to wait, he lights a flame and sees her. Terrified, he flees, pursued by Yomi’s beings; at the slope of Yomotsu Hirasaka, peaches drive off the pursuers.
Finally Izanami herself pursues him. Izanagi blocks the slope with a great rock, and across it they exchange words of separation. Her declaration that she will take a thousand lives daily is answered by his promise to establish fifteen hundred birthing houses, expressing the divide between life and death.
Reading note
The peaches that repel the pursuers receive the name Ōkamuzumi no Mikoto. The rock blocking the slope also receives divine names: familiar things are spoken of as deities.
Compare with the Nihon Shoki
Connected figures
Names and relationships in a chronicle may differ from later traditions. Each figure’s introduction identifies its sources.
Sources and edition (1)
English explanations on this page were prepared by Inori no Mori from the cited text and its Japanese explanations. They are not an official translation or a prescribed liturgy.