Read, reflect, pray
Nihon Shoki: Ukemochi and the separation of sun and moon
Nihon Shoki · Story 6 of 17
保食神と、日と月の別れ
A variant account of the origin of food.
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.
A variant account (issho, introduced as “one writing says”) is a different tradition preserved beside the main narrative. It is labeled separately below.
Variant account (issho)
Book 1, section 5 variant 11
Amaterasu orders Tsukuyomi to visit Ukemochi in the Central Land of Reed Plains. Ukemochi offers hospitality by producing sea and mountain foods and cooked rice from the mouth. Tsukuyomi, angered as if by impurity, kills the food deity.
Hearing the report, Amaterasu becomes angry and declares she will not meet Tsukuyomi. Thus sun and moon live apart as day and night, this account says.
Amaterasu sends Amenokumahito, who finds cattle, horses, silkworms, rice, barley, beans, and more arising from Ukemochi’s dead body. The seeds are brought back for people’s food, leading into the beginnings of rice cultivation and sericulture.
Compare with the Kojiki
In Nihon Shoki variant 11, Tsukuyomi kills Ukemochi, whose body produces cattle, horses, rice, and more. In the Kojiki, Susanoo kills Ōgetsuhime, whose body produces grains. Similar plots belong to different traditions with different deities and circumstances.
The great serpent and the palace at Suga →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.