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All cultures have varying descriptions of the world's beginnings. The aim of this project was to illustrate the Japanese creation myth in a single image. The story goes something like this...
From formless chaos came the first gods. They became plentiful, but had no purpose. So they summoned Izanagi and Izanami to help them create land. To this end the divine couple were given a beautiful spear, and with it, Izanagi stirred up the foggy void. After drawing it out, drops of moisture fell and coagulated into the Earthly island of Onokoro. This is where the pair made their home.
There, wanting to become espoused, they erected a pillar to be used in a courting ceremony. Walking around it, the female Izanami greeted the male Izanagi first. The two then attempted to procreate, which led to the birth of a malformed child. They tried the ritual again, but again they were disappointed with the results. Asking the gods for help, they then discovered that they had erred in the ceremony - the man was meant to greet the woman first. Correcting themselves, they succeeded at last in creating proper children. New islands were born, followed by new deities to rule over them. In this way did Japan come into being.
For a time Izanagi and Izanami flourished, and the world was increasingly defined with the entrance of further offspring. But with the birth of the god of fire came severe trauma for Izanami. Becoming very ill, what food her husband made for her was rejected. From her mouth came a succession of wondrous new gods and goddesses, and from her eventual passing came death and the consequences thereof.
Izanagi was devastated by her loss. A goddess was born from his tears, and still more divine beings came from the fire god, whom he had slain in anger, and from the sword with which he had killed him. All this amazed him, but did not heal his yearning for Izanami. He began a journey to the underworld, resolving to win her back and continue their work on Earth.
After overcoming countless hardships and braving many dangers, Izanagi was reunited with Izanami outside of a castle in Hades. But Izanami sorrowfully explained that, having eaten the food of that realm, she could not return to life. Izanagi implored her to come back with him anyway, and finish the world they had begun together. Moved by his devotion, Izanami said that she would ask the lords of Hades for permission to do so. Instructing him not to look in on her as she did, she went into the castle and he waited outside of its gates. But time passed, and Izanagi grew impatient. Finally, lighting a tooth from his comb, he opened the gate and looked in. What he saw horrified him, for his wife was as a decaying corpse, and mother of various thunders attached to her body. He dropped the tooth and ran, and his wife, enraged at this intrusion, set after him with an army of demons. Barely escaping, Izanagi rolled a huge boulder between him and the entrance to the underworld, thus dividing the land of the living and the land of the dead. It was then and there that he divorced Izanami, who declared that she would cause one thousand of his people to die each day. Izanagi retaliated by saying that were she to do so he would cause one thousand, five hundred to be born just as frequently. And this is how the two parted ways.
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