Who Is Tsukuyomi (Tsukiyomi)?
The moon god given the realm of night
Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
Tsukuyomi (Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto) is the moon god of the Kojiki and, together with Amaterasu and Susanoo, one of the "Three Noble Children." He was born when Izanagi washed his right eye while purifying himself after returning from Yomi, the land of the dead.
His father Izanagi gave him the realm of night, Yoru-no-Osukuni, to rule. The Kojiki records only his birth and this role, and says nothing at all about what he did afterward. Compared with his sister and brother, he is a god full of mystery.
The Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) tells a story in which Tsukuyomi kills the food goddess Ukemochi. Amaterasu becomes angry and says she never wants to see him again, and that is why the sun and the moon appear separately, in day and night. In the Kojiki, a very similar story is told about Susanoo and the goddess Ōgetsuhime.
