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Kojiki Summary

The Kojiki ("Records of Ancient Matters"), compiled in 712, is the oldest surviving history book in Japan. Its first volume tells the myths of Japan's gods, from the beginning of heaven and earth, through the gods' creation of the land, to the line of descendants that leads to the emperors. This manga, KOJIKI Book I: Chronicle of the Gods, is based on that first volume and tells the stories of the gods one episode at a time.

The story begins with the birth of the land, when Izanagi and Izanami, the creator couple, descend to the island of Onogoro and give birth to the islands of Japan. After Izanami dies giving birth to the fire god, Izanagi follows her to Yomi, the land of the dead, but breaks his promise not to look at her. When he returns to the world above and purifies himself, three great gods are born: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo.

Later, Susanoo's violent behavior drives Amaterasu, the sun goddess, to hide in the Heavenly Rock Cave, and the world falls into darkness. Banished from heaven, Susanoo slays the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi in Izumo. His descendant Okuninushi helps the Hare of Inaba, survives trials in the underworld, and builds the land, but in the end hands it over to the gods of heaven.

After that, Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi descends to Takachiho and marries Konohana-no-Sakuyabime. Their son Hoori (Yamasachihiko) marries Toyotamabime in the palace of the sea god, and their grandson becomes Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan. Book I ends where the age of the gods gives way to the world of humans.

Read from Episode 1 (free)

Story summary

  1. Episode 1The Gods Who Proposed in the Wrong Order — Kuniumi: The Birth of Japan

    In the mangaFacing an empty, drifting sea, Izanagi and Izanami, the last two gods to be born, are handed a single spear and told to "make a land." Their first meeting goes in the wrong order and they lose their first child. They don't turn on each other. They go to the heavens together to ask why, try again, and give birth to the Eight Great Islands.

    In the original mythThe Kojiki, or "Record of Ancient Matters," is the oldest surviving chronicle in Japan. The court official Ō no Yasumaro compiled it and presented it in 712. Its first volume covers the age of the gods. It does not begin with a single creator. Instead, gods simply come into being, one after another.

  2. Episode 2She Begged Him Not to Look — Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi, the Land of the Dead

    In the mangaIzanami dies after giving birth to the god of fire, and her husband Izanagi goes down to the land of the dead to bring her back. She asks him for one thing: don't look at her. He looks. With a great boulder between them, they trade vows of death and birth and part forever. Then, as Izanagi washes himself clean, the children of the sun, the moon and the storm are born.

    In the original mythThis myth comes from the first book of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by the court official Ō no Yasumaro in 712 CE. Izanagi and Izanami are the divine husband and wife who shaped the islands of Japan. After that, they go on to produce a long line of gods. Their last child is Kagutsuchi, the fire god, and his birth burns Izanami so badly that she falls ill.…

  3. Episode 3Why the Sun Goddess Met Her Brother in Armor — The Oath of Amaterasu and Susanoo

    In the mangaCast out by his father, Susanoo climbs to Heaven to say goodbye to his sister Amaterasu, but she meets him in full battle gear. They settle it with a sacred oath in which each brings forth children. Susanoo shouts "I win!" and goes on a rampage, and his sister keeps covering for him. Then a weaving maiden dies, and Amaterasu, now afraid, shuts herself away in the Rock Cave.

    In the original mythThis story comes from the first volume of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by Ō no Yasumaro in 712. It opens with a god who refuses to do his job. Izanagi, the creator god, has given his son Susanoo, the storm god, the sea to rule. Susanoo ignores it and simply weeps and howls, even after his beard has grown down to his chest. His crying withers green mountains…

  4. Episode 4Darkness Fell. Why Are the Gods Laughing? — The Heavenly Rock Cave (Ama-no-Iwato)

    In the mangaWhen the sun goddess Amaterasu shuts herself inside a rock cave, the world falls into darkness. The gods throw a festival outside her door and use laughter to draw the light back out. Her younger brother Susanoo brought on the darkness. He is the only one who can't laugh, and the gods banish him to the land below. There he stops when he hears someone crying upstream.

    In the original mythThis story comes from the first volume of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), compiled by Ō no Yasumaro in 712 and the oldest surviving book in Japan. It begins right after Susanoo, the storm god, has run wild in Takamagahara, the High Plain of Heaven. He breaks open the roof of the sacred weaving hall and throws in a heavenly dappled horse that he has skinned backwards. One of the weaving maidens is so…

  5. Episode 5To Slay a Dragon, First Get It Drunk — Yamata no Orochi

    In the mangaCast out of the heavens and convinced he has lost everything, Susanoo lands by the upper Hi River in Izumo. There he meets an elderly couple who have lost seven daughters to a giant serpent, and their last daughter, Kushinadahime, who calmly waits her turn. He turns her into a comb and sets her in his hair, has the family brew sake eight times over, and lures the eight-headed Yamata no Orochi into drinking itself to sleep. Mid-battle he snatches the falling comb from the air, slays every head, and finds a great sword inside the serpent's tail. For the first time he gives something away of his own will, presenting the sword to his sister Amaterasu, then returns to Izumo, where clouds rise from the earth and he sings of the eightfold fence he builds for his bride.

    In the original mythThe story of Yamata no Orochi comes from the first book of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by the court official O no Yasumaro and presented in 712 CE. It follows directly on from the exile of Susanoo, the storm god. The other gods have punished him for his rampage in the heavens: he has been fined heavily, his beard has been cut off, his fingernails and…

  6. Episode 6The Hare Who Bragged One Shark Too Soon — The White Hare of Inaba

    In the mangaA hare crosses the sea by hopping along a line of wani (sharks), counting their backs as he goes. Then, one step from shore, he says one word too many and loses his whole coat. The Eighty Brothers give him a fake cure that leaves him in agony, and the one who saves him is their youngest brother, Onamuji, who walks at the very back carrying everyone's bags. When the princess spots yellow pollen and white fur on his sleeve, her choice is clear…

    In the original mythThe White Hare of Inaba (Inaba no Shirousagi) is one of the best-known stories in the Kojiki, Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by Ō no Yasumaro and presented in 712. It opens the section about Okuninushi, the great god of the land, who has several names. In this episode he is called Onamuji. He had a crowd of brothers called the Yasokami, the "Eighty Gods" ("eighty" here just means "very many"). The…

  7. Episode 7Meet the Father-in-Law: He's the Storm God — Okuninushi in the Land of Roots

    In the mangaOnamuji, the youngest brother, is killed twice by his older brothers. His mother's tears bring him back to life, and he escapes to the land beneath the earth, where he meets Suseribime, the princess he's fated to marry. There's one problem: her father is Susanoo, god of storms. A room full of snakes, a burning field, and a scalp crawling with centipedes are just the start of Susanoo's deadly tests for his new son-in-law.

    In the original mythThis episode comes from the first volume of the Kojiki, Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by O no Yasumaro in 712. It picks up right after Princess Yagamihime of Inaba turns down the Yasogami, the "eighty gods" (a whole crowd of brothers), and announces that she will marry Onamuji, the brother they treat as their servant. Humiliated, the brothers agree to kill him.

  8. Episode 8On a Sword's Tip, He Demanded the Kingdom — The Transfer of the Land (Kuni-yuzuri)

    In the mangaOkuninushi has guarded the land he built with his best friend all on his own. Heaven sends envoy after envoy, and none of them come back. The last to arrive is Takemikazuchi, a thunder god of few words, who sits on the point of a sword planted in the sea. After a trial of strength, the king gives up his land on one condition: a shrine whose pillars reach the sky.

    In the original mythThe Kojiki, compiled by O no Yasumaro in 712, tells this story in its first book. It opens with Okuninushi, the great lord of the land, building the country together with Sukunabikona, a tiny god who arrives over the waves in a boat made from a seed pod. Nobody knows his name until a toad points the way to Kuebiko, a scarecrow god who cannot walk but knows everything under heaven. Sukunabikona turns out to be a…

  9. Episode 9The Blinding Giant and the Smallest Dancer — The Descent of the Heavenly Grandson

    In the mangaAs the young god Ninigi prepares to descend to the earth, a blinding god who lights both heaven and earth blocks his way. Uzume, the smallest of the dancing goddesses, goes to him alone, stepping as if she were dancing, and demands to know who he is. Ninigi lands on the earth carrying his grandmother's mirror. Uzume then sees the guide god off to the sea and takes his name as her own.

    In the original mythThe story comes from the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle. Ō no Yasumaro compiled it in 712 CE. By this point in the book, the thunder god Takemikazuchi has made the earthly realm submit, so heaven sends a ruler down. Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and Takagi, a primordial creator god also called Takamimusuhi, first order Amaterasu's son Oshihomimi to go. He answers that a son…

  10. Episode 10We Die Because He Chose the Flower — Konohanasakuya-hime and Iwanaga-hime

    In the mangaThe young heavenly god Ninigi falls for Sakuya, a princess of blossoms he meets on a cape, and asks to marry her. Her father, the mountain god, sends her older sister Iwanagahime, the princess of stone, along with her. Ninigi sends the sister home because of how she looks, and from then on the lives of his descendants are as short as falling petals. After one night together Sakuya is pregnant, and Ninigi doubts the child is his. To prove she is telling the truth, she sets her own palace on fire and gives birth to three sons inside it.

    In the original mythThis story comes from the first volume of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle. It was compiled by the court official Ō no Yasumaro and presented in 712. By this point in the book, Ninigi, the grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, has come down from heaven to rule the land below. At Cape Kasasa he meets a beautiful young woman. When he asks who she is, she says she is a…

  11. Episode 11Not a Thousand Hooks. Only the Lost One. — Umisachi and Yamasachi

    In the mangaHoori loses his older brother's treasured fishhook in the sea, and even a thousand new hooks won't buy forgiveness. An old god of the tides guides him to a palace at the bottom of the ocean. After falling in love with a princess and spending three happy years there, Hoori gets the hook back. But the two jewels the sea god gives him lead the brothers into a bitter showdown.

    In the original mythThe tale of Umisachi and Yamasachi appears in the first book of the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by the court official Ō no Yasumaro and presented in 712 CE. The two brothers are sons of Ninigi, the grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu who came down from heaven, and Konohanasakuya-hime, the blossom princess, who gave birth to them inside a burning hut.

  12. Episode 12The Emperor's Grandma Was a Sea Princess — Toyotama-hime and the Birthing Hut

    In the mangaToyotamabime enters the birthing hut with one plea: "Please don't look." But Hoori is so worried that he peeks, and inside he sees a huge lord of the sea, part shark and part dragon. He runs, then turns back. By then his wife has left their child behind and closed the road to the sea. Neither of them can let go of the other, and only their songs still cross the line between sea and shore.

    In the original mythThis story comes from the Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, which Ō no Yasumaro compiled in 712 CE. It closes the first of the book's three volumes, the one about the age of the gods. Earlier, Hoori, a grandson of the heavenly line also called Yamasachi or "Mountain Luck," traveled to the palace of the sea god and married his daughter, Toyotama-hime. In this part of the text…