11.01.2006

Kagu Tsuchi, Japanese Fire God

When the Japanese Fire God, Kagu Tsuchi, was born, he burnt his mother, Izanami-no-Mikoto, to death. His father, Izanagi-no-Mikoto, killed Kagu Tsuchi, chopped him into eight pieces which turned into eight mountain gods. (My guess is these were volcanoes?)

Izanagi-no-Mikoto followed his sister-wife to the land of the dead, but she'd already eaten of the food there and couldn't return. She told him to wait for her in a cave, but he became impatient and tried to find her: she was rotted and eaten by worms. She was angry at him for seeing her like that, and sent demons after him to kill him. "You have seen my nakedness; now I will see thine!" He escaped, but her undead zombie corpse tried to follow him. He started speaking the words of divorce. She threatened to kill 1000 people a day if he did, and he replied that he'd cause 1500 people to be born every day, at which point another god intervened, and she disappeared...