Cult of Gods

Japanese (Shinto)

Japan, from the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720).

The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were compiled for the imperial court to trace the throne to Amaterasu. The Nihon Shoki includes variant versions, so a single account is often a choice among several. Kami are numerous ('eight million'), and the word covers gods, ancestors and natural forces; local shrines honour many that are in neither book.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.

Family graph

Parent lines run downward, partners are joined by a thicker line. Select a deity to trace its ancestry.

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

IzanagiIzanamiAmaterasu ŌmikamiTsukuyomiSusanooKagutsuchiŌwatatsumiTakemikazuchiAme-no-UzumeŌkuninushiNinigiInari Ōkami

The deities

Izanagicreation of the islands, the male principleIzanamicreation of the islands, deathKagutsuchifireŌwatatsumithe seaAmaterasu Ōmikamithe sun, imperial ancestor, lightTsukuyomithe moon, nightSusanoostorms, the sea (in some versions), the land of IzumoAme-no-Uzumedawn dance, entertainment, joyŌkuninushithe land, healing, marriageTakemikazuchiswords, thunderNinigidescent to earth, riceInari Ōkamirice, prosperity, foxes as messengers

Today

Shinto is a living religion, with some 80,000 shrines in Japan. The kami are worshipped at shrines, in homes and at festivals today. They are not 'mythological figures' to practitioners, and the texts here are the imperial court's 8th-century compilations, not scripture in the sense the Bible is.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorsePapyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.Hindu

Sources used