Cult of Gods

Ninigi

Japanese (Shinto) tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
descent to earth, rice
Symbols and attributes
Three treasures: mirror, sword, jewel
grandson of
Amaterasu Ōmikami
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.

Key myth

Amaterasu sent her grandson down to rule Japan, with a mirror, sword and jewel, the Imperial Regalia. His great-grandson Jimmu is the first emperor in the chronicles.

Primary sources

  • Kojiki, Book 1

All sources for the Japanese (Shinto) pantheon

Place in the family graph

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

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

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Ninigi: earth, harvest and fertility. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Sif

golden hair, grain (by later reading)

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Egyptian

Geb

earth

Egyptian

Osiris

afterlife, resurrection, fertility of the flood

Egyptian

Sobek

Nile, fertility, kingship

Mesopotamian

Ninlil

grain, wind (as Enlil's wife)

Compare across cultures