Volume 1, Section 9: The Land of Hades

Thereupon [His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites], wishing to meet and see his younger sister Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites, followed after her to the Land of Hades [1]. So when from the palace she raised the door and came out to meet him, His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites spoke, saying: "Thine Augustness my lovely younger sister! the lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making; so come back!" Then Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites answered, saying: "Lamentable indeed that thou camest no sooner! I have eaten of the furnace of Hades [2]. Nevertheless, as I reverence the entry here of Thine Augustness my lovely elder brother, I wish to return. Moreover, I will discuss it particularly with the Deities of Hades [3]. Look not at me [4]!" Having thus spoken, she went back inside the palace; and as she tarrie there very long, he could not wait. So having taken and broken off one of the end-teeth of the multitudinous and close-toothed comb stuck in the august left bunch [of his hair], he lit one light [5] and went in and looked. Maggots were swarming, and [she was] rotting, and in her head dwelt the Great-Thunder, in her breast dwelt the Fire-Thunder, in her belly dwelt the Black-Thunder, in her private parts dwelt the Cleaving-Thunder, in her left hand dwelt the Young-Thunder, in her right hand dwelt the Earth-Thunder, in her left foot dwelt the Rumbling-Thunder, in her right foot dwelt the Couchant-Thunder; altogether, eight Thunder-Deities had been born and dwelt there [6]. Hereupon His Augustness the Deity Male-Who-Invites, overawed at the site[7], fled back, whereupon his younger sister Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites said: "Thou hast put me to shame," and at once sent the Ugly-Females-of-Hades [8] to pursue him. So His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites took his black august head-dress and cast it down, and it instantly turned into grapes. While she picked them up and ate them, he fled on; but as she still pursued him, he took and broke the mutitudinous and close-toothed comb in the right bunch [of his hair] and cast it down, and it instantly turned into bamboo-sprouts. While she pulled them up and ate them, he fled on. Again later [his younger sister] sent the eight Thunder-Deities with a thousand and five hundred warriors of Hades to pursue him. So he, drawing the ten-grasps sabre that was augustly girded on him, fled forward brandishing it in his back hand; and as they still pursued, he took, on reaching the base of the Even Pass of Hades, three peaches that were growing at its base, and waited and smote [his pursuers therewith], so that they all fled back [9]. Then His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites announced to the peaches: "Like as you have helped me, so must ye help all living people in the Central Land of the Reed-Plains [10] when they shall fall into troublous circumstance and be harassed!" and he gave [to the peaches] the designation of Their Augustnesses Great-Divine-Fruit [11]. Last of all his younger sister Her Augustness the Princess-Who-Invites came out herself in pursuit. So he drew a thousand-draught rock, and [with it] blocked up the Even Pass of Hades, and placed the rock in the middle; and they stood opposite to one another and exchanged leave-takings [12]; and Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites said: "My lovely elder brother, thine Augustness! If thou do like this, I will in one day strangle to death a thousand of the folks of thy land." The His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites replied: "My lovely younger sister, Thine Augustness! If thou do this I will in one day set up a thousand and five hundred parturition-houses. In this manner each day a thousand and five hundred people would surely be born. [13]" So Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites is called the Great-Deity-of-Hades. Again, it is said that, owing to her having pursued and reached [her elder brother], she is called the Road-Reaching-Great-Deity. Again the rock with which he blocked up the Pass of Hades is called the Great-Deity-of-the-Road-Turning-back, and again it is called the Blocking-Great-Deity-of-the-Door-of-Hades[14]. So what was called the Even-Pass-of-Hades is now called the Ifuya-Pass in the Land of Idzumo [15]

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General comment

First I want to reassure everyone: no, the name "Hades" is nowhere to be seen in the Japanese text, but this is how Chamberlain had chosen to translate the word "Yomi", a term which stands for the "underworld", the world all dead humans depart for and dwell at; it does make sense since the Shinto concept of "land of the dead" is closer to the greek/roman mythology than to the christian concept of "hell", "purgatory" and "paradise"

As Philippi points out, this chapter is important in that it gives us a pretty good idea of how Japanese used to see death and the life after it. Basically, everyone went to Yomi - there's no hierarchy between the dead. Yomi is not so much a land of terror but rather one of revultion, as it is from there that comes filth and pollution. Overall, inhabitants of Yomi would go around in similar fashion to that of the living: they would live in houses, go on foot and eat food. But as a whole, the image that Japanese may have had of the afterlife might have been incredible simple and somewhat fuzzy, as if they had little interest in that (that being said, this impression left both by the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki might be slightly misleading then)

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Notes

[1] In Japanese Yomi; Izanami is described as resting in an inner chamber, and the pass to Yomi is blocked by a boulder: these descriptions have led to think that they reflect the burial practice of stone chambers underground to which one would access through a stone passageway

[2] Some have argued that there was this passage reinforced the notion of pure and impure fires - with the fire of Yomi being impure, and Izanami unable to return with Izanagi after the pollution subsequent to eating the food there. However, I personally agree more with the theory that this reflects the importance of partaking food with a community, and the almost magical binding force behind this act: by eating food from Yomi, she has de facto become a "citizen" of that land. It not only parallels the Greek myth of Persephone, but also the beliefs of many populations around the world

[3] The Kojiki is confusing in some aspects, and this is one of them: here, it seems that Izanami is subordinate to some god(s) of the underworld, but later on, she's described herself as being Yomo-tsu-ô-kami, the Great Goddess of Yomi. That transformation from Earth goddess to goddess of the underworld can be found in other mythologies

[4] There is currently a discussion about what kind of custom that sentence and the subsequent passage might reflect: was looking upon a dead body taboo, or in the contrary was their a tradition of going down to the funerary chamber to check on the body on regular intervals to see if it had come back to life, as other authors believe?

[5] Midura is the name of an ancient male's hair style when the hair is parted in two and tied in bunches on both sides with strings made of vines; here the passage seems to emphasize on the taboo of lightning a single light and throwing a comb at night; it seems that until fairly recently, these taboos (or that of lighning a single light to a god) existed in certain regions, including Tokyo

[6] In Japanese Ô-ikadzuchi, Ho-no-ikadzuchi, Kuro-ikadzuchi, Saku-ikadzuchi, Waka-ikadzuchi, Tsuchi-ikadzuchi, Nari-ikadzuchi and Fushi-ikadzuchi

[7] Philippi here has "seeing this, was afraid", which makes sense conidering the scene before him....

[8] In Japanese Yomo-tsu-shiko-me; of course, it is impossible not to think of the Harpies, but remember that the reference to Hades is due to Chamberlain's translation and that the name is not one that appears in the Kojiki proper....

[9] Throwing objects than transform into something else at one's pursuer is common to many folk tales traditions around the world; the use of the peach to repel evil spirits in particular is chinese in origin

[10] That is Japan

[11] In Japanese Ô-kamu-dzu-mi-no-mikoto

[12] Philippi has "and [they] broke their oath" which is probably more appropriate

[13] This part demonstrates that the authors/compilers were aware of the rapid increase of the population at the time. Partrutition houses (or childbearing house, ubu-ya) where houses were pregnant and mentruating women were required to live seperately as both childbirth and mentruations were regarded as pollution in Ancient Japan; even the food was prepared seperately

[14] That is Chi-gaheshi-no-ô-kami in Japanese

[15] Idzumo is located south-west in Honshû, in today's Shimane-ken. That the pass was located precisely there is thought to be a political statement. The pass of Ifuya was the main route between Idumo and Yamato: that is was closed might reflect the rupture of relations between the two areas


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