Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto | |
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Kami of the moon | |
Other names | Tsukuyomi (ツクヨミ, 月読), Tsukiyomi (ツキヨミ), 月読尊、月弓尊、月夜見尊、月讀尊 |
Planet | Moon |
Region | Japan |
Personal information | |
Parents | Izanagi (Kojiki) Izanagi and Izanami (Nihon Shoki) |
Siblings | Amaterasu Susanoo (and others) |
Consort | Amaterasu (some myths) |
Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto (ツクヨミノミコト, 月読命),[1] or simply Tsukuyomi (ツクヨミ, 月読) or Tsukiyomi (ツキヨミ),[2] is the moon kami in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. The name "Tsukuyomi" is a compound of the Old Japanese words tsuku (月, "moon, month", becoming modern Japanese tsuki) and yomi (読み, "reading, counting").[3] The Nihon Shoki mentions this name spelled as Tsukuyumi (月弓, "moon bow"), but this yumi is likely a variation in pronunciation of yomi.[3] An alternative interpretation is that his name is a combination of tsukiyo (月夜, "moonlit night") and mi (見, "looking, watching"). -no-Mikoto is a common honorific appended to the names of Kami; it may be understood as similar to the English honorific 'the Great'.
There is so little known about Tsukuyomi that even their sex is unknown. Still, in Man'yōshū, Tsukuyomi's name is sometimes rendered as Tsukuyomi Otoko (月讀壮士, "moon-reading man"), implying that they are male.[4]
Tsukuyomi was the second of the "three noble children" (三貴子, Mihashira-no-Uzu-no-Miko) born when Izanagi-no-Mikoto, the kami who created the first land of Onogoroshima, was cleansing himself of his kegare while bathing after escaping the underworld and the clutches of his enraged dead sister, Izanami-no-Mikoto. Tsukuyomi was born when he washed out of Izanagi's right eye.[5] However, in an alternative story, Tsukuyomi was born from a mirror made of white copper in Izanagi's right hand.
Tsukuyomi angered Amaterasu (who in some sources was his wife) when he killed Ukemochi, the megami of food. Amaterasu once sent Tsukuyomi to represent her at a feast presented by Ukemochi. The megami created the food by turning to the ocean and spitting out a fish, then facing a forest and spitting out game, and finally turning to a rice paddy and coughing up a bowl of rice. Tsukuyomi was utterly disgusted by the manner of which the exquisite-looking meal was made in, so he killed her.[5]
Amaterasu learned what happened and she was so angry that she refused to ever look at Tsukuyomi again, forever moving to another part of the sky. This is the reason that day and night are never together. This is according to one of the accounts in the
Gallery
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The Betsugu Tsukiyomi-no-miya Sanctuary of Kotaijingu (Naiku) at Ise city
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AMatsunoo-taisha in Kyoto
See also
References
- ISBN 978-4-560-08265-2.
- コトバンク. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
- ^ Tōkyō: Shogakukan
- ^ c. 759: Man'yōshū, volume 7, poem 1372; in Old Japanese. Text available online here.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-60413-435-3.
External links
- Media related to Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto at Wikimedia Commons
- Tsukiyomi on the Japanese History Database.