Within the Kojiki, the divine world unfolds from formless beginnings into a richly populated cosmos. At the dawn of this mythic record stand primordial kami such as Ame-no-Minakanushi, Takami-musubi-no-Kami, and Kami-musubi-no-Kami, representing the subtle forces that bring the universe into being and sustain its growth. From this early emergence of heaven and earth, the narrative turns to the creator pair Izanagi and Izanami, who, by stirring the primal ocean with a jeweled spear, give shape to the Japanese islands and bring forth a multitude of deities associated with sea, wind, mountains, and fire. The death of Izanami in childbirth and Izanagi’s sorrowful descent into Yomi mark the first rupture between life and death, purity and pollution, and already hint at the spiritual weight carried by boundaries and transitions.

The Kojiki then traces how purification becomes a source of new life. Izanagi’s ritual cleansing after returning from Yomi gives birth to the “Three Noble Children”: Amaterasu, the radiant sun goddess and ruler of the heavenly realm; Tsukuyomi, the moon god; and Susanoo, the tempestuous storm deity. Their relationships dramatize the tension between order and disruption: Amaterasu as the luminous center of harmony, Susanoo as the force that both threatens and ultimately renews that order, and Tsukuyomi as a quieter celestial counterpart. The conflict between Amaterasu and Susanoo culminates in the famous cave episode, where the sun goddess hides herself away, plunging the world into darkness until the assembled kami, through ritual, mirth, and wisdom, entice her back into the open and restore light.

Susanoo’s subsequent exile to the earthly realm introduces another layer of the Kojiki’s spiritual geography. In Izumo he confronts the monstrous eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi, whose defeat reveals a sacred sword within its tail, a sign of the ambiguous power of destructive forces to yield instruments of protection and authority. The narrative then shifts focus to Ōkuninushi, the great deity of Izumo, whose stories of suffering, compassion, and cooperation with other kami portray the gradual “building of the land” and the ordering of human space. When Ōkuninushi eventually cedes rule of the earthly realm to the heavenly descendants of Amaterasu, the text suggests a cosmic and political realignment in which spiritual and temporal authority are woven together.

Finally, the descent of Amaterasu’s grandson Ninigi to the earth, and the subsequent tales of his descendants, bridge the divine world and the human realm of rulers. Through figures such as Ninigi and the first emperor Jimmu, the Kojiki presents the imperial line as emerging from this sacred drama, not as an isolated political fact but as the culmination of a long sequence of divine acts, conflicts, and reconciliations. In this way, the text does more than list deities and myths; it offers a vision of a world in which heaven, earth, and the underworld are dynamically related, and in which political order, ritual purity, and the rhythms of nature all reflect a single, unfolding sacred story.