The narrative in the Nihon Shoki begins with a primordial, chaotic state in which heaven and earth are not yet separated, a formless mass likened to floating oil or an unshaped egg. From this undifferentiated realm, kami arise spontaneously in successive generations, including early solitary deities who appear and then conceal themselves. Over time, these divine generations culminate in the appearance of the paired deities Izanagi and Izanami, who are entrusted by the elder kami with the task of giving form and solidity to the still-floating land below. This opening movement of the myth already suggests a vision of reality in which order gradually crystallizes out of chaos through the activity of sacred beings.

Standing upon the Floating Bridge of Heaven, Izanagi and Izanami stir the primordial brine with a heavenly jeweled spear. When they raise the spear, the drops that fall from its tip congeal and become the first island, Onogoro-shima. Descending to this newly formed land, they build a palace and establish a central pillar around which they perform a marriage rite. Through their union, they beget the Ōyashima, the “Great Eight Islands” of Japan, along with other islands and numerous nature kami associated with seas, mountains, wind, and other forces of the natural world. The land itself thus emerges as the embodied result of divine intention and harmonious ritual.

The myth then turns toward themes of loss, death, and purification. Izanami dies while giving birth to the fire deity Kagutsuchi, and in grief and anger Izanagi slays this fiery offspring, from whose blood and body further deities arise. Seeking to recover his partner, Izanagi descends to Yomi, the land of the dead, but confronted with Izanami’s decayed form, he flees in horror. Pursued by the powers of the underworld, he finally blocks the entrance to Yomi with a great stone, severing the path between the living and the dead and fixing mortality as an unalterable condition of existence. The cosmos of the myth is thus not only created but also marked by an irrevocable boundary between life and death.

After returning from Yomi, Izanagi undertakes a ritual of purification, washing his body and garments of the defilement of death. From this act of cleansing, new and central kami are born: Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess, from his left eye; Tsukuyomi, the moon god, from his right eye; and Susanoo, the storm or sea god, from his nose. These deities become focal figures in the unfolding sacred history, with Amaterasu in particular standing at the center of a lineage that leads to the imperial house. In this way, the Nihon Shoki’s creation account not only explains the emergence of heaven, earth, and the islands of Japan, but also grounds political authority, natural phenomena, and ritual purity in a single, continuous sacred narrative.