The system of the origin of the world in Japanese cosmogony differs little from the ancient Greek or Scandinavian, but nevertheless has its own characteristic features. Five Koto Amatsuki - the creators of heaven and earth, the divine spouses Izanagi and Izanami - the ancestors of almost all Japanese islands and deities-kami. To this day, the Japanese keep the stories of the divine appearance of their families.
The origin of the Japanese gods
At the beginning of the beginning of Japanese cosmogony were the high heavenly gods, or the five of Koto Amatsuki. They created heaven and earth. Then Kamiyo Nanayo or the Seven generations of the divine era descended to the earth, two of which - brother and sister and the divine spouses Izanagi and Izanami, created 8 great Japanese islands (except for Hokkaido and the South Kuril Islands).
Having given birth to the sun goddess Amaterasu, Izanagi retired to the Japanese counterpart of the hell Yomi, from where she began to threaten her brother with the destruction of humanity. She promised to strangle all people, to which her brother answered her by creating more and more women in childbirth. When Izanami dealt with this threat, he retired to solitude.
This pair of gods became the progenitor and creator of almost 7 million officially recorded in various sources deities - kami of Japan.
Amaterasu, the patroness of the Sun, Earth and agriculture and the supreme goddess, later became the progenitor of the imperial family of Japan.
Kami system
The number of Japanese kami gods is infinite. If the supreme kami have names and written history, reflected in the sacred books of Shintoism, then the myriad kami streams and rocks are not.
Only in the fourteenth century did Japanese officials create a strict system of myths and a kami hierarchy in which each god was given his place, rank and traditions of worship. It is clearly written on which days the source should be worshiped and what it should be presented to. Mount Fuji also has its own kami. This system is reflected in the books "Kojiki", "Nihon Shoki".
Almost every ancient Japanese clan considers the beginning of its descent from one or another god.
Back in the last century, the divine origin and status of the ancestor god in the general system mattered when a Japanese was appointed to official positions.
