One day, Izanami and Izanagi called a council of the kami. Izanami, who was pregnant, sat serenely beside her husband. As the council began, the kami of the rivers raised his voice. He accused Izanami of showing favoritism to the sons and daughters of the earth. Other kamis joined in. A spirit for which there was no kami - jealousy - had taken control.

Despite Izanagi's arguments and the protestation of the more level-headed kami, the younger kami were angry. When they called for a vote, they banished Izanami to live on earth as a human.

There was nothing Izanagi could do. He raged and cursed, but he was bound to obey the orders of the council. Izanami kept her composure, trying to be strong for her husband, but her heart was breaking. A tear slipped down her cheek as they removed her crown. She knew she would never see her heavenly home again.

Forced to live in exile and take a woman’s body, Izanami moved to a small cabin on a secluded mountainside. Even though Izanagi visited her often and did his best to comfort her, her sadness and anger only deepened. Although she had loved the people of earth, she was not one of them. Her fascination turned to fear, and she stayed alone in her cabin. In her isolation, her gloom was turning to despair.

After a few months, Izanami went into labor. Izanagi did all he could to help her, but Izanami gave birth to the kami of fire. In the delivery, Izanami was enveloped in flames and burned to death. Izanagi held her charred body in his arms as her spirit descend to Yomi, the underworld.

“Don’t look at me!” Izanami cried, turning her face away.

“It’s so dark I can hardly see,” said Izanagi. “You must return to the earth with me. As long as you haven’t eaten any of the food from this place, you can still return.”

Izanami was silent for a moment. Then she spoke. “If one hasn’t eaten any of the food, one can always go back?”

“Yes,” Izanagi said. “Izanami, have you eaten anything since you’ve been here?”

“I’ll go with you," she said. "But I will follow behind you, and you must not look back at me, whatever you do.” Not knowing what else to do, Izanagi agreed.

Together, husband and wife crept back up the path towards the land of the living, with Izanami always a few steps behind. “Don’t turn around,” she whispered from time to time, as if Izanagi would forget. They were close to the entrance when suddenly Izanami tripped and fell, crying out in pain. Izanagi wheeled around to help her, forgetting his wife’s instruction. Izanami lifted her hands to cover her face, but it was too late. He could see her clearly now - her flesh was rotting off her bones, maggots writhed under her skin. When she opened her mouth, demons poured out.

Izanagi sprinted for the exit and Izanami ran after him, begging him not to leave her there. But she had eaten the food of the underworld, and he had no choice. Despite his wife’s screams, he sealed the door to the underworld tightly behind him.

Crushed at the loss of his wife, Izanagi wandered Japan weeping for her. He knew he had to return to his place in the heavens, but he no longer wanted to rule. As he purified himself in the sea from his trip to Yomi, the water that dripped from his face became three of the most powerful kamis ever to be created. Susanoo, the kami of the storms and the sea, sprang from the water dripping from Izanagi’s nose. From Izanagi’s left eye came the kami of the moon - Tsukiyomi. And from his right eye, came Amaterasu, kami of the rising sun, and future queen of heaven.

Author's Note: This story is a compilation of Shinto's primary creation myth and the story of the birth of Amaterasu and her brothers. In writing this story, there were several different versions of both tales that I combined. I tried to synthesize the versions, but there was some discrepancy. In one version of the story, Izanami's spirit simply dissipates in Izanagi's arms when he finds her in the underworld, but that was much less dramatic then what happened in other versions, and what I ultimately decided to include in mine. I added a few details of my own (for example, it was never clearly explained in the original myth that if someone eats food in Yomi then he or she must stay) for the sake of clarity. I also chose to leave out some details (Izanami promising to kill 1,000 humans every day that Izanagi left her in Yomi, for example, was a juicy detail that didn't make the cut). I wanted to focus the story on the relationship between Izanagi and Izanami - the parents of Amaterasu, and to introduce the readers to the world of kami and help them understand the universe that Amaterasu inherits from her parents. Since this Storybook is about Amaterasu primarily, I thought that telling the story of how she came to be born was a good beginning for understanding her as a character in Shinto mythology.