In Japan, the word Yomi (黄泉) appeared in both Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, in which it was the place where Izanami (a primordial goddess, name translated as "she who invites") went after she died. She became the Grand Deity of Yomi (黄泉大神) after his husband and brother, Izanaki (a primordial god, name translated as "he who invites"), discovered her horrible shape and she chased after him until the entrance of Yomi - Yomotsu Hirasaka (黄泉比良坂), where they made the final farewell to each other and Yomotsu Hirasaka was permanently blocked by Izanaki. Izanami was trapped in Yomi and swore to kill a thousand men a day, while Izanaki promised to produce a thousand and five hundred men per day. Izanami therefore became the Goddness of the Underworld.

In the beginning, Izanagi and Izanami created the world and the deities that would populate the heavens and the earth. Everything went well at first, but while Izanami giving birth to the fire god (Kagutsuchi) , she suffered terrible burns in her private parts (In Nihon Shoki this part was slightly changed/omited) that caused her to eventually die. She was buried by Izanagi on Mt. Hiba. (In one of the versions, Izanaki was so angry that he killed the fire god).

Izanami was buried in Mount Hiei (比叡山), but her spirit descended to Yomi no kuni, the underworld where people went after death. Izanagi missed her terribly and went to Yomi to try to bring her back, where he did meet Izanami. Izanami said that Izanaki was too late and she had already eaten of the food of Yomi, but she really wanted to go with him so let her talk to the lord and asked Izanaki to wait here while they were talking. In the meantime, Izanaki was not allowed to look at her. Throughout Japanese history, this famous "ocular taboo" frequently appears in various forms of ancient Japanese literature, such as folklore, stories, etc. It often shows as woman forbidding man to look at her while she's doing a certain activity and it brings bad ending while man looks.

Izanagi agreed and waited for a while, but he finally got impatient and betrayed his promise. He broke a tooth off of the comb he had in his hair and lightened it up like a match. He saw Izanami but was shocked and terrified by her appearance - She was rotting and crawling with maggots, and eight gods of thunder were hanging on different parts of her body. Izanagi decided to flee from Yomi and go back to the land of the living.

Izanami discovered Izanagi and felt that he had brought her shame by seeing her body like this. She first ordered the evil hag of the underworld (Yomotsu-Shikome 黄泉醜女) to chase after him. He used some tricks to attract the hag and continued fleeing on. Izanami then ordered the gods of thunder and fifteen thousand soldiers as army of the underworld to chase after Izanagi. Izanagi again managed to stop them. Now Izanami herself came chasing after Izanagi, and they finally met each other, not as couple but as enemy.

Izanagi took a gigantic boulder (道反の大神) that needed a thousand man to bring it up and threw it in front of the entrance of Yomi no kuni ( Yomotsu Hirasaka 黄泉比良坂, sometimes translated as the Yomi Slope), therefore sealed Yomi from the land of the living permanently. Izanami said, “Izanagi, for the shame you have caused me, every day I will kill one thousand inhabitants of this world you cherish so much.” To which Izanagi replied, “If you do that, I will create one thousand five hundred people every day.” And they never saw each other again. Left in the underworld, Izanami therefore became the ruler of Yomi, the Goddness of underworld.

After parting from Izanami, Izanagi bathed himself to wash away the impurities of the underworld. Many gods were created during this purification ceremony such as the sun goddess Amaterasu (天照), the moon deity Tsukuyomi (月読), and the god of sea and storms Susanowo (須佐之男).