🌙 Tsukuyomi

Names & Epithets

Attributes & Domains

Mythology & Stories

Unlike his siblings Amaterasu and Susanoo, whose myths fill volumes, Tsukuyomi appears relatively rarely in the ancient texts. This very absence adds to his mystique - a god so aligned with silence and darkness that even the stories about him are few. Yet the myths that do exist are powerful, explaining nothing less than why day and night are forever separated.

Key Myths:

• Birth from Izanagi's Right Eye: During the purification rite (misogi) at the river mouth of Tachibana in Himuka, Izanagi washed his face to cleanse the pollution of Yomi. As he washed his right eye, the luminous Tsukuyomi was born, complementing Amaterasu who emerged from the left eye. Izanagi assigned him to rule the realms of night, making him co-regent of the heavens with his sister. In some versions, he was born equal in beauty and brightness to Amaterasu, differing only in the coolness of his silver light.
• The Murder of Uke Mochi (The Goddess of Food): This myth explains the eternal separation of sun and moon. Amaterasu sent Tsukuyomi to visit Uke Mochi, the goddess of food, on her behalf. When Tsukuyomi arrived, Uke Mochi prepared a feast for him using her divine power: she faced the sea and spat out fish, faced the forest and expelled game from her mouth, and facing the rice paddies, coughed up bowls of rice. Though the food was divine and pure, Tsukuyomi was so disgusted by the manner of its creation that he drew his sword and killed her. From Uke Mochi's corpse sprang the five grains (rice, wheat, millet, beans, and hemp) as well as silkworms and cattle - blessings for humanity born from divine death. When Amaterasu learned of this killing, she was so horrified by his violence against a fellow kami that she declared she would never look upon his face again. From that moment, sun and moon have been separated - Amaterasu ruling day, Tsukuyomi banished to eternal night, forever chasing his sister across the sky but never catching her.
• The Counting of Time: As the "Moon-Reader," Tsukuyomi's passage across the night sky became the basis for the lunar calendar. His waxing and waning mark the months, his cycles determining the timing of festivals, plantings, and ceremonies. This role as cosmic timekeeper makes him essential to the order of the world despite his isolation - even in exile, he serves a vital function in maintaining the rhythm of existence.
• The Moon Rabbit: While not exclusively about Tsukuyomi, the Japanese moon-rabbit (Tsuki no Usagi) legend connects to his domain. The rabbit seen "pounding mochi in the moon" represents the kami's celestial court, companions to the lonely moon god in his eternal journey through the night.

The Eternal Separation

The myth of Tsukuyomi's exile from Amaterasu serves as an etiological story explaining the separation of day and night, sun and moon. Unlike many cultures where sun and moon are married or lovers, in Shinto they are siblings whose relationship has been severed by bloodshed. This gives the Japanese conception of day and night a melancholic quality - not a harmonious dance but a permanent estrangement.

Symbolic Interpretations:

• Purity vs. Violence: Tsukuyomi acted from disgust at impurity yet created greater impurity through murder - a paradox central to Shinto ethics
• Cosmic Balance: Despite the separation, both sun and moon are necessary; even in punishment, Tsukuyomi serves the world
• The Origin of Agriculture: Uke Mochi's death brings the grains - death enables life, destruction enables cultivation
• The Price of Judgment: Tsukuyomi's harsh judgment brought eternal isolation - a warning against excessive condemnation

Family Relationships

Divine Family

• Father: Izanagi-no-Mikoto - Born from his right eye during purification
• Mother: None directly - born from Izanagi alone after Izanami's death
• Sister: Amaterasu-Omikami - Sun goddess, born from left eye, now eternally estranged
• Brother: Susanoo-no-Mikoto - Storm god, born from nose
• Consort: Various accounts mention no consort, contributing to his solitary nature

Divine Relationships

• Amaterasu: Formerly close siblings, now eternally separated by his killing of Uke Mochi
• Uke Mochi: The food goddess he slew, whose death both damned him and blessed humanity
• Susanoo: Both brothers represent aspects of darkness/chaos compared to Amaterasu's order/light

Worship & Sacred Sites

Major Shrines

Compared to other major kami, Tsukuyomi has relatively few dedicated shrines, reflecting his mysterious and isolated nature:

• Tsukiyomi Shrine (Ise, Mie): A subsidiary shrine (Betsugu) of Ise Jingu, located within the inner shrine grounds, one of the most sacred Tsukuyomi sites
• Tsukiyomi Shrine (Kyoto): Located in Matsuo, dedicated to the moon god
• Tsukiyomi Shrine (Nagasaki, Iki Island): Claims to be the original Tsukuyomi shrine from which the Ise branch derives
• Tsukiyomi-no-Miya (Matsuyama): Important regional shrine in Shikoku

Festivals & Practices

• Tsukimi (Moon-Viewing): The autumn moon-viewing festival, particularly on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month. Offerings of tsukimi dango (rice dumplings), susuki grass, and seasonal produce are made while viewing the harvest moon
• Jusan-ya (Thirteenth Night): A second moon-viewing night about a month after the main Tsukimi
• New Year lunar observations: Traditional calendrical calculations honoring Tsukuyomi's role as time-keeper

Worship Practices

Tsukuyomi's worship tends toward contemplation and quiet observation rather than the active festivals associated with other kami. Moon-viewing parties (tsukimi) combine aesthetic appreciation with spiritual acknowledgment. Offerings of white rice, sake, and autumn vegetables honor both the moon and the harvest his actions enabled. Prayers to Tsukuyomi often concern the passage of time, the cycles of nature, and guidance through dark periods of life.

The Moon in Japanese Culture

The moon holds a special place in Japanese aesthetics and spirituality that goes beyond direct Tsukuyomi worship. Poetry, art, and seasonal celebrations frequently center on the moon as a symbol of beauty, transience, and reflection. The association between the moon and rabbits (who pound mochi in its surface) creates a gentler, more approachable lunar symbolism that exists alongside Tsukuyomi's more austere mythology.

The concept of tsukimi (moon-viewing) as an aesthetic and spiritual practice demonstrates how natural observation becomes worship without explicit ritual - simply watching the moon rise with appreciation is itself an act of honoring the divine.