The Kojiki: The Beginning of Heaven and Earth · 1 of 1 · tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain

Section 1

p. 15 RECORDS OF ANCIENT MATTERS [SECT. I.—THE BEGINNING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.] The names of the Deities 1 that were born 2 in the Plain of High Heaven 3 when the Heaven and Earth began were the Deity Master-of-the-August-Centre-of-Heaven, 4 next the High-August-Producing-Wondrous Deity, 5 next the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity. 6 These three Deities were all Deities born alone, and hid their persons. 7 The names of the Deities that were born next from a thing that sprouted up like unto a reed-shoot when the earth, 8 young and like unto floating oil, drifted about medusa-like, were the Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder Deity, 9 next the Heavenly-Eternally-Standing-Deity. 10 These two Deities were likewise born alone, and hid their persons. The five Deities in the above list are separate Heavenly Deities. 11 p. 16

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Themes

Animismcosmology

The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.

The passage describes a plurality of distinct divine agents (Kami) emerging within specific cosmic locations rather than a single monotheistic deity.

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Cosmogonycosmology

Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.

The passage is explicitly titled 'THE BEGINNING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH' and details the birth of the first deities, matching the definition's example of Kojiki cosmogony.

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Divine Hiddennesstheology

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

The passage explicitly states that the Deities hid their persons after birth.

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Sacred Namestheology

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

The passage emphasizes the specific naming of Deities as a key aspect of their existence and birth.

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World Tree Axiscosmology

A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.

The mention of deities born from a 'thing that sprouted up like unto a reed-shoot' evokes the vegetative axis mundi imagery found in Shinto cosmology.

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