Tsukuyomi

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Tsukuyomi no mikoto or also Tsukiyomi no mikoto, Tsuki no kami and Tsukiyumi no mikoto ( Japanese ツ ク (キ) ヨ (ユ) ミ ( Kojiki : 月 読 命 ; Nihonshoki : 月 読 (夜 見) 尊 、 月 弓 尊 )) is a male kami in Shinto mythology . He is the brother of Amaterasu and Susanoo and was born from Izanagi's right eye , when he washed himself ritually after his journey into the underworld. Tsukuyomi received the following order from his father: "Your Highness shall rule the land ruled by night!" 

Its name most likely refers to the lunar calendar ( tsuki means "moon" or "month"; yomi could mean "underworld" as well as "night" or "darkness", but is commonly derived from the verb yomu (premodern "count") , today "read") derived). Karl Florenz translates as “moon night”, “moon night”, “moon counter” and “time counter”.

The writing Yamato-bime-seiki , written on Ise-jingū in the 12th century, shows him in an illustration as a man riding a horse. Within the Shinto Buddhist syncretism he was often equated with the Buddha Amida-nyorai .

Unlike his siblings, Tsukuyomi is hardly mentioned in the myths. The only exception is one episode in an alternative Nihonshoki version (I, 27), according to which he killed the food kami Ukemochi . However, according to all other texts, this was Susanoo. In this alternate version, the day and night opposition is justified by the fact that the Sun Kami Amaterasu was so disgusted by Tsukuyomi's act that she announced that she would never see his face again.

Tsuki-yomi-no-miya in the naikū of the Ise-jingū

Nonetheless, Tsukuyomi is venerated in many shrines . The most important are the two tsuki-yomi-no-miya (both bekkū ) in the two main shrines of Ise-jingū. In these he is worshiped together with his own ara-mitama . His shintai is a mirror.

Tsukuyomi is worshiped as the main kami in the following shrines: in the Toda-mura Gassan shrine, in the Dewa-san-zan Gassan shrine, in the Masuda-machi Gassan shrine ( Akita Prefecture ), in various Tsuki-yomi-jinja (Kizukuri-machi, Aomori Prefecture ; Kushira-machi; Nishi-sakura-jima), at Agetsu Shrine, Asuka-hachiman-sha, and Ōsasa Shrine.

The honden he shares (ku Naniwa-in Imamiya-ebisu Shrine Osaka ) with Waka-hiru-me, Koto-shiro-nushi, Amaterasu and Susanoo; in the Matsue Rokusho shrine with Amaterasu, Susanoo, Izanagi, Izanami and Ō-namuchi; in Takahara Shrine ( Tochigi Prefecture ) with Ō-namuchi, Koto-shiro-nushi and Saruda-hiko.

Tsukiyomi-jinja of the Matsunoo Shrine

Other secondary shrines (called Tsuki-yomi-jinja) are dedicated to him in the Nagata Shrine ( Nagata-ku, Kobe ), the Hirota Shrine ( Nishinomiya ) and the Matsunoo Shrine ( Kyōto ), as well as together with Amaterasu in the Kumano Hongū -Taisha .

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  1. ↑ Karl Florenz : The historical sources of the Shinto religion . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen and Leipzig 1919, p. 30.

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