There is no summer and winter myth in the old records, no deluge myth, and no eclipse myth. The stars are strangely neglected. Earthquakes are hardly noticed. There is no Returning Saviour myth, and no Journey of the Dead, though the expressions ‘Even Pass of Hades’ and _Yaso-kumade_ (eighty-road-windings, an alternative word for the land of Darkness) suggest that this idea was not unknown. The creation of mankind generally is not accounted for; but the origin of many of the ruling caste is ascribed to direct descent from the principal divinities, just as the Mikado is said to be descended from the Sun-goddess. =First Gods.=—Four different first gods are mentioned by the various authorities. None of these ever attained to much importance. They were no doubt collected or invented with the purpose of eking out a genealogical tree for the greater divinities who came afterwards. One of these, called _Ame yudzuru hi ame no sagiri Kuni yudzuru tsuki Kuni no sagiri_, is described as the Heavenly Parent. But we know nothing more about him or her—the sex is doubtful—and it is impossible to regard this interminable title as the name of a real god, any more than we can think that Shakespeare’s _honorificabilitudinitatibus_ was ever meant for a genuine word. The derivation, however, shows that this, like the other first gods, was intended as a nature-deity. The four generations which follow consist of obscure personages, all of whom disappear at once from the record. Their names, too, are suggestive of nature, and more especially agriculture-deities. In the sixth generation we find two deities, named _Kami-musubi_ and _Taka-musubi_, _i.e._ High-growth and Divine-growth, who were of some importance in later times. =Izanagi and Izanami.=—With these two deities Japanese myth really begins. The _Nihongi_ tells us that— ‘Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of Heaven (the rainbow) and held counsel together, saying “Is there not a country beneath?” Thereupon they thrust down the “Jewel-Spear of Heaven,” and groping about with it, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the point of the spear coagulated and formed an island which received the name of Onogoro-jima or the “Self-Coagulating Island.” The two deities thereupon descended and dwelt there. Accordingly they wished to be united as husband and wife, and to produce countries. So they made Onogoro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land.’ The _Kojiki_ says that Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by all the heavenly deities ‘to regulate and fully consolidate’ the floating land beneath. But all the accounts, the _Kojiki_ included, proceed to represent the islands of Japan as having been generated by them in the ordinary manner. We have therefore three distinct conceptions of creation in Japanese myth—first, as generation in the most literal sense; second, as reducing to order; and third, as growth (_Musubi_).