Ukemochi

This is the Japanese instance of the dema myth — the deity killed so that food may grow out of the body — which turns up from Indonesia to Mesoamerica, and it is the origin of rice, millet, beans and silkworms in the two chronicles. The disagreement over the killer matters: if it is Tsukuyomi, as the Nihon Shoki says, then Amaterasu's refusal ever to see her brother again is why the sun and moon are never in the sky together, and the moon's estrangement is a consequence of a murder over dinner. The registry held Susanoo, Tsukuyomi and Inari and not the goddess whose death produced the food all three are concerned with.

Domains

• food
• agriculture

Relations

• killed by: SusanooIn the Kojiki. The Nihon Shoki names Tsukuyomi as the killer instead, and the record carries both because the two texts do.Reference treatment: Susanoo killed her thinking she had poisoned the food. (secondary)

Sources

• Ukemochi, Ōgetsu-hime, is the Japanese goddess of food, daughter of Izanagi and Izanami, who produced food from her body and was killed for it — by Susanoo in the Kojiki, by Tsukuyomi in the Nihon Shoki — the crops growing from her corpse.: Reference treatments of Ukemochi and Ōgetsu-hime. (secondary)