A concise place in the Kojiki
Tsukuyomi appears when Izanagi washes his right eye after returning from Yomi. The father assigns him the realm of night, beside Amaterasu's heavenly responsibility and Susanoo's sea realm. The account gives him an important position but little subsequent action in this sequence. Brevity is a feature of this witness; it does not establish that every local tradition or later practitioner gave the deity little significance.
Source: Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation · Kojiki §§10–11
A visit with a violent outcome
One Nihon Shoki writing sends Tsukuyomi to Ukemochi at Amaterasu's request. The goddess produces food from her mouth, and he kills her in disgust. Amaterasu condemns him and refuses to meet him, creating a separation associated with day and night. The action belongs to this explicitly alternative account. In the Kojiki's comparable food episode, Susanoo kills Ōgetsuhime and Kamimusubi gathers the resulting seeds.
Sources: Nihongi / Nihon Shoki, Book I; Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation · Nihon Shoki Book I, Aston vol. I, pp. 32–33; Kojiki §17
Why the difference matters
Assigning the killing to Tsukuyomi changes his relationship with Amaterasu and supplies a reason for their separation. Moving it back to Susanoo while retaining that consequence would create an unattested composite. The chronicles provide several ways to arrange divine kinship and action, not a single modern character file waiting to be completed. Reading Tsukuyomi through these two passages therefore requires attention both to what is narrated and to where the narrative stops.
Sources: Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation; Nihongi / Nihon Shoki, Book I · Kojiki §§10–11, 17; Nihon Shoki Book I, pp. 32–33
- Period / witness
- Kojiki presented in 712 CE; Chamberlain translation 1882. Narrative time is not a historical date.
- Recording context
- Kojiki, a Japanese court compilation attributed to Ō no Yasumaro from material recited by Hieda no Are; cited by Chamberlain’s numbered sections, not asserted as the origin of the tradition.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters, Chamberlain translation ↗
Ō no Yasumaro (compiler, as identified in the preface); translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) · Court compilation presented 712 CE; translation published Yokohama, 1882
Edition & rights noteNihongi / Nihon Shoki, Book I ↗
Japanese court compilation; translated by William George Aston (1841–1911) · Compilation completed 720 CE; translation 1896; selected passage vol. I, pp. 32–33
Edition & rights note