Izanagi, whose name translates roughly to the male who invites, is the primordial creator of Japanese mythology, and his story is recorded in the Kojiki of 712 and the Nihon Shoki of 720, texts commissioned by the imperial court to trace the emperor's lineage back to the gods. This episode follows his biography from the moment he and his sister-wife Izanami stir a jeweled spear into a formless, jellyfish-like ocean to form the first island, through the failed marriage ritual that produced the boneless leech child, to the corrected ritual that gave birth to the eight great islands of Japan and the deities of sea, wind, mountain, and river.

The conversation then turns to tragedy: Izanami's fatal burns while giving birth to the fire god Kagutsuchi, Izanagi's grief-fueled killing of his newborn son, and his descent into Yomi to bring his wife b ...