yomi

Yomi, also known as Yomi-no-kuni, is the underworld in Japanese mythology. The name is written with the kanji 黄泉, often translated as the “land of the yellow springs” and commonly interpreted as the realm of the dead or a dark, subterranean world. In classical texts, Yomi functions as the place where spirits dwell after death.

In the major creation myth, Izanagi travels to Yomi to retrieve Izanami after her death. He finds her in a decayed, frightening form, having eaten the food of the underworld. When Izanagi attempts to flee, Izanami warns him, and he eventually escapes and seals the entrance to Yomi from the world of the living. The episode explains why the living and the dead are separate and why death is final. Izanagi’s purification after returning to the surface gives rise to other central divine figures in Shinto, such as Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo.

Culturally, Yomi is used as a symbol of the afterlife and the realm of darkness in Shinto and Japanese literature. It has influenced classical drama, poetry, and later popular culture, where it is often depicted as a shadowy, otherworldly domain. In contemporary media, Yomi appears as a mythic setting or reference in anime, manga, and video games, often invoking themes of death, fate, and the boundary between the living and the dead.

Overall, Yomi represents a foundational concept in Japanese myth and religious imagination—a foreign, enigmatic realm that helps define the boundaries between life and death.