Deity · Japanese · c. 100 BCE
Tsukuyomi
Also called Tsukiyomi, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
The Japanese moon god, born from Izanagi's washing beside Amaterasu — and the reason the sun and moon are never in the sky together, having killed the food goddess at dinner and been refused his sister's company ever since.
Narrow source base
The Nihon Shoki carries the episode the Kojiki gives to Susanoo: sent to visit the food goddess Ukemochi, he is served a meal she produces from her own mouth and nose, kills her in disgust at the manner of it, and is told by Amaterasu that she will not look at him again. It is a myth about revulsion at where food comes from, resolved by the permanent separation of day and night. He then does almost nothing else in either chronicle, which is itself worth recording: a major celestial body with a name, a parentage, one story and no cult to speak of.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
The Tsukuyomi shrines attached to Ise, subordinate to his sister's
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) · 712 CE
- Named there as
- Tsukuyomi no Mikoto
- Rank
- The Moon Reckoner
- Pantheon
- Japanese
- Order
- Japanese pantheon
- Base of operations
- The Tsukuyomi shrines attached to Ise, subordinate to his sister's
- Era
- c. 100 BCE
- Traditions
- Shinto & Japanese
Traits
- Domain
- The moon, night, the count of months
- Traditional form
- Given almost no description in either chronicle
Stats
Known connections
Opposed by
1 site
Where was it worshipped?
Attested cult sites, located against the Pleiades gazetteer of the ancient world where it reaches and against Wikidata everywhere else. An absence here is not evidence that no cult existed: a good number of figures never had one, and the entry above says so where that is the case.
Rebuilt on the adjacent plot every twenty years for something like thirteen centuries.
His shrine at Ise is an auxiliary of his sister's, which is the relative standing of the moon and the sun in this pantheon stated in architecture.
34.455, 136.726 · Wikidata Q687168
2 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 2 offices attributed to Tsukuyomi, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- malefic1
- material1
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Tsukuyomi, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts, all inside a single century
Where the texts differ
- Rank: given as Ruler of the night; The moon deity
Born from the washing of Izanagi's right eye and assigned the domain of night, with no narrative afterwards.
Kills Ukemochi over the manner in which she produces food; Amaterasu refuses to meet him again, which is why sun and moon are apart.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Tsukuyomi?
What rank is Tsukuyomi?
How else is Tsukuyomi spelled?
What is Tsukuyomi said to do?
How old is Tsukuyomi?
Nearest in the corpus
If Tsukuyomi is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Amaterasu
Sun Goddess · Japanese
Sun goddess who hides in a cave and must be lured out — and from whom the Japanese imperial house claimed descent until 1946.
Izanagi
He Who Invites · Japanese
The Japanese god who stirs the sea into land with a spear, goes into Yomi after his wife and looks at her against her word, and washes afterwards — producing Amaterasu and Susanoo from the washing.
Izanami
She Who Invites · Japanese
The Japanese goddess who makes the islands with her husband, dies giving birth to fire, and becomes the ruler of Yomi — where she promises to kill a thousand people a day for the insult of being seen.
Susanoo
Storm Kami · Japanese
Expelled from heaven for wrecking his sister's rice fields, and then immediately kills the eight-headed serpent and becomes a hero.
Yamata-no-Orochi
Eight-Forked Serpent · Japanese
The eight-headed serpent given a daughter to eat each year, until Susanoo made it drunk and cut it apart. Japan's branch of the serpent-slaying pattern.
Artemis
Mistress of Animals · Greek
Huntress and protector of the young, whose Ephesian cult statue looks nothing like her and whose temple gave the ancient world one of its most durable protective formulas.
The books behind Tsukuyomi
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters)
Ō no Yasumaro · 712 CE · Old Japanese
Read Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Wikimedia file page
Nihongi (Nihon Shoki)
Prince Toneri and others; tr. W. G. Aston · 720 CE · Classical Japanese
Read Nihongi (Nihon Shoki) in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Unknown author · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.