THE JAPANESE BOOK OF ANCIENT MATTERS.

The Japanese Book of ancient matters (Kojiki) is the oldest chronicle dating from the early 8th century CE .
The Book was compiled and edited by O No Yasumaro (died August 15, 723). The Empress Genmei (707-721) charged him with the duty of writing the Book using the differing clan chronicles, myths, early legends, songs, genealogies, oral traditions and semi-historical accounts concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago.
The primary purpose of the Book was to erase falsehoods and establish truth furthering in this way the imperial agenda.
The historical narrative in the Book is clearly broken into the Age of Gods and the Age of Human Emperors, wherein the myth of the Gods which gave birth to the land is told and transitioned in a chronological fashion to the reign of the emperors, who descend from these same gods.
The story of the creation of heaven and earth is described first-hand at the beginning of the Book. It says that at the beginning the universe was immerse in a beaten and shapeless kind of matter (chaos), sunk in silence. Later there were sounds indicating the movement of particles. With this movement, the light and the lightest particles rose but the particles were not as fast as the light and could not go higher.
Thus, the light was at the top of the universe, and below it, the particles formed first the clouds and then Heaven, which was to be called "High Plain of Heaven" (Takamagahara). The rest of the particles that had not risen formed a huge mass, dense and dark, to be called Earth.
The Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods is called "Kamiyonanayo" and emerged after the formation of heaven and earth. They were born in the World of Heaven (Takamagahara) and unlike the later gods, these deities were born without any procreation.
The 3 deities that first came into being alone without any procreation, as opposed to those who came into being as male-female pairs, were: -Central Master (Amenominakanushi); -High Creator (Takamimusubi); -Divine Creator (Kamimusubi). Later, 2 more gods came into existence: -Energy (Umashiashikabihikoji); and -Heaven (Amenotoko-tachi).
The next 7 generations of gods born in the world of heaven that followed the previous gods were the Kamiyonanayo, which included the patriarch and matriarch of all other Japanese gods, respectively.
Amaterasu is the Japanese expression of the solar goddess. The name Amaterasu is derived from Amateru and means "shining in heaven" and the meaning of her whole name is "the great august deity who shines in heaven." The Emperors of Japan are considered to be direct descendants of Amaterasu.
The oldest records of Amaterasu (712 CE) presents her as the sister of the god of storms and the sea (Susanoo), and of the god of the moon (Tsukuyomi). Amaterasu painted the Japanese landscape with her siblings while she created ancient Japan. She was said to have been created by the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami, who were themselves created by, or grew from, the originator of the Universe, Amenominakanushi.
The World of the Dead (Yomi) or the World of Darkness is located beneath the earth. Once one has eaten at the heart of Yomi it is impossible to return to the land of the living. In there all the deceased carry on a gloomy shadowy existence.