Note (return) — Chapter III · - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

Retreating to another part of the world—that is, into southwestern Japan—Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing himself,5 many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of them, from the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable side), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, Amatérasŭ, or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The Sun-goddess." This personage is the centre of the system of Shintō. The creation of gods by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the Japanese, who usually associate cleanliness of the body (less moral, than physical) with godliness.