History of the Japanese Pantheon

Twenty-seven years ago, the great-great-great-great (and so on) grandson of Amaterasu (also known as Amaterasu-ōmikami) ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan. Several annual festivals and daily prayers are held at the Ise Grand Shrine complex in Honshū, where even today the people of Japan make offerings to the Sun Goddess and her imperial descendants. Japan is a country still saturated with fascinating traditions and folklore. With the latest addition to the pantheon list, Smite has opened up an exciting realm of possibility.

The Shinto religion is rather unlike how we in the West think of religion—and its gods, unlike our own conception of gods. In the indigenous Japanese belief system, gods are called ‘kami’ and are thought of more like minor deities and spirits. Kami are distinct from ‘yokai’, which are monsters, demons, and ghosts.


Kami are everything from the divine essences of rocks and rivers to the grandest beings who watch over Japan and its people. Practiced by about 80% of native Japanese, Shinto is more a collection of beliefs, traditions and rituals than a codified religion. Few Japanese identify as ‘Shintoists’; they attend Shinto shrines, pray to kami for aid and carry out the necessary traditions which have been developed over generations. Like the Hindu pantheon, the Japanese ‘pantheon’ remains alive and well to this day.

But who are the kami, the unique divine spirits that make up Japan’s mythology? In Japanese mythology, the islands of Japan were created when the Great Man Izanagi and the Great Woman Izanami churned the seas with a jeweled spear. The salt which dripped from the blade became the world’s islands and volcanoes. After the primordial couple married, they gave birth to all the kami—the deities of every natural feature in Japan. Finally, Izanami birthed a being called Kagutsuchi, the kami of fire, only to be burned and killed in the act.

Izanagi swore in a rage that he would bring her back and traveled to the land of the dead to retrieve his wife. The Japanese underworld is not one of terror or fire or pain—it is one of merely decay and uncleanliness. Izanagi dared to defy this natural order and descended into the dark place, finding his wife among the shadows and the rot. He took her hand and tried to bring her with him, but she warned him she had already eaten the food of the dead. She could not leave, but Izanagi was not convinced. He lit a candle to see her face, and was greeted with a horrific sight: Izanami’s decomposing face. This act enraged his wife, splitting them forever. She refused to leave now, and out of their marital rage is said to have come the natural ebb and flow of life. Izanami swore to punish him by ending a thousand lives a day. Izanagi swore to create a thousand five hundred more each time. This is how Izanami became the kami of death and the underworld.


Defeated, Izanagi returned to the world of the living to perform the post-mourning ritual of cleansing and purification still carried out by Japanese to this day. He washed each eye and then his mouth, and from each purification the gods Amaterasu, Tsuki-Yomi and Susano were born. Izanagi gifted to Amaterasu his sacred beads and the rulership of the heavens. To Tsuki-Yomi, he gifted rule of the night and the moon. To Susano, he gifted dominion over the seas and storms. Susano alone was unsatisfied, as he believed that he should rule the heavens, and his envy would come to cause the world much strife.

Scholars have noted that these ancient Japanese tales share strong similarities with the most famous Greek ones: Persephone eating the food of the Underworld, the divvying out of godly domains and the subsequent jealousies, a grieving lover retrieving his beloved from the dead only to accidentally look at her and ruin everything.

Like the Greek stories, the Shinto gods act in very human (and often overly human) ways. It is easy to understand why Shintoists believe that everyday people are descended from kami. Amaterasu, though still highly venerated today, is an exceptionally human character in the mythology. She tries, she grows frustrated, she gives up—and tries again.

In the most famous Amaterasu tale, the shining goddess is put upon by her jealous brother and longtime rival, Susano, who—get this—not only floods her rice fields but defecates in them. Amaterasu struggles to maintain her patience with him as he repeatedly challenges her, insisting that he is stronger and more deserving of the rulership of the heavens. Finally, Susano skins a pony (Amaterasu is fond of these) and hurls it into her most sacred temple where she is weaving with her closest friends and handmaidens. Humiliated, furious and hurt, Amaterasu retreats into a sacred cave and shuts herself away. One has to feel sorry for the goddess—what teen girl with a maddening brother couldn’t relate?

Her action, however, plunged the world into darkness. The other gods and goddesses gathered before her cave, pleading with her to return and light the world. But Amaterasu was too upset to be moved. Finally the humble goddess Ame-no-Uzume (a kami of mirth and revelry) set a washing tub upside-down on the ground, threw off her clothes, and performed a merry jig complete with ridiculous music. The curious Amaterasu peeked her head outside to see what the funny music was all about, only to catch her reflection in a mirror which the gods had conceived up and set before the cave.

“Who is that beautiful woman?” she asked curiously, seeing herself for the first time.

“It is you!” the gods cried. Flattered, Amaterasu was drawn from her hiding place.

The other gods, understandably, rushed to close the cave behind her and seal it forever. Amaterasu agreed to return to her duty as kami of the sun and ruler of the heavens, and balance was restored.

It is an uneasy balance, however, and the heavenly duty must be shared with Amaterasu’s brother Tsuki-Yoki. A more easily forgotten kami, Tsuki-Yoki is neither troublesome nor highly venerated like his siblings. When he visited the kami of food, he was so offended by the way she presented her creations to him—spitting and belching up crops—that he murdered her on the spot. Although her death caused even more varieties of crop to blossom, Amaterasu was so disgusted and enraged by the behavior that she swore never to look at him again. This is why today the sun and moon are always in opposition, facing away from each other.

There is more to Japanese mythology, of course—the Shinto traditions are ripe with opportunity for Smite to draw from.


There are the tsu***ogami, common household objects (spoons, sandals, lanterns, and so on) which come to life only on the one-hundredth anniversary of their creation. There are the special animals which are able to transform into humans, such as kitsune (fox spirits) and inugami (dogs). Kitsune, in particular, are known to be the servants and messengers of a peculiarly androgynous rice kami known as Inari. Offerings are left to kitsune shrines, and the tricky little creatures are worshipped as kami themselves. Inari also has domain over Japanese staples such as tea, fertility and sake. No wonder she’s such a popular goddess—more than a third of Japan’s Shinto shrines are dedicated to Inari.

There is Okiku, the humble servant girl who was unlucky enough to earn the attentions of her samurai master. Plotting to seduce her, he convinced the girl that she had lost one of his family’s ten precious plates—a mistake that would cost any servant their life. Okiku tearfully counted and recounted the plates, certain that she had not lost the tenth. But it was hidden, and she was left with no choice but to submit herself to her cruel master’s judgement. The samurai made her a deal: “Become my lover, and we shall forget this happened.” Okiku refused, and so he tied her up in silk ropes and threw her into his family well. From out of the well crawled what is now called the okiku bug, a worm that lives in wells and appears to be tied in silk thread. Okiku is now a vengeful yokai, and a popular ghost story in Japan today.


Kintaro the ‘golden boy’ is another old Japanese folk tale. His mother, a princess and kami of forests and the hunt, died in childbirth alone in her woods. Kintaro came to be raised among the woodland creatures, fed each day by his mother’s ghost providing a bowl of special milk to nourish him. He would wrestle the animals and grew to be incredibly strong. One day a passing general spots him and, impressed by his feats of strength, invites him to train under him. Kintaro agrees, and goes on to become a famous samurai.

There is so much more to the Japanese mythology. There are strange amalgamations of Buddhist and Shinto ideas, and there are always new interpretations being published. SMITE’s developers will find a fantastic wealth of mythology to draw from as they continue to develop new Japanese gods.


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I never knew all that. Maybe there's an idea for a Japanese Guardian in there somewhere.

Okay so what I got from this was:
Susanoo is a emo ******* who **** in his sister's rice fields.

Damn son.

Sounds about right

I need that picture right now hoooly ****

Also let's see the japanese royal family/clan/idfk
susanoo's the emo ******* as I said before
amaterasu's the nerd/female jock who loves/hates everyone
and tsukiyomi's the guy who hates everything and everyone and listens to Norwegian Black Metal.

I think it's like Greek/Roman Mythology. Everyone hates everyone, especially siblings.

Aren't all the mythologies in the world like that? Everyone hates everyone lmao.