Unable to forget his wife, Izanagi descended to Yomi to bring her back. From beyond the darkened hall, Izanami answered that she had already eaten the food of the dead, but would beg the gods of Yomi—if only he would not look upon her.
Unable to wait, he lit a tooth of his comb and peered in, and saw her rotting, changed form. Horrified, he fled; enraged and shamed, Izanami sent the hags of Yomi and thunder gods after him. He escaped by casting down his headdress and comb, which sprouted grapes and bamboo shoots, and finally by hurling three peaches.
At last he blocked the pass between the worlds with a boulder so vast a thousand men could scarcely move it. Across it Izanami vowed to take a thousand lives a day; Izanagi answered that he would cause fifteen hundred to be born. Thus death entered the world—and with it, still greater life.
