9 Myths & Beliefs About Death In Cultures From Around The World
Sarah Rodriguez
Updated on March 13, 2026
When it comes to Japanese death myths, most Western readers are probably most familiar with Shinigami — from “shi” and “kami,” making the word mean, quite literally, “death god” — due to the cross-cultural appeal of manga and anime like Death Noteand Bleach. Interestingly, though, Shinigami are a relatively recent addition to the pantheon — the word only started to appear in literature from the Edo period on, meaning that they became A Thing sometime around the 18th or 19th century.
Before Shinigami, though, there was Izanami, a divine being who, along with her brother/husband Izanagi, created the islands of Japan. The islands, of course, were their children — kids born of siblings being notable landforms and other natural phenomena is a theme that runs through the mythologies of a huge number of cultures — but when Izanami was giving birth to a further child, Kagutsuchi, she died. Izanagi buried her and killed Kagutsuchi, thereby creating a bunch of other deities, before journeying down to the underworld — Yomi — to see if he could bring Izanami back.
Like Persephone of Greek mythology, however, Izanami had eaten while she was in Yomi and was therefore no longer able to leave. She told him she’d try to make her case to the gods for returning to the surface, but told him he had to be patient; he wasn’t allowed to see her during the process. But hey, guess what? He lit a torch so he could see her anyway — and when he saw that she was no longer beautiful, but rather a rotting corpse full of maggots, he decided he was fine with her staying where she was and tried to leave. She tried to chase him down as he fled, but he escaped and sealed off the entrance to Yomi with a boulder. Ever since then, she’s been thought of as the goddess of death — and what some people consider to be the first Shinigami.
Fun fact: Yomi is also sometimes called ne no kuni, which should sound familiar to anyone who has played the Studio Ghibli video game Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
