The Japanese sun goddess was born from a god's eye
Japan’s most powerful deities emerged not from a womb, but from the water used to wash away the filth of the underworld.
The Shinto creation story centers on a visceral ritual of purification. After the god Izanagi traveled to the land of the dead to find his wife, he was so horrified by the decay he saw that he rushed to a river to bathe. As he washed his left eye, the sun goddess Amaterasu was born; from his right eye came the moon god Tsukuyomi; and from his nose emerged the storm god Susanoo.
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