The
birth of the land is recreated in this drawing, and is described in the
ancient records as follows,
Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of heaven and held counsel together, saying, "Is there not a country beneath?" Thereupon they thrust down the jewel-spear of Heaven, and groping about therewith found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the point of the spear coagulated and became an island.From the vividly sexual description we learn that the first land was created from the semen of the male, and the sacred heart-pillar by association emerges as the phallus and symbol of the procreation of all the later generations of land, gods, and men.