Kirino Natsuo Meets Izanami

Kirino Natsuo picks up where the Kojiki leaves off in Joshinki (The Goddess Chronicle), her creative retelling of the Izanami-Izanagi myth sequence. She invents an afterlife for the goddess Izanami. In so doing, Kirino defies earlier gendered stereotypes by reconstituting Izanami with a diva-esque interiority. Izanami is furious that she has been locked in the underworld while her male partner roams the world freely. Her anger spills over into the imaginary human world Kirino designs, and it disrupts the myths that have been invented to keep female desire in check. Using Lauren Berlant’s notion of the “diva citizen,” this chapter finds in the angry voices of both Izanami and her author, Kirino, a creative force meant to challenge and change social and institutional practices of gender discrimination.