Tsukuyomi: the stories first, then the spelling
You cannot weigh an accent without knowing what it carries. Here is what Tsukuyomi has been carrying.
The Stories That Carry the Name
Birth from Izanagi's Eye. After escaping Yomi, Izanagi purified himself in a river. As he washed his right eye, Tsukuyomi was born. Amaterasu was given rule over the day, Tsukuyomi over the night, and Susanoo over the sea.
The Killing of Uke-mochi. Amaterasu sent Tsukuyomi to visit Uke-mochi, the goddess of food. Uke-mochi produced food by vomiting or defecating it from her body. Disgusted or offended by this, Tsukuyomi killed her.
Sun and Moon Divided. The myth explains why the sun and moon do not appear together. Tsukuyomi's act of violence created the alternation of day and night and established the moon as a separate, nocturnal power.
And Here Is What the Spelling Preserves
Against those stories, the attestation: 月読, as Kojiki (birth and Uke-mochi episode) and Nihon Shoki (parallel account) record. The name means "Moon reader".
At a Glance
- Restored name: Tsukuyomi
- ASCII form: tsukuyomi
- Meaning: "Moon reader"
- Domain of influence: Moon God, Shintō
- Pantheon: Japanese
- Classification: Tier 2
- Original script: 月読
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 401 of 437
The Name Travels
Tsukuyomi is less prominent in Japanese religion than Amaterasu or Susanoo, but he appears in calendars, poetry, and astral symbolism. His separation from the sun reflects a common Eurasian motif of the divided celestial siblings, while his specific myth is shaped by Japanese ideas of purity and pollution.
The Address It Earned
The temple of Tsukuyomi stands at /tsukuyomi/ — lore, scholars, patterns — because a name carrying this much story deserves more than a parking page. Tier-2 here means one preserved truth — not less important, just singular. The temple shows it and names it.
The Sources Are Open
The myths above are retold from the temple's record; the primary voices are in the Sacred Texts: Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Nothing in this file outranks them.
The Emblems
The name does not travel alone. Moon — The luminous body he rules; Night — The domain opposite Amaterasu's day; Sword or weapon — The means by which he killed the food goddess Uke-mochi. Each emblem is filed in the temple's record with its own provenance, the same discipline the spelling gets.
For the Voice
'TSOO-koo-yoh-mee' — the initial 'ts' is crisp, and the final vowel is clear. The reconstructed line runs `/tsɯ.kɯ.jo.mi/` — the temple's pronunciation atlas carries the phonemes one by one.
The Discipline It Answers To
This restoration belongs to Japanese, a tradition that keeps its gods in the landscape and the landscape in the name. The rules that govern it are not house style; they are the tradition's own scholarship, applied with the same care here as in any edition — and published, with the sources, so the file can be checked the way an edition can be checked. Tier-2 here means one preserved truth — not less important, just singular. The temple shows it and names it.
The File Continues
Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.
Continue the series — previous file: Troíā (read it here) · next file: Tūmatauenga (read it here).
The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.