Quite a number of religions, literatures, traditions and cultures of peoples around the world know of a mythological endeavour called katabasis or journey into the underworld. It is about a living person who possesses certain qualities they use to descend into the underworld and return into the world of living which makes this motif one of the typical as well as the most common ventures of nearly all mythological heroes. The motif did not elude Japanese mythology either as evidenced by the major work of the Japanese literature Kojiki. During cosmogonic and theogonic processes, the deities Izanaki and Izanami created land where they performed sexual intercourse. Their fruitful theogonic process was interrupted by the birth of the fire god (jap. kami) who burned the goddess so she descended into the underworld and, in order to save her, god Inazaki undertook the journey into the underworld. Even though the literary work does not contain a detailed description, there is no doubt that the underworld in Japanese mythology is gloomy and dark, beneath the ground, filled with various mystical and sinister inhabitants, plants and animals of the underworld. Even though the underworld in the Japanese mythology is viewed in a similar way as in the cultures of other nations, the major difference is that in it souls neither die nor suffer. Being a huge endeavour, this kind of journey was undertaken by great heroes. Izanaki's counterparts are found in Greek, Roman, Norse and other mythologies. The main reason for descent into the underworld was the achievement of something not possible in the world of living, be it gaining wisdom, getting information about the underworld, conversation with a dweller of the underworld or, as in Izanaki's case, the retrieval of an inhabitant of the underworld. Equivalents to a Japanese myth can be found mostly in Greek mythology, but also in the mythologies of the far North, East and the West. After the descent into the underworld follows the return which is mostly a magical escape, but it can also be a rescue from the outside or even staying in the underworld.