What is the name of the heavenly realm where the Shinto gods reside?

What is the name of the heavenly realm where the Shinto gods reside? Takamagahara is the mythological heavenly realm inhabited by the amatsukami, or heavenly kami.

Takamagahara appears most prominently in the Kojiki, Japan’s early record of myths. It is usually imagined as a sacred world above the human realm, associated with Amaterasu and other heavenly deities. Myths describe features there such as the Heavenly Rock Cave, the Heavenly River, rice fields, and sacred weaving, giving the realm an organized society rather than an empty sky.

The realm is central to the story of divine descent. Amaterasu’s grandson Ninigi-no-Mikoto is sent from Takamagahara to rule Ashihara-no-nakatsukuni, the “Central Land of Reed Plains,” a mythic name for the earthly world. This episode became important in traditions connecting the imperial line with the heavenly kami.

Takamagahara should not be confused with Yomi, the underworld, or Ashihara-no-nakatsukuni, the terrestrial realm. Its exact physical location is not settled: traditional and modern interpreters have treated it variously as a celestial, terrestrial, symbolic, or literary realm.