Amaterasu

Amaterasu (Japanese: 天照), also called Amaterasu-ōmikami (Japanese: 天照大神 or 天照大御神) or Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami (Japanese: 大日孁貴神), is the sun goddess in Japanese mythology. She is the most sacred of all Shinto deities. Her name means "which illuminates Heaven." Her shrine is at Ise.

Tradition

Amaterasu is the sister of Susanoo, the god of the sea and storms, and of Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon. All three were created from Izanagi, when he washed his face to clean the dirtiness of Yomi, the underworld. Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed out his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born from the washing of the right eye, and Susanoo from the washing of the nose.

Story

The tales tell of great rivalry between Amaterasu and Susanoo. When he was to leave Heaven forever because Izanagi ordered him to, he went to say goodbye to his sister. Amaterasu was suspicious, and soproposed him a challenge: each of them was to turn an object of the other into people. Amaterasu created three women from Susanoo's sword while he created five men from her necklace. Amaterasu said that the men were hers because they were born of her necklace.

Susanoo destroyed her rice fields, threw a dead pony into her loom, and killed one of her assistants in anger. Amaterasu became sad, angry, and scared and went to hide inside Ama-no-Iwato, the "heavenly rock cave" and so the Sun was hidden and the world became dark for a long time. The oni (devils of Japanese mythology) came out to the dark world, and the gods could not make Amaterasu come out of the cave.

The intelligent goddess of happiness, Ama-no-Uzume (天宇受売命), took a big bucket, turned it upside down near the cave entrance, began a dance on it, and tore off her clothing in front of the other Kami. They thought that was so funny that they laughed happily.

Amaterasu heard them and looked out to see why the gods were laughing. When she opened the cave, she saw her wonderful reflection in a mirror that Uzume had put on a tree, and she slowly came out of the cave.

At that moment, the god Ameno-Tajikarao (天手力男命) closed the cave behind her so that she could not go back in. Another god tied a magic rope across the entrance. The sun goddess was then asked by the Kami Ame-no-Koyane (天児屋根命) to go back with the gods. She agreed, and light came back to the earth, but Susanoo was punished by being banished from Heaven.

Other websites

• Shinbutsudo: A Web Page for the Study of Japanese Religions Archived 2007-07-04 at the Wayback Machine