Who Is Amaterasu?
The sun goddess who rules the heavens
Amaterasu-Ōmikami
Amaterasu (Amaterasu-Ōmikami) is the sun goddess of the Kojiki and the ruler of Takamanohara, the High Plain of Heaven where the gods live. She was born when Izanagi washed his left eye while purifying himself after returning from Yomi, the land of the dead. Together with Tsukuyomi and Susanoo, she is one of the "Three Noble Children."
When her younger brother Susanoo climbed up to heaven, she suspected he had come to take her land and met him armed for battle. After their sacred oath contest, she kept defending his wild behavior, until a weaving maiden died because of him. Then she shut herself inside the Heavenly Rock Cave (Ama-no-Iwato), and the world was covered in darkness. After the gods' plan brought her back out, she declared that the land below should be ruled by her descendants. She gave her grandson Ninigi a mirror, telling him to worship it as her own spirit, and sent him down to earth.
She is regarded as the ancestor of Japan's imperial family and is enshrined at the Inner Shrine of Ise Grand Shrine.
Episodes featuring this character6
Episode 2
She Begged Him Not to LookIzanagi and Izanami in Yomi, the Land of the Dead
Izanami dies after giving birth to the god of fire, and her husband Izanagi goes down to the land of the dead to bring her back. She asks him for one thing: don't look at her. He looks. With a great boulder between them, they trade vows of death and birth and part forever. Then, as Izanagi washes himself clean, the children of the sun, the moon and the storm are born.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
Why the Sun Goddess Met Her Brother in ArmorThe Oath of Amaterasu and Susanoo
Cast out by his father, Susanoo climbs to Heaven to say goodbye to his sister Amaterasu, but she meets him in full battle gear. They settle it with a sacred oath in which each brings forth children. Susanoo shouts "I win!" and goes on a rampage, and his sister keeps covering for him. Then a weaving maiden dies, and Amaterasu, now afraid, shuts herself away in the Rock Cave.
19 pages
Episode 4
Darkness Fell. Why Are the Gods Laughing?The Heavenly Rock Cave (Ama-no-Iwato)
When the sun goddess Amaterasu shuts herself inside a rock cave, the world falls into darkness. The gods throw a festival outside her door and use laughter to draw the light back out. Her younger brother Susanoo brought on the darkness. He is the only one who can't laugh, and the gods banish him to the land below. There he stops when he hears someone crying upstream.
19 pages
Episode 5
To Slay a Dragon, First Get It DrunkYamata no Orochi
Cast out of the heavens and convinced he has lost everything, Susanoo lands by the upper Hi River in Izumo. There he meets an elderly couple who have lost seven daughters to a giant serpent, and their last daughter, Kushinadahime, who calmly waits her turn. He turns her into a comb and sets her in his hair, has the family brew sake eight times over, and lures the eight-headed Yamata no Orochi into drinking itself to sleep. Mid-battle he snatches the falling comb from the air, slays every head, and finds a great sword inside the serpent's tail. For the first time he gives something away of his own will, presenting the sword to his sister Amaterasu, then returns to Izumo, where clouds rise from the earth and he sings of the eightfold fence he builds for his bride.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 8
On a Sword's Tip, He Demanded the KingdomThe Transfer of the Land (Kuni-yuzuri)
Okuninushi has guarded the land he built with his best friend all on his own. Heaven sends envoy after envoy, and none of them come back. The last to arrive is Takemikazuchi, a thunder god of few words, who sits on the point of a sword planted in the sea. After a trial of strength, the king gives up his land on one condition: a shrine whose pillars reach the sky.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 9
The Blinding Giant and the Smallest DancerThe Descent of the Heavenly Grandson
As the young god Ninigi prepares to descend to the earth, a blinding god who lights both heaven and earth blocks his way. Uzume, the smallest of the dancing goddesses, goes to him alone, stepping as if she were dancing, and demands to know who he is. Ninigi lands on the earth carrying his grandmother's mirror. Uzume then sees the guide god off to the sea and takes his name as her own.
19 pages