You don’t have to spend much time in Japan before realising the sun is a huge cultural icon. The country itself is often hailed as the Land of the Rising Sun, and there are no prizes for guessing what the blazing red disc on its flag represents. Hence, it is no surprise that the biggest star in Shinto mythology is Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun. Folklore harking back multiple centuries detail her origins. Izanagi, known as ‘He Who Invites’, one of the gods of Japanese myth who is said to have created Japan and numerous other deities, birthed Amaterasu when he cleansed himself upon return from Yomi, The Land of the Dead. As he washed his left eye, he pulled his hand away to reveal a spectacularly bright and beautiful being. He promptly named her Amaterasu and sent her to be the ruler of the sky, effectively the becoming the sun.
“As he washed his left eye, he pulled his hand away to reveal a spectacularly bright and beautiful being. He promptly named her Amaterasu and sent her to be the ruler of the sky, effectively becoming the sun.”
During this same purifying ritual, Amaterasu’s brothers were also born; Tsukuyomi from the washing of Izanagi’s right eye, and Susanoo from the washing of his nose. While Tsukuyomi was bright, his dazzle fell short of his sister’s, so Izanagi commissioned him to become the ruler of the sky at night where he took up the role as the moon. Susanoo, the youngest of the ‘three noble children’, was depicted as an unruly being and therefore made to become the god of the sea and storms. According to Shinto cultural narratives, a rivalry brewed between Amaterasu and Susanoo. When he was told to leave heaven by Izanagi, he approached his sister to say goodbye. Suspicious, Amaterasu was on her guard, but relaxed her stance when he proposed a challenge to showcase his sincerity. Each took an object belonging to the other and created gods and goddesses from it. In the end, Amaterasu decided that she had won the challenge and peace stilled the air between the two for a while.
However, Susanoo started to harbour some restlessness after some time, and succumbed to it soon thereafter, going on a rampage of epic proportions. Fuelled by rage, he laid waste to Amaterasu’s rice fields, lobbed a flayed pony at her loom, and even killed one of her attendants.
Stricken by grief and overcome with burning anger, Amaterasu took off and decided to hide inside a cave called Ama-no-Iwato, which translates to ‘Heavenly Rock Cave’ in English. Being the sun, this act robbed the world of its main source of light. It was a darkness that lasted a long time as she refused to budge from her hiding spot even after it was discovered that she was there. Amaterasu eventually left her cave and both siblings later buried the hatchet and mended their relationship when Susanoo presented the mythical Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword, that he obtained from the body of an eight-headed monstrous serpent he had slain. This legendary sword is considered one of The Three Sacred Treasures of Japan that have been presented to the Japanese imperial family by priests since the year 690.
