Amaterasu

Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu-Ōmikami (天照大御神, 天照大神) or Ōhirume-no-Muchi-no-Kami (大日孁貴神) among other names, is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (kami) of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the Kojiki (ca. 712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), as the ruler (or one of the rulers) of the heavenly realm Takamagahara and the mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial house via her grandson Ninigi. Along with her siblings, the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the impetuous storm god Susanoo, she is considered to be one of the "Three Precious Children" (三貴子 mihashira no uzu no miko/sankishi), the three most important offspring of the creator god Izanagi.

Amaterasu's chief place of worship, the Grand Shrine of Ise in Ise, Mie Prefecture, is one of Shinto's holiest sites and a major pilgrimage center and tourist spot. As with other Shinto kami, she is also enshrined in a number of Shinto shrines throughout Japan.

The goddess is referred to as 'Amaterasu-Ōmikami' (天照大御神 (あまてらすおおみかみ) / 天照大神; historical orthography: あまてらすおほみかみ, Amaterasu-Ohomikami; Old Japanese: Amaterasu Opomi1kami2) in the Kojiki, while the Nihon Shoki gives the following variant names:

• Ōhirume-no-Muchi (大日孁貴 (おおひるめのむち); Man'yōgana: 於保比屢咩能武智; hist. orthography: おほひるめのむち, Ohohirume-no-Muchi; Old Japanese: Opopi1rume1-no2-Muti)[1][2]


• Amaterasu Ō(mi)kami (天照大神; hist. orthography: あまてらすおほ(み)かみ, Amaterasu Oho(mi)kami)[1][2]


• Amaterasu-Ōhirume-no-Mikoto (天照大日孁尊)[1][2]


• Hi-no-Kami (日神; OJ: Pi1-no-Kami2)[1][2]

Literally translated, the name 'Amaterasu-Ōmikami' means "the great august deity (ō "great" + honorific prefix mi- + kami) illuminating the heavens" or "heaven-illuminating great deity."[citation needed] Basil Hall Chamberlain, however, noted while citing Motoori Norinaga in his translation of the Kojiki, that it should mean "shining in heaven", not "Heaven-Illuminating", and gave his own simplified translation as the "Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity". The name is derived from the verb amateru "to illuminate / shine in the sky" (ama "sky, heaven" + teru "to shine") combined with the honorific auxiliary verb -su.[3]

Her other name, 'Ōhirume', is usually understood as meaning "great woman of the sun / daytime" (cf. hiru "day(time), noon", from hi "sun, day" + me "woman, lady"),[4][5][6] though alternative etymologies such as "great spirit woman" (taking hi to mean "spirit") or "wife of the sun" (suggested by Orikuchi Shinobu, who put forward the theory that Amaterasu was originally conceived of as the consort or priestess of a male solar deity) had been proposed.[4][7][8][9] A possible connection with the name Hiruko (the child rejected by the gods Izanagi and Izanami and one of Amaterasu's siblings) has also been suggested.[10] To this name is appended the honorific muchi,[11] which is also seen in a few other theonyms such as 'Ō(a)namuchi'[12] or 'Michinushi-no-Muchi' (an epithet of the three Munakata goddesses[13]).

As the ancestress of the imperial line, the epithet 'Sume(ra)-Ō(mi)kami' (皇大神, lit. "great imperial deity"; also read as 'Kōtaijin'[14]) is also applied to Amaterasu in names such as 'Amaterasu-Sume(ra)-Ō(mi)kami' (天照皇大神, also read as 'Tenshō Kōtaijin')[15][16] and 'Amaterashimasu-Sume(ra)-Ōmikami' (天照坐皇大御神).[17]

During the medieval and early modern periods, the deity was also referred to as 'Tenshō Daijin' (the on'yomi of 天照大神) or 'Amateru Ongami' (an alternate reading of the same).[18][19][20][21]

In classical mythology[edit]

Birth[edit]

Both the Kojiki (ca. 712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) agree in their description of Amaterasu as the daughter of the god Izanagi and the elder sister of Tsukuyomi, the deity of the moon, and Susanoo, the god of storms and seas. The circumstances surrounding the birth of these three deities, known as the "Three Precious Children" (三貴子 mihashira no uzu no miko or sankishi), however, vary between sources:

• In the Kojiki, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo were born when Izanagi went to "[the plain of] Awakigahara (阿波岐原 or 檍原) by the river-mouth of Tachibana in Himuka in [the island of] Tsukushi" and bathed (Misogi) in the river - aka "Misogi Pond (禊ぎ池)" which leads to the shrine of Misogi Goten (みそぎ御殿) where the purification act of Misogi is located beside the nearby Eda Shrine in modern-day Awakigahara-chō (阿波岐原町, i.e. "town of Awakigahara"), Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture - to purify himself after visiting Yomi, the underworld, in a failed attempt to rescue his deceased wife, Izanami. Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born when he washed his right eye, and Susanoo was born when he washed his nose. Izanagi then appoints Amaterasu to rule Takamagahara (the "Plain of High Heaven"), Tsukuyomi the night, and Susanoo the seas.[22][23][24]


• The main narrative of the Nihon Shoki has Izanagi and Izanami procreating after creating the Japanese archipelago; to them were born (in the following order) Ōhirume-no-Muchi (Amaterasu), Tsukuyomi, the 'leech-child' Hiruko, and Susanoo:

After this Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto consulted together, saying:—"We have now produced the Great-eight-island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs, and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be lord of the universe?" They then together produced the Sun-Goddess, who was called Oho-hiru-me no muchi. [...] The resplendent lustre of this child shone throughout all the six quarters. Therefore the two Deities rejoiced, saying:—"We have had many children, but none of them have been equal to this wondrous infant. She ought not to be kept long in this land, but we ought of our own accord to send her at once to Heaven, and entrust to her the affairs of Heaven."

At this time Heaven and Earth were still not far separated, and therefore they sent her up to Heaven by the ladder of Heaven.[2]

• A variant legend recorded in the Shoki has Izanagi begetting Ōhirume (Amaterasu) by holding a bronze mirror in his left hand, Tsukuyomi by holding another mirror in his right hand, and Susanoo by turning his head and looking sideways.[25]


• A third variant in the Shoki has Izanagi and Izanami begetting the sun, the moon, Hiruko, and Susanoo, as in the main narrative. Their final child, the fire god Kagutsuchi, caused Izanami's death (as in the Kojiki).[25]


• A fourth variant relates a similar story to that found in the Kojiki, wherein the three gods are born when Izanagi washed himself in the river of Tachibana after going to Yomi.[26]

Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi[edit]

One of the variant legends in the Shoki relates that Amaterasu ordered her brother Tsukuyomi to go down to the terrestrial world (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, the "Central Land of Reed-Plains") and visit the goddess Ukemochi. When Ukemochi vomited foodstuffs out of her mouth and presented them to Tsukuyomi at a banquet, a disgusted and offended Tsukuyomi slew her and went back to Takamagahara. This act upset Amaterasu, causing her to split away from Tsukuyomi, thus separating night from day.

Amaterasu then sent another god, Ame-no-Kumahito (天熊人), who found various food-crops and animals emerging from Ukemochi's corpse.

On the crown of her head there had been produced the ox and the horse; on the top of her forehead there had been produced millet; over her eyebrows there had been produced the silkworm; within her eyes there had been produced panic; in her belly there had been produced rice; in her genitals there had been produced wheat, large beans and small beans.[27]

Amaterasu had the grains collected and sown for humanity's use and, putting the silkworms in her mouth, reeled thread from them. From this began agriculture and sericulture.[27][28]

This account is not found in the Kojiki, where a similar story is instead told of Susanoo and the goddess Ōgetsuhime.[29]

Amaterasu and Susanoo[edit]

When Susanoo, the youngest of the three divine siblings, was expelled by his father Izanagi for his troublesome nature and incessant wailing on account of missing his deceased mother Izanami, he first went up to Takamagahara to say farewell to Amaterasu. A suspicious Amaterasu went out to meet him dressed in male clothing and clad in armor, at which Susanoo proposed a trial by pledge (ukehi) to prove his sincerity. In the ritual, the two gods each chewed and spat out an object carried by the other (in some variants, an item they each possessed). Five (or six) gods and three goddesses were born as a result; Amaterasu adopted the males as her sons and gave the females – later known as the three Munakata goddesses – to Susanoo.[30][31][32]