Hide-and-Seek

Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun and fertility in the Shinto religion practised in Japan. It is she who taught man to plant rice and weave cloth. According to legend, her grandchild is the ancestor of Japan’s Imperial Family.

Amaterasu was the sun goddess whose beauty and warmth blessed the land of Japan and beyond. She had a brother, Susano-O, the god of storms, who loved to give the world a shake and create havoc wherever he went. So when he invited himself over to Ama’s abode, she welcomed him warily.

‘Oh, I won’t stay for long, dear Ama. I just wanted to share your warmth and goodness for a while before I set off to visit our dear departed mother in the netherworld,’ he said, sighing theatrically.

‘Okay, but please behave yourself while you are here,’ the sun goddess implored, knowing that her brother was very likely to disobey her.

‘Not to worry, dear sister. Come on . . . Let us do the world some good. Shall we create some gods to rule the land wisely?’ he asked, his dark eyes shining with excitement. How he loved games and contests!

Ama agreed. Taking her brother’s sword, she broke it into three and chewed the pieces for several nights and days. Then she blew a light mist from her mouth, out of which appeared three beautiful goddesses. Susa then took five jewels from Ama’s necklace and chewed them for many nights and days and blew forth from his mouth five powerful gods. Susa began to boast about how his creations were more powerful than anything else in the world. Pleased with himself, he began prancing about, creating quite a (well what do you expect?) storm, which destroyed all of Ama’s rice fields!

Ama took a deep breath and counted to ten. I should not let my anger get the better of me. Poor Susa, maybe he’s doing all this because he’s afraid of the visit he has to make to see our mother in the underworld.

Ama walked away to her weaving chambers where the goddesses gathered to weave the robes for the gods. As they sat weaving quietly, there was a loud crash on the roof. A skinned, dead horse fell into their midst from above.

Ama rose, her face flushed with anger. She knew it was that wretched brother of hers, he would never change. Just what did he think of himself? Rushing out of the room, she ran and ran until she came to Amano-Iwato, a cave in a quiet corner of the heavens. Closing the entrance of the cave with a huge boulder, she hid inside. She had had enough!

With the sun goddess in hiding, the entire world was plunged into darkness.

Rivers and seas dried up, crops withered, people began to die. Disgraced, Susa left the heavens for the netherworld.

All the gods gathered to talk and decide what to do next. An old god, Hoard Thoughts, ordered that a bunch of roosters be lined up outside the cave to crow at dawn and a mirror decorated with flowers be hung on a sakaki tree outside the cave.

Beating drums and singing loudly, they began to party. A young goddess began to do the kagura, a rather spirited dance on an overturned tub. The gods laughed and cheered. Someone shouted out loudly that a goddess more beautiful than Amaterasu had appeared.

Curious, Ama moved the boulder and took a peek outside. In the mirror she saw a beautiful maiden. It was she! At that moment, Ame-no-tajikarao, the god of force, pulled her outside the cave and someone quickly placed a shimenawa rope, made of rice straw, before the entrance of the cave so that she would not be able to return there again. Once again, the sun shone brightly and all was well with the world.