Amaterasu

“ Amaterasu sent Susanoo one day upon an errand, for she wished him to find a goddess named Uke-mochi, who lived in the reedy moors. When Susanoo found her he was tired and hungry, and so he asked her for food. Uke-mochi took food from her mouth to give him and this made him very angry. “Why feed me with foul things? You shall not live!” he cried; and, drawing his sword, he struck her dead.
When he went home and told Amaterasu what he had done, his sister was in a great rage and left her brother in total darkness. She fled to the cave of Ameno and closed the entrance with a huge rock. ”

“ According to her, dancing in Japan is an essential part of religion and national tradition. In one of the oldest Japanese legends we are told that the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, being angry, hid herself in a cave, so that the world was plunged in darkness and life on earth became intolerable. The eight million deities of the Japanese heaven, seeing the sorrow and destruction wrought by Amaterasu’s absence from the world, sought by every means possible to coax her from her retreat. ”

“ So little did I know about men.”
“And weren’t they friends?”
“Far from it! The first voice said, ‘He can’t escape us any longer! He is our prisoner!’ The others echoed, ‘He is ours. Haiya!’ They were enemies looking for him, do you understand? He heard them. He knelt down and bowed his head calling on Amaterasu, the god of the sun, the god who made Japan. Then he took off his armour and bared his chest, which was covered with blood, and put his hand to his side to find the hilt of his sword. ”

“ Professor Kumi maintains that the thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not in honor of Amatérasŭ, the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed. It is related in the Kojiki that Amatérasŭ herself celebrated the feast of Niinamé. So also, the temple of Isé, the Mecca of Shintō, and the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for the worship of Heaven. The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part of primitive Shintō. ”

“ Then the gods held a council in the bed of one of the dry rivers as to how they might appease the anger of the great goddess, and at the suggestion of Taka-mi-musu-bi no kami the plan of campaign was entrusted to the wisest of the gods, Ame-no-koya-ne no mikoto, who suggested that Amaterasu should be enticed out by artifice to look at her own image. Accordingly two gods, Amatsu-mara no mikoto, the Japanese Vulcan, and Ishi-kori-dome no mikoto, [65] were set to work to make a mirror of the shape of the sun, and of metal taken from the mines in heaven. ”

“ He at once made ready to start, and great was the stir in the precincts of the Palace as he and his trusty followers gathered together and prepared for the expedition, and polished up their armour and donned it. Before he left his father's Court he went to pray at the shrines of Ise and to take leave of his aunt the Princess Yamato, for his heart was somewhat heavy at the thought of the dangers he had to face, and he felt that he needed the protection of his ancestress, Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. ”

“ The Græco-Roman explanation of an eclipse of the sun by a story of Phaeton's unsuccessful attempt to drive his father's chariot of the sun has a counterpart, though somewhat different, in Japanese lore. Amaterasu, the first-born of Izanagi and Izanami, is the sun-goddess, who, being provoked by her boisterous brother, Susanro, retires to a cavern, and leaves the world in darkness. After long effort, a shrewd appeal to feminine curiosity and jealousy succeeds in enticing her out once more to shine again on the world. ”

“ The Nihongi calls it the ‘Great-God of Ise.’
Amaterasu is not the only Sun-deity of Japanese myth. We hear of a Waka-hirume (young-sun-female) who is no doubt a personification of the morning sun, and of a Nigi-haya-hi (gentle, swift-sun) . The latter is said to have38 come down from heaven in a heavenly rock-boat, and to have become the chieftain of one of the tribes subdued by Jimmu Tennō. He may, however, have been a human being named as a compliment after the Sun. This proceeding is not unknown in Japanese history. But I rather suspect that he is a real Sun-god. ”

“ The goddess Amaterasu had been only an incarnation of Birushanabutsu, and all the deities of the land were but the Buddha himself in various human forms. By this skillful reasoning they dispelled the inherited prejudices of the people and gave a great impulse to the spread of their creed. Gyōgi, Dōshō, Ryōben, and others acquired notable influence with the masses, and, aided by their pupils, preached in such manner as to popularize Buddhism throughout the land. About this era, also, many priests came to Japan from China. ”

“ Jimmu, according to the Chronicles, set out from Hiūga in 667 B.C. and was not crowned at his new palace in Yamato until 660. This campaign of seven years is described in some detail, but no satisfactory information is given as to the nature of the craft in which the invader and his troops voyaged, or as to the number of men under his command. The weapons said to have been carried were bows, spears and swords. A supernatural element is imported into the narrative in the form of the three-legged crow of the sun, which Amaterasu sends down to act as guide and messenger for her descendants. ”

“ I thought heaven and earth were dark but now there is light. Uzume dances and all the gods laugh." Uzume answered, "It is true that I dance and that the gods laugh because in our midst is a goddess whose splendour equals your own!" Ama-Terasu gazed into the mirror and wondered greatly when she saw therein a goddess of exceeding beauty—her own lovely image. She stepped from her cave and forthwith a cord of rice-straw was drawn across the entrance. Darkness fled from the land and there was light. Then the eight hundred myriad deities cried, "O, may the sun-goddess never leave us again." ”

“ The Damsel entered the ship glad for the sword which she had stolen, and she told Ardan Canileo and Madasima how she had sped. Ardan thanked her for what she had done, and he said to Madasima, my Lady, account me not for a Knight if I do not bring you back with honour; and if I give you not the head of Amadis in less time than a man can go half a league, how swift soever he be, never grant me your love. ”

“ Then the Empress said:—"It is a strange thing." Wherefore the men of the day called that place the Land of Medzura. The present name Matsura [23] is a corruption of this. For this reason, whenever the 1st decade of the 4th month comes round, the women of that land take hooks, which they cast into the river and catch trout—a custom which has not ceased unto this day. The men may angle for fish, but they cannot catch any.
This having been done, the Empress knew that there was virtue in the teaching of the Gods, and she made sacrifice anew to the Gods of Heaven and Earth. ”

“ Of these names European writers have generally adopted Ama-terasu, which, like Phoibos, is in reality a mere epithet, and is applied to other deities. Hirume, or sun-female, is more expressive, and probably older.
In modern times the appellation Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is little used, its Chinese equivalent Tenshōdaijin being substituted. Partly under cover of a name which is less clearly intelligible to the multitude, the tendency has become accentuated to throw her solar functions into the background and to conceive of her simply as a general Providence, at the expense of other deities. ”

“ After the battle which King Lisuarte had with the seven Kings of the Islands, I returned into Spain to the King my father, and there was busied in his disputes with the Africans, till I heard that my cousin Amadis was gone into some foreign land no man knew whither. But then, because he was the flower and mirror of all my lineage, and the one whom I the most esteemed and loved, his loss so greatly grieved me, that I determined to go in his quest, and therefore came hither to this Island, thinking that here I might likeliest hear some tidings of him ”

“ The Green Sword Knight then gave his shield and helmet to Lasindo and turned to Angriote, who stood astonished at his valour, thinking he was Don Bruneo, but coming near him he knew Amadis, and ran to him with open arms, thanking God that he was found. They then with tears embraced as men who loved each other well. ”

“ Quoth Amadis, If you do not defend Love better with the sword than with the lance, you will be a bad champion. The Knight made no reply, but struck at him in great fury: the sword fell on the rim of the shield, and entered in aslant, and he could not pluck it out. Amadis stood in his stirrups, and gave him a blow on his head, and cut away the trappings of his helmet and the skin of his head, and the sword held on and came upon the neck of the horse, so that he fell dead, and the rider senseless. ”

“ Ama-terasu is the central figure in Japanese mythology, for it is from the Sun Goddess that the Mikados are descended. In the cycle of legends known as the Period of the Gods, we are introduced to the Sacred Treasures, we discover the origin of the Japanese dance, and in imagination wander through the High Plain of Heaven, set foot upon the Floating Bridge, enter the Central Land of Reed-Plains, peep into the Land of Yomi, and follow Prince Fire-Fade into the Palace of the Sea King. ”

“ The neophyte, with a sigh, turned to the casement. A thick grating defended it, and shut out all hopes of escape.
"We can do nothing, unless assisted from without," said Amador.—"I would to heaven, I had kept my knaves at my side! With such a wary servant as Baltasar at my back, and so faithful a desperado as Lazaro at my side, I should have made another sort of departure from that abhorred tower. The varlets are perhaps sleeping in security, without a thought of their master. ”

“ And a dream came to her, wherein she seemed to be in the outer room and no longer in the closet, but bound hand and foot and with a handkerchief tied across her mouth, so that she could utter no sound; while before her stood the crone with a hatchet in her hand and the young men each with a knife, and on the pallet in the corner lay the stranger; and in her dream the stranger had the face of Count Amadeo. ”

“ Susa-no-o, or "The Impetuous Male," was the brother of Ama-terasu, the Sun Goddess. Now Susa-no-o was a very undesirable deity indeed, and he figured in the Realm of the Japanese Gods as a decidedly disturbing element. His character has been clearly drawn in the Nihongi, more clearly perhaps than that of any other deity mentioned in these ancient records. Susa-no-o had a very bad temper, which often resulted in many cruel and ungenerous acts. ”

“ The Knights remained greatly abashed; if Amadis were alive and well, quoth Nicoran, verily I should say this were he, for I know no other who would have left us thus. It is not he, said Galiseo, some of us should have known him, and he would not have jousted with us, being his friends. Giontes, the nephew of King Lisuarte, who was one of them, replied. Would it were Amadis, our dishonour would be well gained! but be he who he may, God prosper him wherever he goes! for he won our horses like a good Knight, and like a good Knight restored them. ”

“ Too many shepherd swains are trying to Get the Most Good out of her. When Caius Scriblerius prints his lyric about the light of Amatoria's eyes, which disperses his melancholy moods, the average public, at least in Boston, cares nothing for it, until somebody in lack of employment discovers that as Saint Patrick's snakes were heathen rites, and as Beatrice Portinari was a system of philosophy, so Amatoria's eyes personify the sun-myth. ”

“ Now Arcalaus the Enchanter, had, as you have heard, stirred up King Aravigo, and Barsinan, Lord of Sansuena, and the King of the Deep Island, who had escaped from the battle of the Seven Kings, and all the lineage of Dardan the Proud, and when he knew that Amadis and King Lisuarte had collected their forces, he dispatched a Knight called Garin, who was the son of Grumen one of the Enchanter's kinsmen, whom Amadis slew when he rescued Oriana. Him he bade rest neither day nor night till he had borne the intelligence to all those Chiefs. ”

“ Then she spoke:
“In the hand of the King is death, and even the greatest of those who practise sorcery cannot withstand such—at least not always. But know this, son of Matyo-bane, with my death shall utterly perish all hope of the seat of Senzangakona to thee and thine. Further, know that, without my help, the very House of Matyobane shall in two generations be rooted up and utterly destroyed, scattered to the winds, and the people of the Amandebeli shall become even as Amaholi to those who are stronger.” ”

“ Ameto, though half blinded by the heavenly effulgence, sees a new joy and beauty shine upon the faces of the nymphs, and understands that the flame-shrouded presence is that, not of the wanton mater cupidinum, but of the goddess of divine fire who comes to reveal to him the mysteries of love. Cleansed of his grosser nature by a baptismal rite, in which each of the nymphs performs some symbolic ceremonial, he feels heavenly love replacing human in his heart, and is able to bear undazzled the radiance of the divine purity. ”

“ God, who knows all things, sees that we forbear for his sake, for they are all at our mercy. Agrayes, whom Amadis did not see, was near King Perion, and heard all that was said: how, Sir Cousin, quoth he, now that you have conquered your enemies, and are now on the point of becoming the most honourable Prince in the world, would you stay and spare them now? Amadis replied, Sir Cousin, I would spare our own people, lest in the darkness they should slay one another; as for the enemy, I hold them as conquered, for they can make no defence. ”