Upon Izanagi's return from Yomi, he went to a river to cleanse himself. While he was washing up, a strange thing happened. From one of his eyes came the goddess Amaterasu; from the other, Tsukiyomi; and from his nose sprang Susano. It is Susano and Amaterasu that we’ll be talking about in this post.
Upon seeing his newborn children, Izanagi declared what they were to rule over. Amaterasu was given reign over the sun and heaven; her brother Susano was made the god of the sea and storms. (For anyone wondering, Tsukiyomi became deity of the moon. I use the gender-neutral “deity” because Tsukiyomi is portrayed as both male and female in the myths - something not uncommon amongst the Kami. However, Tsukiyomi is most frequently portrayed as male.)
Susano became jealous of the power given to Amaterasu. He declared that he wanted to go to Yomi and live with Izanami - because going to live with dear dead mum is somehow better than ruling over the seas? Izanagi was angered by this proposal (gee, maybe because Izanami had tried to kill him? I wonder...) and instead banished Susano from heaven.
Like the sea, Susano was not easily commanded. He went to see Amaterasu, ostensibly to bid her goodbye, but the sun goddess was not fooled. Aware of her brother’s jealousy, Amaterasu kept her bow and arrows handy.
(Anyone else find it cool that the highly patriarchal society of ancient Japan had so important of a female deity - and portrayed her as a capable warrior?)
At Susano’s suggestion, he and Amaterasu entered into a contest to see who was more powerful. Amaterasu created three goddesses from Susano’s sword; her brother created five gods from Amaterasu’s jewels. Susano declared himself the victor, since he had created more deities, but Amaterasu contested this by saying Susano had used her jewels...so it was she who had won.
Enraged, Susano descended to earth and began to wreak havoc. He caused great floods that destroyed the rice fields. He also desecrated the temple of the rice harvest.
It was Amaterasu who had taught mankind how to cultivate rice, so Susano’s actions could be seen as insults to the goddess. However, his greatest offense came when Amaterasu was weaving with her handmaidens. Susano skinned a horse alive and threw it into the hall with Amaterasu.
The goddess was terrified and fled to a cave, plunging the world into darkness. She refused to emerge, so the other gods finally stepped in and came up with a plan. They set a mirror (which is still said to be in possession of the Emperor) outside of the cave. The gods then called upon Uzume, goddess of dancing. Uzume began to dance with abandon, causing the other gods to laugh.
Within the cave, Amaterasu heard what sounded like a party going on outside. The goddess poked her head out, curious, and saw her own reflection in the mirror. The other gods declared Amaterasu’s reflection to be the replacement sun goddess. Curious to see who the goddess was, Amaterasu emerged from the cave - at which point the other gods quickly sealed its entrance with a boulder.
Unable to return to hiding, Amaterasu resumed her duties as the sun goddess. The world was once more bathed in light. As punishment for his actions, the other gods enforced Susano’s banishment, casting him to earth. We’ll talk about his adventures there in my next post.
I hope you enjoyed reading about Amaterasu and Susano! While in heaven, Susano is very much a trickster - but, like the sea, his moods can change drastically. I’ll show you what I mean next post! Until then, please comment below or email me with anything you want to discuss.
No comments:
Post a Comment