One of the deities of the most important Japanese mythology is Amaterasu, daughter of the creator gods of the world, sister of Susano and Tsukuyomi, and who illuminates the universe. She was loved by everyone, she was always surrounded by maidens who helped her to carry out her tasks, however, an incident caused by Susano made the beautiful goddess lose her light, let’s know this interesting legend.
They say that the father of her brothers was the one who gave them their powers, and because Susano was not satisfied he challenged his sister, which won the discussion. Angry, he got drunk, and uncontrolled he destroyed the rice fields of the goddess completely, obstructed the channels, even, he threw animal waste inside each temple and the palace, he took the life of the foal from heaven and threw it in the goddess’ room, where there were also the maidens who helped her, who were crossed by the chips with which they cooked.
When Amaterasu learned of such an event and watched all the aberrations that her evil brother made, she felt devastated and locked herself in a cave, which she sealed with a huge rock. From that moment the world as it was known was sunk in the darkness, demons came out and every harvest, plant, life started withering.
The gods decided to meet in front of the cave where the goddess lay. While thinking of a solution, the god of intelligence jumped after conceiving an idea that would make Amaterasu come out. All the gods sat in front of the entrance of the cave and placed a mirror in front of it, while the goddess of dance danced and made a rhythm with her feet, the other gods were responsible for making loud noises, laughter and shouts of excitement.
Amaterasu, surprised by the noise that there was outside, decided to go and see what was happening. She peeked over the rock and asked someone close to her, he replied telling her that there was a new goddess on the heavenly plane. Amaterasu, perplexed, asked who she was, then the god pointed to the mirror they had brought, so the goddess came out, watched her reflection and was amazed at her being, since she had never seen such a shine. While the goddess was distracted the gods quickly obstructed the cave with the rock. And they managed to convince her.
Upon returning, everything was restored to normal. The goddess sent her grandson to calm the rest of the country and her great-grandson became the first emperor of Japan, who started the imperial dynasties. After everything was restored, Susano was banished from heaven for his duties. The god went to a distant region with remorse, had a battle with an imposing serpent and got a beautiful sword from it.
After winning the battle he thought that the sword would be a good gift to make peace with his sister and ask for forgiveness. Susano returned to heaven and handed it to her, so Amaterasu forgave him and let him return to the Palace.
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