The gods looked from heavenly heights and saw that evil underground spirits were populating the earth more and more. There was no peace from them either day or night. Oshi-Khomi - Light-haired, one of the highest heavenly spirits, was appointed to descend to earth and rule it. As soon as he stepped onto the “floating bridge”, he heard the noise of strife and turmoil, returned back and said:
- Choose another deity to do this deed instead of me.
And then the Great Heavenly Spirit and Amaterasu summoned eight hundred myriads of deities into the bed of the dried up heavenly stream. And the sun goddess said:
— Disorder and confusion reign in the world. The Divinity must descend upon them to prepare the ground for our son, Prince Ninigi, to rule over it. Who should we send?
And eight hundred myriads of deities said:
“Let Ame-Noho come down to earth.”
And Ame-Noho descended to earth; he lived there so happily that he almost completely forgot about the instructions given to him by the heavenly deities. He lived in peace with evil spirits, and unrest and disorder still reigned.
The Great Heavenly Spirit and Amaterasu waited for news for three years, but all in vain. Then they said:
“We will send Ame-Wako, the young prince of heaven, he will carefully follow our orders.”
And they gave him a huge celestial bow for game and a celestial feathered arrow that always hit the target.
- With this, you must start a war against evil underground spirits and restore order in the country!..
But as soon as the young prince landed on the seashore, the wonderfully beautiful princess of the Shining Land found herself in front of him. Her gracefulness charmed Ame-Wako. He admired her and could not take his eyes off her. Soon after that they got married.
Eight years have passed. The young prince killed time with merry feasts and pleasures. He never even tried to establish peace and order on earth; he even entered into relations with earthly spirits and acted together with them in defiance of the heavenly spirits in order to rule over the entire earth independently.
And again eight hundred myriads of deities gathered in the bed of the quiet heavenly stream. The Sun Goddess said:
“Our ambassador is too slow to respond. Who should we send to find out the reason for his slowness?
And then the gods called the faithful Pheasant and gave him the following order:
- Go to Ame-Wako and say: “The gods of heaven sent you to the land of the reeds to restore peace and overthrow the evil spirits of that country. For eight years you remained silent. What is the reason for this?
The pheasant hastily flew to the ground and landed on the widely spread branches of a tree growing at the gate in front of the prince's palace; he repeated the order word by word and received no answer. But Ama-no-zagu, who was close to her, heard Pheasant’s exclamation addressed to the prince; she appeared to the prince and said:
- The cry of a Pheasant portends disaster! Take your bow and arrow and kill him.
And Ame-Wako, without thinking about anything, shot Pheasant through the heart. And the heavenly arrow flew further and further. Quick as the wind, she rushed through the airy spaces and finally broke the clouds and fell at the feet of the Sun Goddess, who was sitting on her throne. Amaterasu saw that it was one of those arrows with which the prince was armed, and that its feathers were stained with blood. Then she picked up the arrow and threw it far away from her.
“If our ambassador aimed this arrow at evil earthly spirits, then it will not wound the young prince; but if Ame-Wako's heart is corrupted, let the arrow kill him.
And it so happened that when the prince indulged in rest after celebrating the harvest with great triumph, the arrow unmistakably rushed to its target and pierced the prince’s heart... The princess screamed loudly when she saw her young husband dead. Her painful moans reached the sky. And then Ame-Wako’s father raised a terrible hurricane, and this hurricane lifted the murdered prince into the blue sky.
A huge house of sorrow was built; For eight days and eight nights, crying and complaints were heard in the surrounding area, even wild swans on the rivers, gray herons and fishing birds, sparrows and pheasants uttered sad groans. When Ayi-shiki came to mourn his brother, he looked so strikingly like the young prince that his parents hugged him and said:
- Our child did not die, no! Our master is not dead, no!..
But Ain-shiki was angry that he was mistaken for his brother. He pulled out a ten-bladed sword and chopped the “house of sorrow” into pieces and scattered the wood chips to all four winds.
Then the heavenly deities said:
“Take-Mika must come down and overthrow this rebellious country.
Accompanied by Tori-Bune, he set off and came to the seashore of Inaso, in the country of Tzumo. They drew their swords. Take-Mika and Tori-Bune sat cross-legged on the blades of swords and from that time on they began a war with the earthly spirits and soon defeated them.
When peace was restored in the country and the task was completed, they returned back to the blue spheres of the high sky.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru