Amaterasu, the sun goddess, took the throne in the distant, deep, blue vault of heaven. Her radiance served as glad tidings to the heavenly deity.
Orchids and iris, cherry and plum flowers, rice fields and hemp plants answered her smile with smile, and the lakes and waters reflected her in thousands of sparkling colors.
But Susano-o, brother of Amaterasu, who ruled over the ocean and now ruled for the god of the month, was jealous of his sister’s glory and all-conquering power.
One whisper of the goddess emitting rays was enough, and all the light turned into hearing, and her voice was perceived in the depths of the crystals and at the bottom of the mirror-transparent lake.
Her rice fields yielded abundantly, whether they were on a mountain slope, in a sheltered valley, or beside a raging stream, and her fruit trees bowed under the weight of their fruit.
But Susano-o’s voice was not so pure, his smile was not so luminous. Its fields surrounding the chambers were often flooded and they perished; his rice crops also died from time to time.
The god of the month’s anger and frustration knew no bounds, but Amaterasu was infinitely patient and forgave him everything.
One day the sun goddess was sitting, as always, preoccupied with work, in the courtyard of her heavenly home, spinning. Spinners of heavenly origin of rare beauty surrounded the springs, over the waves of which the fragrance of lotus flowers floated, and wonderful songs were heard, announcing the wind, clouds, and the vault of heaven.
And suddenly, through the blue sky, the frozen corpse of a pinto horse, the favorite of the gods, fell at the feet of the spinner. The envious Susano-o killed him and skinned him.
At the sight of the horse, Amaterasu shuddered and pricked her finger with a spindle and, outraged by her brother’s ferocity, withdrew into the cave and locked the door of the heavenly dwelling in the rock behind her.
The whole world plunged into darkness. Joy and good nature, spiritual purity and peace, hope and love - disappeared with the fading light. The evil spirits, which until then had been lurking in dark corners, finally dared to come out into the wild and began to wander everywhere. And their terrifying laughter, their mind-clouding songs filled the hearts with horror.
In the end, all the gods, who feared both for their safety and for the existence of everything beautiful in the world, gathered in the bed of a heavenly stream, the waters of which had dried up.
Everyone knew that only Amaterasu could help them. But how can they persuade the heaven-illuminating goddess to enter this world of darkness and discord?!.. Eight hundred deities were invited to the council, and finally a plan was found to bring Amaterasu out of her imprisonment.
And so Amenako uprooted the sacred Sakaki trees that grow on the heavenly hills and planted them in front of the entrance to the cave. High on the top branches hung valuable chains made of shiny precious stones, which Izanaki had given to the sun goddess.
The middle branches were occupied by a mirror made of noble metals from the heavenly mountains. Its shiny surface emitted rays from itself, like the face of the sun.
The other gods wove a royal robe of white and blue from fiber, hemp and paper mulberry, which they hung on the lower branches of the Sakaki tree as a sign of expression of their zeal.
A palace was also built, surrounded by a garden, in which the goddess of plants commanded many thousands of her favorite plants and flowers to bloom. And now everything was ready.
Then Amenako stepped forward and in a loud voice asked the sun goddess to show herself to them... but in vain. Then the great celebration began. Uzume, the goddess of joy, sang loudly and began to dance in a circle.
Heather leaves adorned her head, and dry stems from the heavenly mountain Kagu girded her flexible figure; wild grapes twined around her flowing sleeves while she held in her hand wild bamboo leaves, hung like a magic wand with tiny melodious bells.
Uzume played the bamboo flute, while eight hundred myriads of deities accompanied her with their musical instruments. Some rattled like wooden rattles; others had instruments with a stretched bowstring, along which they drew stalks of wolf and simple grass with the speed of lightning; a huge fire was lit around the cave, and when the mirror reflected its glow, the “long-singing birds of the eternal night” began to shout, as if morning had dawned. The gaiety took its toll.
The ranks of the gods became more and more animated, and the gods laughed so much that the sky shook as if from thunder. Amaterasu listened motionless in her solitude to the crowing of roosters, the sounds of music and the noise of dancing; but when the sky shook with the laughter of the gods, she cautiously looked out from her hiding place and asked:
- What does this mean? I thought heaven and earth were in darkness, but I see light. Uzume dances and all the gods laugh! Uzume replied:
“I can dance, and the gods can laugh, because among us there is now one deity whose beauty is like yours!” Look!..
Amaterasu glanced at the mirror and was terribly surprised to notice a goddess of supernatural beauty in it. She left the cave, and at the threshold, immediately in front of the entrance, a rope of rice straw was twisted so that the goddess could not hide back. The darkness disappeared and light appeared.
And then eight hundred myriads of deities exclaimed:
- Oh, may the sun goddess never leave us!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru