Editing Amaterasu (section)

====Enshrinement in Ise====
{{see also|Ōmononushi|Saiō}}
[[File:Hibara-jinja, torii-2.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Ōmiwa Shrine|Hibara Shrine]] at the foot of [[Mount Miwa]] in [[Sakurai, Nara|Sakurai]], [[Nara Prefecture]]. The shrine is identified as the place where the Yata-no-Kagami and the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi were first enshrined after they were removed from the imperial palace.]]
An anecdote concerning [[Emperor Sujin]] relates that Amaterasu ([[Shintai|via the Yata-no-Kagami and the Kusanagi sword]]) and [[Yamato Okunitama|Yamato-no-Okunitama]], the [[tutelary deity]] of Yamato, were originally worshipped in the great hall of the imperial palace. When a series of plagues broke out during Sujin's reign, he "dreaded [...] the power of these Gods, and did not feel secure in their dwelling together." He thus entrusted the mirror and the sword to his daughter {{Ill|Toyosukiiri-hime|lt=Toyosukiirihime|ja|豊鍬入姫命}}, who brought them to the village of Kasanuhi,<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> and she would become the first [[Saiō]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://d-museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/eos/detail/?id=8608 | title=Encyclopedia of Shinto詳細 }}</ref> and delegated the worship of [[Yamato Okunitama|Yamato-no-Okunitama]] to another daughter, Nunakiirihime. When the pestilence showed no sign of abating, he then performed [[Futomani|divination]], which revealed the plague to have been caused by [[Ōmononushi]], the god of [[Mount Miwa]]. When the god was offered proper worship as per his demands, the epidemic ceased.<ref name=":5">{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|wspages=151-154}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book |translator1-last=Katō |translator1-first=Genchi |translator2-last=Hoshino |translator2-first=Hikoshirō  |title=Kogoshūi: Gleanings from Ancient Stories. Translated with an introduction and notes |date=1925 |publisher=Meiji Japan Society |pages=29–30}}</ref>

During the reign of Sujin's son and successor, [[Emperor Suinin]], custody of the sacred treasures were transferred from Toyosukiirihime to Suinin's daughter [[Yamatohime-no-mikoto|Yamatohime]], who took them first to "Sasahata in Uda" to the east of Miwa. Heading north to [[Ōmi Province|Ōmi]], she then eastwards to [[Mino Province|Mino]] and proceeded south to [[Ise Province|Ise]], where she received a revelation from Amaterasu:

{{blockquote|Now Ama-terasu no Oho-kami instructed Yamato-hime no Mikoto, saying:—"The province of Ise, of the divine wind, is the land whither repair the waves from the eternal world, the successive waves. It is a secluded and pleasant land. In this land I wish to dwell." In compliance, therefore, with the instruction of the Great Goddess, a shrine was erected to her in the province of Ise. Accordingly an [[Abstinence Palace]] was built at Kaha-kami in Isuzu. This was called the palace of Iso. It was there that Ama-terasu no Oho-kami first descended from Heaven.<ref>{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|wspages=176}}</ref>}}

This account serves as the origin myth of the [[Ise Grand Shrine|Grand Shrine of Ise]], Amaterasu's chief place of worship.

[[File:Yamato Takeru by Takahashi Yuichi (Geidai Museum).jpg|thumb|[[Yamato Takeru]]]]
Later, when Suinin's grandson Prince Ousu (also known as [[Yamato Takeru]]) went to Ise to visit his aunt Yamatohime before going to conquer and pacify the [[Kantō region|eastern regions]] on the command of his father, [[Emperor Keikō]], he was given the divine sword to protect him in times of peril. It eventually came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland by a treacherous chieftain, who then set fire to the grass to entrap him. Desperate, Yamato Takeru used the sword to cut the grass around him (a variant in the ''Shoki'' has the sword miraculously mow the grass of its own accord) and lit a counter-fire to keep the fire away. This incident explains the sword's name ("Grass Cutter").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Philippi |first1=Donald L. |title=Kojiki |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400878000 |pages=238–240}}</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|wspage=205}}</ref> On his way home from the east, Yamato Takeru – apparently blinded by [[hubris]] – left the Kusanagi in the care of his second wife, Miyazuhime of [[Owari Province|Owari]], and went to confront the god of [[Mount Ibuki]] on his own. Without the sword's protection, he fell prey to the god's enchantment and became ill and died afterwards.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Philippi |first1=Donald L. |title=Kojiki |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400878000 |pages=245–249}}</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|wspages=208-210}}</ref> Thus the Kusanagi stayed in Owari, where it was enshrined in the [[Atsuta Shrine|shrine of Atsuta]].<ref>{{cite book |translator1-last=Katō |translator1-first=Genchi |translator2-last=Hoshino |translator2-first=Hikoshirō |title=Kogoshūi: Gleanings from Ancient Stories. Translated with an introduction and notes |date=1925 |publisher=Meiji Japan Society |page=33}}</ref>