After the three goddesses and five gods had come into being, Susa-no-wo declared, “I have undoubtedly gained [[368]]the victory”. He then proceeded to harry the celestial regions. He broke down the divisions of the rice-fields, filled up the ditches, and fouled with excrement and urine the palace in which the goddess took food. He became even more violent. Having broken open a hole in the sacred house in which sat Ama-terâsu superintending the weaving of the garments of deities, he let fall into it a heavenly piebald horse that had been flayed backwards (a criminal offence). The celestial female weavers were terrified.
Alarmed by Susa-no-wo’s doings, the sun-goddess entered her cave, the Heavenly Rock Dwelling,[32] shut the door and made it fast. All the land became dark.
AMATERÂSU, THE SUN GODDESS, EMERGING FROM HER CAVE
From a Japanese painting in the British Museum
Then the eight hundred myriad deities took counsel, sitting in the bed of the River of Heaven, so as to plan how they could entice the sun-goddess from her hiding-place. They made the cocks (“the long-singing birds of eternal night”) to crow loud, they caused the Heavenly Smith to shape a mirror of iron (the “true metal”) from the Heavenly Metal-Mountains (the mines), and charged the Jewel-Ancestor (Tama-noya-no-mikoto) to make a complete string of five hundred curved jewels. A tree was then taken from the celestial Mount Kagu[33] and on it were hung the mirror, the jewel, cherry bark, and other offerings. The ritual was recited, and thereafter Ama-no-Uzume (the Dread Celestial Female), wearing metal head-gear (flowers of gold and silver) and a sash of club-moss from the celestial mountain, and holding in her hands a posy of bamboo grass, danced on a tub[34] until the eight hundred myriad deities laughed. Wondering to hear sounds of merriment, instead of sounds of woe, the sun-goddess [[369]]opened the door of her cave a little and asked why they all laughed. She was told that the deities rejoiced because they had among them a more august goddess than herself.
One of the gods then held up the mirror, and the sun-goddess was astonished to behold a bright deity, not knowing it was her reflected image, and gradually came forth, fascinated by her own beauty and brightness. A strong deity took her hand and drew her out while another deity, Grand Jewel, drew a straw rope behind her so as to prevent her retreating.[35] In this manner the sun-goddess was enticed to return and light up the world.
The second expulsion of Susa-no-wo followed. He was fined an immense fine of table-offerings, his beard was shorn, and his finger and toe nails were drawn out.
According to the Ko-ji-ki, he begged for food from the food-goddess. She took “dainty things” from various parts of her body which he regarded as filth, so he slew her. Then from her head “were born silk-worms, in her two eyes were born rice-seeds, in her two ears were born millet, in her nose were born small beans, in her private parts were born barley, in her fundament were born large beans”. These were used as seeds. According to the Nihon-gi, they were sown “in the narrow fields and in the long fields of Heaven”.
The reason for keeping the mirror and jewels (tama) in the shrine of Ise, and for worshipping the sun-goddess and the food-goddess there, are thus explained in Shinto mythology. Virgin priestesses danced at religious ceremonies as did the tub-thumping goddess, and offerings [[370]]were suspended from trees as in the celestial regions, while the straw rope was utilized to keep back demons and to ensure the rising of the sun by preventing the retreat of the sun-goddess.