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AMA-NO-UZUME
AMATERASU
AMATSU MIKABOSHI
BENZAITEN
BISHAMON
CHIMATA-NO-KAMI
HO-MASUBI
IZANAGI and IZANAMI
KAWA-NO-KAMI
NAI-NO-KAMI
NINIGI
O-KUNI-NUSHI
SENGEN-SAMA
SHINE-TSU-HIKO
SUSA-NO-WO
AJI-SUKI-TAKA-HI-KONE
One of several thunder gods. Born noisy, he grew up even noisier, and so they carry him
up and down a ladder to quiet him. That is why you can hear him receding and approaching.
Fertility goddess. A companion of Ninigi, she performed a bawdy dance hoping to entice
the sun out of hiding. This dance symbolizes the planting of seed which waits for the sun
come after winter.
Sun goddess, ruler of the heavens. When her great enemy, the storm god Susa-No-Wo,
destroyed her fine palace, Amaterasu went to hide in a cave. The other gods used all
their magical tricks to get her to come out, to no avail. In her absence, darkness and
demons ruled the earth until Ama-No-Usume lured Amaterasu out of the cave with a trick.
With a comical and obscene dance, he made the gods gathered at the mouth of the cave
laugh. When Amaterasu asked waht was going on, Ama-No-Uzume replied that they had found
another and better sun goddess. Amaterasu peeped out of her cave and saw her own
reflection in a mirror which Ama-No-Uzume had hung on a nearby tree. Fascinated,
Ameratasu drew a little closer for a better look, and the gods grabbed her and hauled
her out.
"August Star of Heaven." God of evil.
Goddess of love, one of the gods of happiness. Benzaiten rides a dragon while playing
a stringed instrument.
God of happiness and war, a strange combination. Bishamon protects men from disease
and demons. Bishamon was often portrayed wearing a wheel of fire like a halo, which
some see as the Wheel of Fate.
God of crossroads, highways and footpaths. Originally a phallic god, his phallic symbol
was placed at crossroads.
Fire god. His birth killed the creator goddess Izanami, and his father, the creator god
Izanagi, was so enraged with grief that he killed the baby. From his blood came eight
gods, and from the body came eight mountain gods.
Creator god and goddess sent down from heaven to build the earth. The other gods and
goddesses are their descendents, but when the god of fire was born he burned his mother
to death. Descending to the underworld, Izanami became old and ugly. Izanagi followed
her to bring her back, but she forbade him to look at her. Izanagi looked anyway and
Izanami tried to imprision him in the underworld. Pursued by Izanimi's furies, Izanagi
escaped and sealed up the entrance to the underworld with a boulder. Enraged, Izanami
vowed to kill a thousand of Izanami's subjects a day, and Izanami vowed to create fifteen
hundred a day. So it was that Izanami became the goddess of death and Izanagi became
the lord of life.
God of rivers. Larger rivers have their own gods, but all waterways are under Kawa-No-Kami's
authority. When rivers flooded, the gods were sometimes appeased with human sacrifices.
God of earthquakes. A late addition to the Japanese pantheon, Nai-No-Kami was inducted
in the seventh century A.D.
Grandson of Amaterasu, sent to rule the earth, the ancestor of all the Japanese emperors.
God of sorcery and medicine. Originally the ruler of the province of Izumo, he was
replaced by Ninigi, but in compensation he was made ruler of the unseen world of spirits
and magic.
Goddess of the sacred mountain of Fujiyama. At her shrine at the top of the mountain,
worshippers greet the rising sun.
God of the wind. Shine-Tsu-Hiko fills up the empty space between earth and heaven, and
with his wife Shina-To-Be, he holds up the earth.
God of storms, snakes and farming. Amaterasu's brother and greatest enemy. From the
moment he was born, he was a troublemaker. After Amaterasu was finally taken out of
her cave, Susa-No-Wo was punished. The other gods shaved his beard and moustache,
pulled out his fingernails, and banished him to live as a mortal on the earth.
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