Amaterasu-ōmikami

Amaterasu (), Amaterasu-ōmikami (天照大神／天照大御神／天照皇大神), or Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami (大日孁貴神) is a deity of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is seen as the goddess of the sun and the universe. The name Amaterasu is derived from Amateru and means "shining in heaven". The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great august kami (deity) who shines in the heaven". According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in Japanese mythology, the Emperors of Japan are considered to be direct descendants of Amaterasu.

Amaterasu appears to be the Japanese expression of a historical pan-Asiatic solar goddess. Several similarities have been noticed between the Japanese solar goddess and the Korean solar goddess, Hae-nim, particularly in regard to shamanistic worship, using the same symbols and practices. Another possible expression is the Chinese goddess, Xihe. Although historically, she probably was venerated highly throughout Asia, only in Japan did this deity find continuous worship as a central figure, as elsewhere, several other religious movements, such as Buddhism and Taoism, discouraged the veneration of solar goddesses.

Records of the worship of Amaterasu are found from the c. 712 CE Kojiki and c. 720 CE Nihon Shoki, the oldest records of Japanese history. In Japanese mythology, Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, is the sister of Susanoo, the god of storms and the sea, and of Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon. It was written that Amaterasu had painted the landscape with her siblings while she created ancient Japan. Amaterasu, the supreme Japanese deity, was said to have been created by the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami, who were themselves created by, or grew from, the originator of the Universe, Amenominakanushi.All three deities were born from Izanagi when he was purifying himself upon entering Yomi, the underworld, after breaking the promise not to see dead Izanami and he was chased by her and Yakusan-no-ikaduchigami, 八雷神, surrounding rotten Izanami. Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed out his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born from the washing of the right eye, and Susanoo from the washing of the nose.

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