The Opening of the Heavenly Rock Cave — The Origin of the Festival That Broke the Darkness
Susanoo no Mikoto, having ascended to Takamanohara, the Plain of High Heaven, gave free rein to his violence — breaking down the ridges of the rice fields and defiling the halls. His sister Amaterasu Ōmikami shielded her brother at first; but when a flayed horse was hurled into the weaving hall and a weaving maiden lost her life, her grief grew deep. She hid herself within Ama-no-Iwato, the heavenly rock cave, and shut its door fast.
With the sun goddess hidden, Takamanohara and Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, the Central Land of Reed Plains, were plunged wholly into darkness. Night stretched on without end, the voices of evil gods filled the air like swarming flies, and every calamity broke out at once. The eight hundred myriad gods (yaoyorozu no kamigami), at their wits' end, gathered on the riverbed of Ame-no-Yasu-no-Kawara and set Omoikane no Kami, the god of wisdom, to devising a plan. Not to force the door open, but to contrive something that would make Amaterasu wish to come out of her own accord — so began the contest of the gods' wits.
The gods gathered long-crowing cocks and set them crowing; they cast the mirror Yata-no-Kagami, fashioned the curved jewels Yasakani-no-Magatama, and hung them upon a sacred sakaki tree offered before the rock door. Solemn norito prayers rang out. Then Ame-no-Uzume no Mikoto, cords of hikage vine from the heavenly Mount Kagu upon her shoulders, overturned a tub, stamped upon it till it resounded, and danced in divine possession. At that dance, breast laid bare, the laughter of the eight hundred myriad gods rang out until it shook Takamanohara.
Wondering at laughter ringing through a world of darkness, Amaterasu Ōmikami opened the rock door a crack and asked: "With me hidden, the world should be dark — why then do you all laugh?" Ame-no-Uzume answered: "A deity nobler than you has come, and so we rejoice and dance." Seeing her own figure in the mirror held out to her, and taking it for that noble god, Amaterasu leaned further out. In that instant Ame-no-Tajikarao no Kami, the god of strength who had hidden beside the door, took her august hand and drew her forth — and light returned to the world.
When light returned, Futodama no Mikoto swiftly stretched a shimenawa, a sacred rope, across behind the rock door and said, "You must go back no further within than this." The scene is held to be the origin of the shimenawa ropes of shrines. The gods made Susanoo atone for his offenses and banished him from Takamanohara. This festival before the rock door is said to be the origin of Japan's matsuri, beginning with the kagura dance. One tradition adds that the rock door, flung away by Ame-no-Tajikarao, flew as far as Shinshū and became Mount Togakushi. That the darkness was broken not by force of arms but by dance and laughter — herein lies the deep magnanimity of this myth.
Togakushi Jinja holds the tradition that the flying rock door became Mount Togakushi, and enshrines the gods of the opening of the rock door — Ame-no-Tajikarao no Mikoto, Ame-no-Uzume no Mikoto and others — across its five shrines. Tenkawa Daibenzaitensha and Heitate Jingū likewise hand down ties to the rock-door myth, drawing the faith of those seeking progress in the performing arts and the opening of fortune.
NaganoTogakushi Shrine
Five shrines beneath a sacred peak, enshrining the gods who opened the Rock Cave of Heaven.
NaraTenkawa Daibenzaiten Shrine
The Benzaiten of the performing arts, worshipped to the sound of the Isuzu bells.
KumamotoHeitate Jingu
A hidden sanctuary of Kyushu, keeper of the Takamagahara legend.