Word: amaterasu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
According to ancient doctrine, Hirohito is the 124th direct descendant of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. All his childhood was a drill in the warrior-centered Shinto religion. When he was eleven, his grandfather, the Emperor, died, and General Nogi, one of Hirohito's beloved tutors, gave him a final traumatic lesson in Shinto. After sitting with him for more than three hours and reviewing the boy's studies, the old general went home to his wife. First, the couple purified themselves in Shinto rites. Then the general took a dagger, dispatched his wife, and eviscerated himself...
...water, and as he lifted it, salt water dropped from the point and solidified, to form the first of the islands of Japan. Izanagi and Izanami descended to the new land, married, and began to people heaven and earth. By washing his left eye, Izanagi produced the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu O-mikami. She took over the rule of heaven and passed earth over to her grandson and his descendants, the Emperors of Japan...
...surrender; he did so in defiance of Article 20 of the MacArthur constitution, which lays down that "the state and its organs shall refrain from . . . religious activity." And although Hatoyama himself is a Christian, fond of caroling hymns like The Old Rugged Cross, he solemnly reported his appointment to Amaterasu O-mikami, the sun goddess who, Shintoists believe, passed the divine right of succession to the present imperial family...
...According to legend, the mirror represents the sun-goddess Amaterasu Omikami, ancestress of all Japanese emperors and the sword Japan's national strength...
...General's dramatic aloofness. He lives behind a white concrete wall on a towering hilltop; his paneled office is seldom visited by a Japanese. When he steps out into his long black Cadillac, crowds gather to gaze at the man who, rumor says, is descended from Amaterasu, the sun-goddess...