Amaterasu Omikami, the great kami who illuminates heaven, is the sun goddess of Shinto and the most exalted deity of the traditional Japanese pantheon. She is born, in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, from the left eye of the primordial god Izanagi as he purifies himself, and she is given rule over Takamagahara, the high plain of heaven.
Her central myth is the hiding in the cave. Offended and frightened by the violence of her brother, the storm-god Susanoo, Amaterasu withdraws into the Ama-no-Iwato, the heavenly rock-cave, and seals it, and the world goes dark. The assembled kami must lure her out: they hang a mirror and jewels on a tree, and the goddess Ame-no-Uzume performs a wild, comic dance that sets the gods roaring with laughter. Curious at the noise while she is meant to be absent, Amaterasu peers out, is caught by her own reflection in the mirror, and is drawn back into the world, restoring the light.
Unlike many sun deities, Amaterasu is female, and she is a goddess whose supremacy is expressed less through conquest than through light, weaving and the ordered fertility of the ruled world.