Susanoo is the Shinto god of storms, of the sea and of wild, unruly forces, the impetuous and turbulent brother of the sun goddess Amaterasu. He is born, in the Kojiki, from the nose of the creator Izanagi as the god purifies himself after his return from the land of the dead, while Amaterasu is born from his left eye and the moon god Tsukuyomi from his right. From the first Susanoo is a figure of ungoverned emotion and violence.
Assigned to rule the sea, he instead weeps and rages, longing for his dead mother, until his father in anger banishes him; and when he goes up to heaven to take leave of his sister, his behaviour there becomes catastrophic. He breaks down the divisions of her rice fields, defiles her halls, and flings a flayed horse into her weaving hall, killing one of her attendants, outrages so severe that Amaterasu, in fear and grief, hides herself in the rock cave and takes the light from the world.