Yamato Takeru- Japanese HeroHero"The Brave of Yamato"

The Murder of Ōusu

Yamato Takeru was born as Ō-Usu-no-Mikoto, a son of Emperor Keikō, the twelfth sovereign of the Yamato line. He had an elder twin brother, also called Ōusu. When the elder brother failed to appear at meals, Emperor Keikō told the young prince to admonish him gently. Instead, the boy seized his brother, tore him limb from limb, and threw the remains away.

Emperor Keikō sent his dangerous son to subdue the Kumaso rebels in Kyushu. The Kumaso were formidable warriors, and the prince was still young.

The Kumaso Campaign

The young prince traveled to Kyushu with a plan. The Kumaso chieftain, Kumaso Takeru, was holding a feast to celebrate the completion of a new hall. Yamato Takeru let down his hair and donned women's clothing. He entered the banquet as a beautiful maiden.

Kumaso Takeru was captivated and seated the "girl" beside him. As the chieftain grew drunk, the prince drew a sword concealed in his robes and stabbed him. The dying chieftain declared: "In the west there is no one braver than us. But in the land of Yamato, there is one braver still. I give you my name. From this day you shall be called Yamato Takeru, the Brave of Yamato." The prince accepted the name from his dying enemy.

The Izumo Trickery

Returning from Kyushu, Yamato Takeru passed through Izumo Province, where the local chieftain Izumo Takeru controlled the region. The prince befriended the warrior, bathing and dining with him. Secretly, he crafted a replica sword from wood. One day, after bathing together in a river, Yamato Takeru proposed they exchange swords as a token of friendship. Izumo Takeru agreed.

Yamato Takeru then challenged him to a duel. When the Izumo warrior tried to draw his borrowed blade, he found it was a harmless wooden replica. Yamato Takeru cut him down with the real sword.

The Eastern Campaign

Emperor Keikō sent Yamato Takeru east to subdue the rebellious Emishi peoples. Before departing, the prince visited his aunt Yamato-hime no Mikoto, high priestess of Amaterasu at Ise Shrine. Weeping, he told her his father wished him dead. He had been sent from one battlefield to the next without rest.

Yamato-hime gave him two gifts: the divine sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, found in the tail of Yamata no Orochi, and a bag of fire-striking tools. She told him to open the bag only in dire need.

The Grass Fire of Suruga

In Suruga Province, the local chieftain lured Yamato Takeru onto a vast grass plain under the pretense of hunting a wild deity. Once the prince was deep in the tall grass, enemies set fire to the field from all sides. Walls of flame closed in.

Kusanagi moved of its own will, cutting the grass around the prince. Yamato Takeru used the fire-striking tools to set a counter-fire that drove the flames back toward his enemies. The sword earned its name from this fire: Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword.

Oto Tachibana-hime's Sacrifice

Continuing east, Yamato Takeru needed to cross the sea at Kazusa Bay. The waters raged with a terrible storm, and the boats could make no headway.

Oto Tachibana-hime, his wife, laid sedge mats upon the waves and stepped onto them. She offered herself to the sea deity. As she sank into the water, the storm calmed. The fleet crossed safely.

Seven days later, her comb washed ashore. Yamato Takeru had it enshrined. Later, standing on a mountain pass and looking back toward the sea where she had died, he sighed "Azuma wa ya." Ah, my wife. The Kojiki says this lament gave the eastern provinces their name: Azuma, "my beloved."

The Curse of Mount Ibuki

After subduing the eastern provinces, Yamato Takeru marched westward through Owari Province, where he married Miyazu-hime. He left Kusanagi in her keeping before ascending Mount Ibuki to confront a mountain deity.

In the Kojiki, a great white boar blocked the path. In the Nihon Shoki, a white serpent. Yamato Takeru dismissed the creature as the god's messenger and pressed on. The mountain god struck him with icy rain and hail, and a strange sickness entered his body. Without Kusanagi, he had no divine protection.

Staggering down the mountain, weakened and disoriented, he wandered through the marshes of Ise. His legs grew heavy. He could barely walk. He came to a place called Nobono, and there, dying, he composed his final poems.

Death and Transformation

He sang of the land he would never see again: "Yamato is the highest part of the land / The mountains are green partitions / Nestled in the folds of the blue mountains / Is Yamato, so beautiful."

And: "The single pine tree that stands at Cape Otsu / If it were a person, I would give it a sword and drape it in garments. That single pine!"

He died in the marshes, far from home. When his family came to mourn, they found his spirit had transformed into a great white bird that rose from the burial mound and flew away. They chased it from province to province, but the bird flew on, over the sea and toward the sky, until it vanished.

Shiratori shrines mark the sites where the bird alighted, from Ise to Kawachi.