Shortly after the storm-god Susano was banished from the High Plains of Heaven by his father, Izanagi, for his disobedience; his sister, the sun-goddess Amaterasu, began to suspect her brother of wanting to usurp her lands. She readied herself for battle as Susano approached her realm.
He assured her he meant no harm, calmly wagering a contest to prove who was mightiest: whoever could produce male deities would be the victor. Amaterasu agreed, and took the first turn.
Requesting Susano�s sword, she broke it into three pieces, chewed them up and spat out three goddesses, divine, shining replicas of their mother. Next it was Susano�s turn. He took the strings of fertility beads, called magatama, which Amaterasu wore in her hair and formed five gods, therefore claiming himself the winner. Amaterasu argued that she was the winner, since the male deities came from her beads. But Susano ignored this and began his victory celebration by destroying the divine rice paddies and relieving himself in the sacred hall where the first fruits of the harvest were brought. He skinned a pony and threw it into the sacred weaving hall where Amaterasu and her priestess-maidens sat weaving. (One was so badly frightened that she injured herself on her loom and died.)
This frightened Amaterasu so terribly that she retreated into the �Heavenly Rock Cave� (Ama-no-iwato), plunging both heaven and earth into darkness. Of course, disaster ensued without the light of the sun, so the eight-hundred myriad of gods held a counsel to contrive a plan to bring Amaterasu out of the cave.
Omori-kane devised quite an interesting strategy. He had the others construct a magic mirror and hung it from a tree branch. The gods then started performing a ceremony while a dawn goddess named Ama-no-uzume began dancing similarly to the traditional dance of the miko. When things got a little too� um� revealing, all the gods began laughing so loudly that the heavens shook! Amaterasu heard their laughter, and peeked her head out of the cave. �Why are you laughing so hard?� she asked, and Ama-no-uzume replied, �We are celebrating, for we have now found a new deity which is superior to you.� The gods then directed the mirror at where Amaterasu was peeking out. Seeing her reflection, she ventured out of the cave to peer at her successor, when a god who was hiding nearby grabbed her and forced her all the way out of the cave. Another god stretched a magic rope across the cave�s entrance, and that is how the sun was brought back.
The gods decided to punish Susano, since he had been the cause, so they sent him back to earth. He landed near the Hi River, where he saw some chopsticks floating by. He went upstream to find whoever was obviously living close by. He soon found them: an old couple and a gorgeous young girl. They were all crying uncontrollably, Susano asked what the matter was. They told him that an eight-tailed, eight-headed dragon called Yamato-no-orochi had eaten seven of their eight daughters, and that he was soon coming back for the youngest, the beautiful young girl called Kusa-nada-hime (rice paddy princess). Susano then revealed himself a god and told the couple he would kill the dragon if he could have Kusa-nada-hime�s hand in marriage. Of course they were delighted with this request.
Susano began his plan by turning the girl into a comb which he placed in his hair. Next he told the couple to fill up eight tubs with sake, and to place these behind eight holes in a fence. They did as they were told, and it wasn�t long before the dragon appeared.
Everything happened accordingly as Susano had devised. The dragon immediately stuck his heads into the openings and drank until he passed out. Susano seized the opportunity and slew the dragon. When he chopped up the middle tail, inside he found the sword that would be called Kusanagi (grass mower). He changed the girl back into her true form and married her.
The Kusanagi sword, the Divine Mirror, and the magatama beads became the three talismans of sovereignty. Replicas of these are presented to the emperor at his coronation.