Yamato Takeru

Yamato Takeru (ヤマトタケルノミコト, Yamato Takeru no Mikoto), originally Prince Ousu (小碓命, Ousu no Mikoto), was a Japanese folk hero and semi-legendary prince of the imperial dynasty, son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan. The kanji spelling of his name varies: it appears in the Nihon Shoki as 日本武尊 and in the Kojiki as 倭建命.

The story of his life and death are told principally in the Japanese chronicles in Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), but also mentioned in Kogo Shūi (807) and some histories like the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (常陸国風土記) (721). One of his sons became Emperor Chūai, the 14th Emperor of Japan.

His history is uncertain but based on the chronicles his life can be calculated.^{[citation needed]} He was born circa 72 and died in 114. Details are different between the two books, and the version in Kojiki is assumed to be loyal to the older form of this legend.

Prince Takeru slew his elder brother Prince Ōusu (大碓皇子, Ōusu no Miko). His father, Emperor Keikō, feared his brutal temperament. To keep him at a distance, the emperor sent his son to the land of Kumaso, today Kumamoto Prefecture, and then the Izumo Province, today the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture, to defeat rebels. However, Takeru succeeded in defeating his enemies. In the land of the Kumaso, the prince achieved victory by cross-dressing as a maid attendant at a Kumaso drinking party to get close to his targets and slay them. One of the enemies he defeated praised him and gave him the title Yamato Takeru, meaning The Brave of Yamato. In the Izumo Province, the prince used trickery by befriending his enemy and exchanging swords with him before a duel. Due to receiving a wooden sword, the enemy was slain. The prince also defeated several deities. He returned triumphant, but Emperor Keikō's mind was unchanged.

Keikō sent Yamato Takeru to the eastern land whose people disobeyed the imperial court. The prince was ordered to defeat the rebels and savage deities of that land. Yamato Takeru met his aunt Princess Yamato-hime, the highest priestess of Amaterasu at Ise Grand Shrine (in Ise Province) and grieved, "my father wishes I would die?" Princess Yamatohime-no-mikoto showed him compassion and lent him a holy sword named Ame no Murakumo no tsurugi (Kusanagi no tsurugi), which Susanoo, the brother god of Amaterasu, found in the body of the eight-headed great serpent, Yamata no Orochi.

Yamato Takeru went to the eastern land. He lost his wife Ototachibana-hime during a storm when she sacrificed herself to soothe the anger of the sea god. He defeated many enemies in the eastern land. On one incident, he was lured into a trap by a treacherous lord who tried to burn him alive in an open grassland. Desperately, Yamato Takeru used the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing. Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift from his aunt, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, and he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi ("Grass-Cutting Sword") to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. On another incident, he encountered and killed the deity of Ashigara pass.

Legend has it that he and a local old man composed the first sedōka in Kai Province with Mount Tsukuba (now in Ibaraki Prefecture) as its theme. On his return, Yamato Takeru married Miyazu-hime and challenged a local god of Mount Ibuki, which sits on the border of Ōmi Province and Mino Province. He went to fight the god of Mt. Ibuki without his sword, but the god cursed him with disease. He fell ill and died.

The story above is found in the Kojiki. In the Nihonshoki version, the father and Yamato Takeru keep a good relation.