Amaterasu the Sun Goddess

Amaterasu is the Shinto goddess of the Sun. She is regarded by many as perhaps the most important deity within the Shinto pantheon, in part because of her association with the sun, which dominated much of ancient culture, and in part because of her pivotal position as the supposed ancestor of the imperial family. As Michael Ashkenazi describes her, "she is the penultimate child of Izanagi and Izanami" (112).

Izanagi and Izanami are essentially the primordial male and female (respectively) of Shinto myth. They are the ones who created the world and the gods within it, including Amaterasu and her brother, Susa-no-o, as well as a number of other divinities.

Izanami and Izanagi (Piggott, 9).

In the 2006 game Okami, developed by Clover Studios and published by Capcom, players are given the role of Amaterasu herself, albeit in the form of a wolf. This may seem odd at first, as no myths report Amaterasu ever having become a wolf, but there's actually a good reason behind it: A play on words. Okami can be translated two different ways. One way, it can roughly be translated to "great god," as kami means "deity" or "god" in Japanese, and O is an honorific that shows reverence for whatever comes after it. In this case the game's title makes sense, as Amaterasu is, after all, a divinity of great power and great importance, and she's the star of the game. Upon closer examination, however, it becomes apparent that the kanji--the most complicated of Japanese scripts, which has its basis in Chinese--used in the name are not for that of "great god" but rather for "wolf"--which is also okami in Japanese. In this respect, it becomes obvious why Clover Studios chose to cast Amaterasu as a wolf: for pun purposes.

Nevertheless, a variety of characters address the player as "Amaterasu," showing great respect and alluding to the notion that she is a powerful god with the power to create and sustain life (being representative of the sun, which of course played an enormous role in ancient life).

The monkey god Sakigami shows respect for Amaterasu (Okami, np).

The influences don't end there, however. One myth chronicles how Amaterasu holed herself up in a cave after being insulted by her brother, Susa-no-o. Since, of course, Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun, once she went into hiding, so did all the light, throwing the world into darkness. This worried the other deities, and so they devised a plan to coax her back out into the world. They enlisted the help of Ama-no-uzume, who performed a lewd dance for the rest of the gods, who in turn laughed so much that Amaterasu was compelled to peek out of her cave. The other deities were ready for her, having hung jewels and a mirror in a nearby tree in order to stun Amaterasu so that she could be pulled back out. As Ashkenazi describes the scene, "Amaterasu, peering from the cave, was entranced by the jewels the kami had hung in a tree...she was then shown a mirror, which reflected her own face...As a consequence, the mirror and jewels became part of her regalia" (112).

Amaterasu emerges from her cave (Piggott, 9).

Interestingly enough, Okami makes use of these objects--the jewels and the mirror--in two very important ways. The mirror, for one, plays a very prominent role in that it allows players to save their progress during the game.

A Sacred Mirror (Okami, np).

The jewels, on the other hand, show up as powerful weapons, and are described as rosaries that "[draw] upon pure life energy to destroy evil" and "[contain] the power of holy light," possibly referring to the fact that Amaterasu is the benevolent goddess of the sun, and thus shines light and thwarts evil (np).

Magatama beads surround Amaterasu (Okami, np).

Overall, the game reinforces one's role as Amaterasu by tasking the player with restoring life to the land and greenery and flowers to the plants and trees. It echoes of the role of the sun, and Amaterasu's role as the sun goddess, promoting life and growth with her warm, embracing shine.