Yamato Takeru
Japanese · mortal · kofun · Recorded classification
The Kojiki's account of him is the best writing in the book and it is not flattering to anybody: a prince so violent that his own father sends him east to be rid of him, who wins every campaign, is given no thanks, and dies of exhaustion and a mountain god's malice on the way home, turning into a white bird. He carries the sword this batch's serpent was killed for. A registry with Kusanagi's origin and Kusanagi's shrine and nobody who carried it in between had a gap the length of the archipelago.
Domains
- warfare
- conquest
Sources
- Yamato Takeru, originally Prince Ousu, is the semi-legendary warrior son of Emperor Keikō, the bearer of Kusanagi, whose story is told in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki and after whose death the sword was enshrined at Atsuta.: Reference treatments of Yamato Takeru and of Kusanagi. (secondary)