The Saga of Yamato Takeru

Prince Ousu, a son of Emperor Keiko, was a youth of terrifying strength and volatile temperament. When his father sent him to summon his elder brother, who had stopped attending the imperial meals, the young prince instead killed his brother—tearing him limb from limb. Horrified by his son's violence, Emperor Keiko sent him on a succession of military campaigns, perhaps hoping the dangers would temper or destroy him.

First dispatched to Kyushu to defeat the Kumaso chieftains, the prince employed cunning rather than brute force. Disguising himself as a beautiful maiden, he infiltrated a feast held by the Kumaso brothers. When the chieftains were drunk, he revealed his true identity and slew them. The dying Kumaso chief, acknowledging the prince's valor, bestowed upon him the name 'Yamato Takeru'—'the Brave One of Yamato.'

Barely returned from Kyushu, Yamato Takeru was immediately sent east to subdue the Emishi peoples—again with minimal support from his father. Stopping at Ise Shrine, he poured out his grief to his aunt, the High Priestess Yamato-hime: 'The emperor my father wishes me dead. Why else would he send me against enemy after enemy without respite?' His aunt, moved by compassion, entrusted him with the sacred sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi and a fire-striking pouch.

During his eastern campaign, these gifts saved his life. In Suruga Province, local enemies lured him into an open field and set the grass ablaze around him. Using the Kusanagi sword to cut the burning grass and the pouch to start a counter-fire, he turned the conflagration against his foes—hence the name 'Grass-Cutting Sword.' The charred plain became known as Yakitsu (Burning Harbor).

Crossing what is now Tokyo Bay, his fleet was struck by a terrible storm. His beloved wife Ototatchibanabime, recognizing the sea god's wrath, offered herself as a sacrifice. Spreading rush mats upon the waves, she stepped into the sea and drowned. The waters calmed instantly. Days later, her comb washed ashore, and Yamato Takeru enshrined it in her memory.

After subjugating the eastern lands, the weary prince made his way back westward, but his strength was failing. On Mount Ibuki, he encountered a divine being in the form of a white boar—which he rashly dismissed as a mere messenger—and was struck by a supernatural hail that left him gravely ill. Stumbling toward home through the plains of Ise, he paused at Nobo-no and gazed toward Yamato, singing: 'Yamato is the finest of lands... layered like green hedges, beautiful Yamato.' These were among his last coherent words.

Yamato Takeru died on the plains of Nobono, never reaching home. At the moment of his death, his spirit transformed into a great white bird and rose into the sky, flying toward Yamato. The court built a tomb at the place where the bird first landed, but the bird took flight again, alighting at successive spots—and at each, a memorial mound was raised. Finally, the white bird soared into the heavens and vanished forever.