SUSANO-O NO MIKOTO, one of the major deities in Japanese mythology, offspring of Izanagi and Izanami, and brother of Amaterasu. The meaning of the word susano-o is interpreted as either "a terrible man," or "the man of Susa," with susa read as a place-name. (Mikoto is a suffix used for a respected person or deity.) The character of Susano-o is extremely complex because he is an amalgam of several local and national deities. Although this deity personifies evil, several of his acts have an unmistakably beneficent character.

Susano-o caused the most dramatic event in Japanese mythology when he angered Amaterasu. He first aroused her wrath by emptying his bowels in the palace. But when Amaterasu was injured as a result of Susano-o's misbehavior she forthwith entered the Rock Cave of Heaven, and having fastened the Rock Door, dwelt there in seclusion. Eight hundred myriad...