"Amaterasu is the honorific form of 'amateru,' which means 'shining in Heaven"'[2]
According to the Engishiki and Sandai Jitsuroku of the Heian period, the sun goddess had many shrines named, "Amateru" or "Amateru-mitama" shrines, which were mostly located in the Kinki area.
However, there have also been records of a shrine on Tsushima Island, coined as either Teruhi Gongen, or the Shining Sun Deity during medieval times.
it was later found that such a shrine was meant for a male sun deity named Ameno-himitama
[ADD DATE] Amaterasu was worshipped at the Ise and Hinokuma shrines
The Hinokuma shrine were used to worship the goddess by the Ama people in the Kii Provinces
From this, because the Ama people were believed to have been fishermen, researchers have conjectured that the goddess was also worshiped for a possible connection to the sea.
Possibly Male deity
Sarume maidens perform the same "lewd" dance as the goddess who attracted Amaterasu out of the cave legend
Old Monk Tsukai diary, as told by old Ise priests
"The Great God Amaterasu visited the high priestess saio, or itsuki no miko, every night, and united with her. The next morning, several scales, as from a snake or lizard, were left in her bed. No one but the priestess knew, however, what form this Amaterasu assumed for such visits." Such a tale also insinuated conjecture if Amaterasu was also worshipped as a snake deity, along with her sun duties.
The same scholars have also mentioned an old Japanese belief of female priestess and shamans as wives of their worshipped male deities.
'In modern shamanistic belief, blind shamanesses called itako usually serve as wives to their deities. I believe that the relation between the saio and Amaterasu is the same. In the Ise district, Amaterasu was sometimes called Amateru as well. This was teh original name of the deity. I conjecture that this Amatery was a male sun deity, who was worshipped by teh fisherman of Ise. But in the later days, perhaps in the fifth or sixth century AD, the imperial Court in Yamato identified him with the ancestral deity of the Imperial Family, and sent a saio, accompanied by many priests and officials from clans such as the Nakatomi and Imibe. The first saio served Amateru or the pro-amaterasu, as his wife. But after several generations, her successors came to serve Amaterasu."
Amaterasu is the Japanese sun goddess and is believed to be a direct ancestor of the Emperor
Because Amaterasu has one of the highest, if not the highest, kami position in Shintoism, there has been debate on her influence and relation to women's positions in early Japanese society. Some scholars have argued that the goddess's presence and high stature within the kami system could possibly suggest that early rulers in Japan were females. Others believe the goddess's presence suggests women priests or shamans played important roles in politics and religion.
Parents
Izanagi
He gave birth to her though his eyeball
Gave the Yasakani no Magatama (sacred beads)
Izanami
Sisters
Brothers:
Tsuki-Yomi, god of the moon
Susano-Wo, storm god
"His feud with his sister cause him to be banished from Heaven" [3]
Offspring
Ame-No-Oshido-Mimi (son)
Grandchildren
Ninigi-No-Mikoto (grandson), sent down to rule Earth
"All of this suggests that representations of Amaterasu in court ritual and the court chronicles were being constructed and modified at a time when the court was also actively embracing legends of female immortals and continental conceptions of astrology"[4]
This scholar argues: "that the cult of Amaterasu and court rites (jingi) of the espied can in many ways be viewed as epiphenomena rooted in deeper cultic movements that were sweeping across the japanese islands even prior to Tenmu's reign"[4]
"Because this legend (the rock one) served as an emphatic statement of Amaterasu paramount statues among the gods, there is a general consensus that it most likely took final shape around Tenmu's reign, as Amaterasu came to be a central focus within the royal cult."[4]
"there was no one, but many sun cults in ancient Japan. [CITATION, PG. 162] One such deity... was the Silla immigrant deity Ame no Hiboko, or Heavenly Sun Spear. The god is represented in the Nihon shook and Kojiki as a cowherd who marries Akaru Hime, a daughter of the sun, who demands offerings of weaving implements."[4]
"Amaterasu is just an honorific form of the phrase, Ama-teru. Since it is egregiously transparent, Tsuda Sokichi regarded both the name and its bearer as purely artificial creations."[5]
"Most scholars today, however, agree that the name reflects an actual cultic figure, through NOT NECESSARILY ONE WHO WAS ORIGINALLY FEMALE"[5]
" If in the early Yamato period, a sun-deity named Amateru was worshipped widely in Yamato and the area to the north, one might surmise that the original Ise deity may have also been Amateru, and the he later evolved into Amaterasu"[5]
Amaterasu reappeared in 672 at the Ise shrine after hundreds of years of absence.
scholarly argument: "no deity named Amaterasu (or even Amateru) was worshipped at the Ise shrine until late seventh century"[5]
Crossdressing in Context, Vol. 4 Transgender & Religion, Volume 4[6]
"Religion scholar Brian Bockng writes that in pre-Meiji images fo the deity the depiction is of a Buddhist masculine figure or person of indiscriminate gender. The resent images (since the Muromachi period) may derive from the influence of the Buddhist figure of Who Doji, young male bodhisattva. He was depicted in a form resembling that of Amaterasu today -- a standing figure with long hair dressed in simple white garb and bearing certain ornamentation. At the Buddhist temple near the Ise shrines, Amaterasu was venerated in the form of Uho Doji"[6]
"Matsumae Takeshi, an expert on Japanee mythology, traces a different linkage of Amaterasu to maleness. Takeshi points to early sun worship among the japanese. A number of Amaterasu shrines, like that on Tsushima Island in the medieval period, worshipped Ameno-himitama, believed to be a male deity."[6]
"Similar instances are found elsewhere, all sharing in common that the Amaterasu shrine venerated a male deity, by whatever name. Takeshi remarks:"[6]
"I have come to the conclusion that almost all Amaterasu and Amateru-mitama shrine were decimated to the same deity. 'Amateru Kuniteru Hoakari' or Heaven and Earth Shining Fire."[6]
"Amaterasu was a male deity named Amateru, worshipped by the fishermen of Ise, but who became in perhaps the 5th or 6th century identified by the royal family as its ancestral deity. Over time, the gender characteristics associated with the deity changed from masculine to feminine and the god became a goddess"[6]
"Benzaiten is often associated and even identified with Amaterasu"[7][SNAKE]
"According to the Chikubushima tradition, she manifested herself (as Myōon Benzaiten) in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Kinmei (r. 539–571) and declared herself to be an emanation of Amaterasu."[7]
"In the Taiheiki, the warrior Nitta Yoshisada 新田義貞 declares: “I have heard that the Sun Goddess of Ise … conceals her true being in the august image of Vairocana, and that she has appeared in this world in the guise of a dragon god of the blue ocean.”"[7]
"Should not surprise us, since her offspring, the three deities of Munakata, were themselves perceived as water deities associated with Benzaiten. Benzaiten also shared affinities with Uhō Dōji 雨宝童子, a Buddhist form of Amaterasu"[7]
"In a Ryōbu shintō text of the Watarai 度会 family, the Kōko zōtō hishō 高倉藏等秘抄, one of the caves of Mount Takakura 高倉, behind the Outer Shrine, is compared to Ama no Iwato 天岩戸, the Heavenly Rock Cave in which Amaterasu hid herself. It is also said to symbolize the Womb and Diamond Realm mandalas. Its “divine body” (shintai 神体), Uga Benzaiten, was worshiped on the day of the snake, allegedly since the eleventh century. "[7]
FOX
"Benzaiten was present at both the Inner and the Outer Shrines even though it was the deity of the Outer Shrine, Toyouke, who is usually associated with Benzaiten, while the deity of the Inner Shrine, Amaterasu, is associated with the fox and with Dakiniten"[7]
