Following her sister, the moon goddess Tsukiyomi from his other eye, and her brother Susano-Wo emerged from his nose (Roberts 4). .
Izanagi bestowed upon Amaterasu a necklace of sacred beads and deeded her ruler of heaven. He also placed her brother, Susano-Wo in charge of ruling the seas. However, Susano-Wo was very jealous of Amaterasu's position of power, and threatened to his father that he would escape to the underworld to live with his mother. This greatly upset Izanagi, and he banished his son from being in his presence. Susano-Wo went to visit his sister to bid farewell, but Amaterasu suspected his mischief. Susano-Wo however, wanted to prove to his sister his sincerity through a contest, by seeing who was more powerful depending on the amount of gods they could create. Amaterasu created three female gods from the bits of her brother's sword, and Susano-Wo created five male gods from the beads of his sister's necklace. Susano-Wo claimed he had won, but Amaterasu claimed she was the winner because she created three female gods from a sword of poor value (Roberts 4).
As a result, Susano-Wo was very upset and aggravated, and took his anger out on earth. He caused destruction to rice fields and even catapulted a dead pony into the sacred hall where Amaterasu lived. Amaterasu was so disturbed and appalled by his actions, that she hid herself in a cave, taking the bright sun with her. Earth was now plunged into darkness, vulnerable to the evils of the underworld. Amaterasu refused to emerge from the cave, but a group of gods from earth attempted to trick her into leaving it. They asked the goddess Amenouzume, to perform a dance in front of the cave for them. She willingly accepted, and was so enthusiastic during her dance that she tore of her clothes. The gods roared in laughter, and Amaterasu heard it from within the cave. She was curious to see what all the commotion was about, and took a peek outside.