The three treasures a.k.a the birth of japan (1959-Film)

## the three treasures aka the birth of japan (1959)

***The Three Treasures*** (日本誕生, *Nippon Tanjō*, lit. Birth of Japan) is a 1959 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. The film is based on the legends *Kojiki* and *Nihon Shoki* and the origins of *Shinto*. The film was the highest-grossing film of 1959 for Toho and the second highest grossing domestic production in Japan for the year.

## Plot.

*The Three Treasures* retells the story of the Yamato Takeru legend, and features a recounting of the great battle between Susanoo and the legendary serpent Orochi, when his aunt presents him with the sword found within.

An old lady explains to the townsfolk how the gods appeared and how Japan came to be, and how two gods invented marriage. Prince Osu then arrived home in this town, and heard a rumor that his older brother, the current heir, had taken a girl who was supposed to be in the Emperors’ house. He became upset at this, and fought his brother. He defeated his brother, almost killing him, but ultimately decided to let him go. He told his brother to leave and never come back. The emperor believed his eldest son to be dead, and this greatly upset him. One of his advisers saw it as a good opportunity to move forward with his plan of putting one of his nephews in power, so he advised the Emperor to execute Prince Osu, but the emperor instead sent Osu off to kill two brothers who had been terrorizing a nearby town. Before leaving, Osu began a romantic interaction with Princess Ototachibana who had devoted herself to the gods. Osu headed out with his small group and killed the two brothers, but not before the younger one acknowledged his greatness and gave him the name Yamato Takeru, which means "the Bravest of Yamato."

Afterwards Yamato returned home, but his father sent him off to the east on another mission, as the adviser wished Yamato to die. Back in the town, the old lady from earlier told another story of how the sun god Amaterasu went into a cave due to a prank by her brother Susano, and how it caused the world to become dark. She went on to tell how the other gods threw a laughter festival and drew her out, bringing the light back into the world. Just before leaving, Yamato, who was grieving due to him thinking his father wants him dead, visited his aunt, who gave him the mythical sword, Kusanagi no Tsurugi, and said that his father wanted him to have it.

Yamato went to his men and told them the story of how Kusanagi no Tsurugi came to be, saying that the god Susano went to a house he had found up river, and had found two old people and their daughter weeping. He discovered that they had originally had eight daughters and had been forced to sacrifice them every year to the serpent Yamata no Orochi, and that the time for him to appear to take their last daughter was coming soon. Susano declared that he wouldn’t let that happen, and transformed the daughter into a come and set up large jugs of Sake for the monster to drink. The monster appeared, as was expected, and it drank the Sake, and passed out drunk. Susano went to the monster and went to attack it as it slept, but it awoke, forcing Susano to cause the serpent to weave its head through the bushes and become stuck. Susano then went to the backside of the monster, and plunged his sword repeatedly into the tail of the beast. He then reached inside one of the wounds he had made, and pulled out the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. Yamato finished the story, and took his men to the east as per his father’s orders. Just before leaving, however, Princess Tachibana approached him and told him that she hated him, though in reality she was forbidden from loving anyone due to her oath to the gods.

Yamato and his army headed east, with them first finding a village in which Princess Miyazu attempted to kill him, but decided not to and then fell in love with Yamato. Yamato then later found a village whose leader tried to kill him, as the adviser’s men went ahead to tell him to kill Yamato. Yamato found that his father had been the one to tell the leader to kill him, which troubled his heart. Princess Tachibana followed Yamato here, and declared that she does love him. This upset the gods, however, and they plagued Yamato and his army with great storms. Tachibana then jumped in the water, killing herself, in order to appease the gods, which worked. Yamato then decided to head back home and confront his father.

He arrived near home, though the advisor had sent a large army out in order to kill Yamato. After he fought against them with his army, he ended up being killed and transformed into a bird. As a bird, he caused a volcanic eruption and flooding which resulted in the deaths of all the members of the army which had tried to kill him.