Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi

The **Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi** (草薙の剣, *"Grass-Cutting Sword"*), also known as the **Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi** (天叢雲剣, *"Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds"*) or just **Kusanagi** (クサナギ, *Kusanagi*), is an Japanese katana Divine Construct that appeared from within the Yamata-no-Orochi after the Shinto God Susanoo slew the beast. It was also said it contains the first **Nine-Tailed Fox** (九尾狐, ***Nine-Tailed Fox***), Kurama. The Kusanagi makes up one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, alongside the Yata no Kagami and the Yasakani no Magatama. It's considered to be the sharpness blade in Shinto religion, only surpassed by Excalibur, but with the Arthurian Divine Construct fragmented, Kusanagi became the most sharpnest of divine armaments

## History

The history of the *Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi* extends into legend. According to *Kojiki*, the god *Susanoo* encountered a grieving family of *kunitsukami* ("gods of the land") headed by *Ashinazuchi* (足名椎, **Ashinazuchi**) in Izumo Province. When Susanoo inquired of Ashinazuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome *Yamata-no-Orochi*, an eight-headed serpent of Koshi, who had consumed seven of the family's eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, *Kushinada-hime* (奇稲田姫, **Kushinada-hime**). Susanoo investigated the creature, and after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-hime's hand in marriage, which was agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb (one interpreter reads this section as "using a comb he turns into [masquerades as] Kushinada-hime") to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps.

He instructed that eight vats of *sake* (rice wine) be prepared and put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates. The monster took the bait and put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast (with his sword Worochi no Ara-masa). He chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called *Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi*. He presented the sword to the goddess *Amaterasu* to settle an old grievance.

Generations later, during the reign of the twelfth Emperor, *Keikō*, *Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi* was given to the great warrior, *Yamato Takeru* as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, *Yamatohime-no-mikoto*, the Shrine Maiden of Ise Shrine, to protect her nephew in times of peril.

These gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows loosed to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death. He also killed the warrior's horse to prevent his escape. Desperately, Yamato Takeru used the *Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi* to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing. Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, and he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword *Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi* ("Grasscutter Sword") to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle against a monster, after ignoring his wife's advice to take the sword with him.

## Powers & Attributes

Kusanagi is an powerful Divine Construct, appearing out of the Yamata-no-Orochi after it was slai by Susanoo. It has the power to cut through the heavens and the aether, cutting into all forms of physical matter and spiritualistic faith and logic. It can harness the spiritual prowess of Shinto Gods to enact Onmyōdō to perform magical feats related to the Japanese gods. As such, it's one of the most deadlest weapons that can harm God. Possessing the Japanese concepts of the universe, it's able to manipulate life, death, nature, air, fire, water, storms and the sky itself to take down the wielder's foes.