USS KUSANAGI Namesake
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Introduction
All Hiryu-class cruisers are named after either a famous Japanese naval ship or a figure from Japanese mythology; it is from the latter that Kusanagi takes its name.
The Sword Kusanagi
The story of the sword Kusanagi is one of Japan's most well-known ancient myths.
According to Kojiki, the Japanese god Susanoo encountered a grieving family headed by Ashi na Zuchi in Izumo province. When Susanoo inquired of Ashi na Zuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome Yamato no Orochi, 8-headed serpent of Koshi, who consumed seven of the family's eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, Kushinada. Susanoo proceeded to investigate the creature, and after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada's hand in marriage, which was agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan.
He instructed the preparation of 8 vats of sake (rice wine) to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with 8 gates. The monster took the bait and put each of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast. He decapitated each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the dragon which he called Ame Murakumo-No-Tsurugi (Sword of Billowing Clouds), which he presented to the goddess, Amaterasu to settle an old grievance.
Generations later in the reign of the 12th emperor, Emperor Keiko, the sword was given to the great warrior, Yamato Takeru as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, Yamato Hime 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 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 Ame 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 (lit. "Grasscutter") to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Eventually, Yamato Takeru married and fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wife's advice to take Kusanagi with him.
While this is the most popular theory of how Kusanagi got its name, researchers agree that it is most likely false. In the ancient Japanese language, kusa meant sword and nagi meant snake. Thus, an alternative theory is that Kusanagi meant sword of the snake.
(Source: Wikipedia - The Online Encyclopedia)
Over the millennia, the sword Kusanagi found its way into the hands of the Emperor; it is now part of the Emperor's traditional Imperial Regalia, along with a mirror and jewels.
The sword Kusanagi is, typically enough, representative of courage and strength in Japanese myth.
