Who Is Yamato Takeru? The Prince of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Compared
Yamato Takeru is a prince-hero of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, sent west and east by his father, given the sword Kusanagi and said to die as a white bird. The two chronicles differ, and he is a legendary figure, not a verified person.
The five clues from the game
From faint to clear: each clue is a little darker than the last.
- A hero of the early chronicles who is sent to the far west and then the far east by his imperial father.
- In the west he is said to have dressed as a girl to reach his enemies at a feast, and the dying enemy gave him the name he is known by.
- In the Kojiki his aunt, a priestess at Ise, hands him a sword and a bag with a fire-striker, which save him when enemies set a grass field on fire.
- He leaves the sword behind in a woman's house and climbs a mountain to face a deity who appears as a white boar in one chronicle and as a serpent in the other.
- He is the hero who sickens and dies on a moor, then leaves his tomb as a white bird, while the sword he carried is enshrined at Atsuta.
Three ways to read this scroll
Living practice
Atsuta Shrine, in the old province of Owari, enshrines the sword Kusanagi that the chronicles link to the prince. The Japan National Tourism Organization says the shrine was reportedly founded 1,900 years ago and the sword is not shown to the public.
Folk tradition
The chronicles tie his deeds to place names: Yakidzu or Yaketsu for the burning field, Azuma for his cry of "my wife," and the Wi-same spring for his recovery. Whether these were told locally before the books were written is not known.
Literary work and art
The Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki each tell his life, with different details, and both are court histories. Ozaki's 1908 English retelling blends them and omits his death. We did not verify the earliest later stage works.
A young prince lets down his hair, puts on his aunt's robe and sits among his enemies at a feast, a blade hidden against his chest. Years later he stands in a burning field, cutting grass to save himself. At the end his tomb is opened, and only his clothes lie inside.
This is the life that two early chronicles give to Yamato Takeru, and they do not tell it the same way. In one he kills his brother in a privy. In the other the brother hides in the grass. This page sets the two side by side, shows where later tellers added to them, and says plainly what kind of figure he is.
Two chronicles, one prince
Both books are court histories, not collections of village tales. The Kojiki, composed at the request of Empress Genmei, tells his story under Emperor Keiko, in Sections LXXIX to XC of Basil Hall Chamberlain's translation of 1882. The Nihon Shoki tells it in Book VII, which W. G. Aston translated in 1896. Both speak of the prince's enemies, the Kumaso in the west and the Yemishi in the east, from the court's side.
Even his famous name is a gift from an enemy. In the Kojiki a dying Kumaso bravo says:
"Therefore will I offer thee an august name. From this time forward it is right that thou be praised as the August Child Yamato-take." Chamberlain, Kojiki (1882), Sect. LXXX.
In the Nihon Shoki the dying leader, called the Brave of Kahakami, says:
"Henceforward in speaking of the Imperial Prince, let him be styled the Imperial Prince Yamato-dake." Aston, Nihongi (1896), vol. 1, p. 201.
The two translators spell the name differently. Modern writers use Yamato Takeru.
Side by side: where the chronicles part
| Episode | Kojiki (Chamberlain) | Nihon Shoki (Aston) |
|---|---|---|
| Why he goes west | The emperor is alarmed by his ferocity, after he kills his elder brother in the privy | A Kumaso revolt; he is sent at sixteen |
| The disguise | His aunt's garments, hair combed like a girl's | He lets down his hair and appears as a girl |
| Why he goes east | Sent with a holly spear and no army; he weeps to his aunt | He volunteers after his brother hides; the emperor gives a battle-axe |
| His aunt's gifts | A sword and a bag holding a fire-striker | The sword |
| The grass fire | The fire-striker lights a counter-fire | A fire-drill; one version has the sword mow the grass by itself |
| His wife's sacrifice | She sits on rugs spread over the waves; her comb washes ashore after seven days | She leaps into the sea and the storm stops |
| The mountain deity | A white boar the size of a bull | A great serpent |
| His death | He dies after a song about the sword left at a maiden's bedside | He dies on the moor of Nobo at thirty |
| After death | A white dotterel eight fathoms long; a tomb at Shiki in Kafuchi | A white bird; empty clothes in the coffin; tombs at Kotobiki and Furuchi |
Two further points. The Nihon Shoki gives the emperor a long speech to the prince, and Aston's footnote on p. 204 says it "cannot be received as a document of Japanese history," calling it a patchwork of Chinese literary echoes. And Aston prints dates such as A.D. 110 for the eastern journey, which he marks as "the common chronology."
The sword and its shrine
In both books the prince's aunt, Yamato-hime, gives him the sword Kusanagi at Ise. Chamberlain's note calls her high priestess of the Great Deity of Ise, whom readers know as Amaterasu. His note on the sword points back to the Kojiki's earlier tale, in which the deity Susanoo found it in the tail of the eight-headed serpent.
Aston's text says the sword is now in the shrine of Atsuta in the province of Owari. The Encyclopedia of Shinto at Kokugakuin University says the same: under Emperor Keiko the sword was enshrined at Atsuta. The Japan National Tourism Organization adds that the shrine was reportedly founded 1,900 years ago and that the sword is not shown to the public.
That is living worship. The prince's story is the chronicles' account of how the sword came there, and the two should be kept apart.
A legendary prince, not a verified one
Wikipedia calls him "semi-legendary" and notes that his dates carry a "citation needed" tag. Nothing we read independently documents a real prince behind the tale. Chamberlain's note observes that the Kojiki speaks of him as if he had actually reigned.
The chronicles themselves tell the stories as place-name explanations. His cry "my wife" at a mountain pass gives the name Azuma. The burning field becomes Yakidzu in Chamberlain and Yaketsu in Aston. His weary legs explain the name Tagi. Chamberlain doubts the Azuma derivation, though he calls it graceful. These are the habits of legend, not of record.
Retellings: what 1908 kept and dropped
Yei Theodora Ozaki's English retelling of 1908 blends the two chronicles. It takes the holly spear and the aunt's bag of flints from the Kojiki and the age of sixteen for the western campaign from the Nihon Shoki, but it also makes "Kumaso" and "Takeru" the personal names of two brothers. Chamberlain reads takeru as a word for "bravo."
Ozaki adds a plot the chronicle passages we read do not contain: the prince grows cold toward his wife and is ashamed of her sunburnt face, and he learns to value her only after she leaps into the sea. Most striking, Ozaki's tale ends with the prince recovering at a hot spring and thanking the Ise priestess. There is no death on the moor and no white bird.
Common mistakes and mix-ups
- "The two chronicles tell one story." The table shows they differ on his brother, his gifts, the mountain deity and his death.
- "He killed the Kumaso with Kusanagi." In both books the aunt gives the sword for the eastern journey. In the west he uses a hidden blade.
- "The sword was named for the grass fire." In the Kojiki it already bears the name when his aunt hands it over. The Nihon Shoki gives the fire explanation only as "one version."
- "He is a historical figure with known dates." The dates are from a conventional chronology.
- Other figures of the chronicles. The Nihon Shoki records Urashima Taro in a few lines, but the two stories share nothing else.
A checklist for any version
Before trusting a retelling, ask:
- Does his father send him, or does he volunteer?
- Does he kill his brother, or does the brother hide?
- Is there a bag with a fire-striker?
- Is the mountain deity a white boar or a serpent?
- Does the tale end with his recovery, his death, or his flight as a white bird?
- Which translation is being quoted, Chamberlain's or Aston's?
The answers tell you which book the teller was following.
This scroll is sealed. Win a round of the lantern game to open it and stamp a seal in your album, or read it now without playing (no seal is added).
Frequently asked questions
Was Yamato Takeru a real person?
No source we read treats him as verified. Wikipedia calls him a semi-legendary prince and marks his dates as needing a citation. Aston prints dates from what he calls the common chronology. Both chronicles tell his story partly as explanations of place names. A real figure may lie behind the tale, but we found nothing that independently shows it.
How do the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki differ about him?
In the Kojiki he kills his elder brother and is sent east with a holly spear and no army. His aunt gives him a sword and a bag with a fire-striker, and the mountain deity is a white boar. In the Nihon Shoki the brother hides, the prince volunteers, the aunt gives only the sword, and the deity is a serpent. The Nihon Shoki also gives his age at death as thirty.
What is the Kusanagi sword and where is it?
It is the sword his aunt gives him at Ise. Chamberlain's note says Susanoo found it in the tail of the eight-headed serpent. Aston's text says it is now in the shrine of Atsuta in Owari, and the Encyclopedia of Shinto says the same. The Japan National Tourism Organization says the sword is not displayed to the public.
How did Yamato Takeru die?
After facing the mountain deity of Ibuki without his sword, he falls ill and dies on the moor of Nobo in Ise. Aston's text gives his age as thirty. Both chronicles then say he became a white bird that flew from his tomb. The Nihon Shoki says the coffin held only clothing, and tombs were built where the bird landed.
Why is he called Yamato Takeru?
It is not his birth name. In both chronicles a dying enemy gives it to him. Chamberlain's note explains it as roughly the bravest in Yamato. The Kojiki calls him Wo-usu as a youth, and the Nihon Shoki gives his early name as Yamato Woguna, which Aston glosses as meaning boy. Translators spell the new name Yamato-take or Yamato-dake.
Sources
Opened and read by our team. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Kojiki, translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882), Sections LXXIX to XC, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. X supplement; transcribed on Wikisource. The Kojiki account of the prince from his brother's death to the white bird, with Chamberlain's notes. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, vol. 1 (W. G. Aston, 1896), Book VII, Japan Society, London; digitized by the Internet Archive. The Nihon Shoki account on pp. 200 to 212, Aston's footnotes and chronology. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Japanese Fairy Tales, by Yei Theodora Ozaki (Project Gutenberg eBook 4018), Project Gutenberg. The 1908 retelling, which blends the chronicles, adds the wife's story and omits his death. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Yamato Takeru (Wikipedia), Wikipedia. Description as semi-legendary, uncertain dates, and reported worship as Otori-sama. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Sanshu no shinki (Three Imperial Regalia), Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University. The sword enshrined at Atsuta in Owari under Emperor Keiko. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Atsuta Jingu Shrine, Japan National Tourism Organization. Atsuta Shrine reportedly founded 1,900 years ago, sword not displayed to the public. Checked November 9, 2026.
Credits for fonts and illustrations are on the methodology page.