Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto

In the central Amano‑Iwato myth, Amaterasu withdraws into the Heavenly Rock Cave and the world is plunged into darkness. The kami Ame‑no‑Uzume overturns a tub near the cave entrance, hangs a mirror and polished jewel as part of the scene, and performs a comic, sexually provocative dance—tearing off clothing in front of the assembled deities—which provokes laughter and curiosity and lures Amaterasu out, allowing the sun to return. She later accompanies Ninigi on his journey to earth (by Amaterasu's command), meets Sarutahiko Ōkami at the boundary between heaven and earth, persuades him to allow passage, and falls in love and marries him; that marital union is linked in the sources to the foundation of the Sarume clan.

Mythic texts emphasize Uzume's actions rather than a fixed physical portrait: she is described performing atop an overturned tub and tearing off clothing to provoke laughter. Later performance and popular imagery present her as the comic/sensual female figure Okame in kyōgen theatre. Shrine and festival merchandise sometimes show masks or pictures of Uzume paired with Sarutahiko at events such as Tori‑no‑ichi, but the supplied sources do not establish a single canonical iconographic appearance.

The myth credits Uzume with persuasive power enacted through embodied performance: comic, sexually charged dance and stagecraft that can change the mood and decisions of other deities and thereby effect cosmic change in narrative terms (noted most clearly in the luring of Amaterasu and the restoration of light). She is described as a model or originator for kagura (sacred dance) and is associated with later shamanic elements incorporated into Shinto ritual forms (for example, links to Omoto Kagura, Hana Matsuri, and Hayachine Kagura are drawn by sources). She also functions as mediator and companion in mythic journeys and as an ancestral figure for performance lineages (the Sarume). A minor narrative motif records her cutting a sea cucumber's mouth during the descent to earth.