Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (kami) of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the Kojiki (c. 712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), as the ruler (or one of the rulers) of the heavenly realm Takamagahara and the mythical ancestress of the Imperial House of Japan via her grandson Ninigi. Along with her siblings, the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the impetuous storm god Susanoo, she is considered to be one of the "Three Precious Children" (, ), the three most important offspring of the creator god Izanagi. Amaterasu's chief place of worship, the Grand Shrine of Ise in Ise, Mie Prefecture, is one of Shinto's holiest sites and a major pilgrimage center and tourist spot. As with other Shinto kami, she is also enshrined in a number of Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Name The goddess is referred to as 'Amaterasu Ōmikami' ( / ; historical orthography: , Amaterasu Ohomikami; Old Japanese: Amaterasu Opomi1kami2) in the Kojiki, while the Nihon Shoki gives the following variant names: Ōhirume-no-Muchi (; Man'yōgana: ; hist. orthography: , Ohohirume-no-Muchi; Old Japanese: Opopi1rume1-no2-Muti) Amaterasu Ō(mi)kami (; hist. orthography: , Amaterasu Oho(mi)kami) Amaterasu Ōhirume no Mikoto () Hi-no-Kami (; OJ: Pi1-no-Kami2) 'Amaterasu' is thought to derive from the verb amateru "to illuminate / shine in the sky" (ama "sky, heaven" + teru "to shine") combined with the honorific auxiliary verb -su, while 'Ōmikami' means "great [and] august deity" (ō "great" + honorific prefix mi- + kami). Notably, 'Amaterasu' in 'Amaterasu Ōmikami' is not technically a name the same way 'Susanoo' in 'Susa no O no Mikoto' or 'Ōkuninushi' in 'Ōkuninushi no Kami' are. Amaterasu is an attributive verb form that modifies the noun after it, ōmikami. This epithet is therefore, much more semantically transparent than most names recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, in that it means exactly what it means, without allusion, inference or etymological opacity, literally "The Great August Goddess Who Augustly Shines in Heaven". This usage is analogous to the use of relative clauses in English, only different in that Japanese clauses are placed in front of the noun they modify. This is further exemplified by (1) an alternative epithet, 'Amateru Kami' (天照神, "The Goddess Who Shines in Heaven"), which is a plain, non-honorific version of