I eavesdropped on a tour guide with salt-and-pepper hair explaining that more than 2,000 years ago, Amaterasu-Omikami, the Sun Goddess, explicitly gave orders to two deities, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami and Futsunushi-no-Kami, both gods having to do with swords, to see to it that the Tohoku area got firmly established.