YAMATO TAKERU. Yamato Takeru, whose name means "brave man from the Yamato region," is a legendary character described in the records of the Yamato kingship, including the Nihonshoki (720 CE) and Kojiki (712 CE). According to the Nihonshoki and Kojiki, Yamato Takeru was the son of Keiko Tenno, the twelfth emperor. He laid the foundations for the Yamato kingship to rule almost all of the Japanese islands by conquering previously unsubjugated peoples, such as the Kumaso in the southwest and the Emishi in the northeast. Yamato Takeru's conquests finally ended when he died after his defeat by a mountain god just before returning to the Yamato region. Today, Yamato Takeru is not considered to have been an actual living person, but his character may reflect memories of Yuryaku Tenno, who lived during the fifth century.

The descriptions of Yamato Takeru's character are similar in the Kojiki and Nihonshoki...