Yasakani no Magatama (八尺瓊勾玉)

One of the Three Sacred Treasures. A curved jewel handed down from the age of the gods, alongside the Yata no Kagami mirror and the Ame-no-Murakumo sword. The "ya" in its name is said to signify not merely a number, but something immeasurable in scale — or perhaps "iyasakae," a prayer for eternal flourishing — or so the whispers go.

As for the jewel's material, no settled answer has ever been found. One record suggests a carnelian burning red; a fragment from another ancient fudoki writes simply, "its color is blue." Blue-green jade, or deep crimson agate? The very uncertainty seems to make the thing's true nature slip perpetually from one's grasp. There were even those who claimed its color changed depending on who was looking.

What is strange is that even in the records of successive enthronement rites, references to this jewel are remarkably vague. While the names of the sword and mirror are carved into the histories, the jewel sinks again and again into the spaces between words. Was it withheld from formal presentation because it was a treasure meant to be worn upon the body — or was there, from the very beginning, something that must not be written down?

It is said to be either a great string of countless magatama beads, or a single enormous jewel. In either case, no testimony exists from anyone who has looked directly upon the whole of it. Even now it remains sealed within the innermost recesses of the Imperial Palace, wrapped in layers of cloth and nested in box upon box, with almost no occasion for it ever to be revealed. The rumor drifts on quietly, even today — was that jewel ever truly counted among the Three?