The stories from the notes are from: The Romance of Old Japan by E. W. Champney and F. Campney.
The first story was about the creation of the world. The two gods, Izanagi and Izanami were the two at the center of the creation of all things. It tells the stories of how islands came to be and the different elements were the children born from Izanami.
The next story is about Amaterasu otherwise known as the sun goddess. Her parents were the two original gods named Izanami and Izanagi. This story tells about Amaterasu fleeing from the demon of fire called Susa-no-wo. She retreated to a cave and the people wailed and prayed for her return. In the cavern that Amaterasu's hideout was located, another goddess resided. She was called the Uzume the goddess of laughter. She flashed a mirror of gold and laughed and laughed. Wanting to know what commotion was causing the laugher, Amaterasu peered out of her cave. She caught her reflection in the mirror and Uzume told her that it was the Queen of day. Thinking that she had a rival and became very jealous, Amaterasu ran from the cave and back into the sky. A large boulder was put onto the cave by Taji-Karao so she could never return to her hide out.
The last story was about the warrior named Yamato. He had just married his bride and was in a procession with his warriors and men. When a bandit of thieves took over the party and stole the bride named Tachibana away from Yamato. Defeated Yamato stopped fighting due to his horse falling on him. Then after being revived, he disguised himself as a woman to enter the thieves' palace. There he killed the leader and made the other bandits run away with fear. He rescued his wife and took her back to their palace.
(Caption: Japanese painting by Wikipedia)
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