Two episodes dominate the upper scroll and they pull in opposite directions. The first is the rock cave. Susanoo's violence in the heavenly fields drives Amaterasu to shut herself into a cavern, and the world goes dark. The assembled deities respond not with force but with a staged performance: a mirror hung on a tree, a rope, a dance on an overturned tub, and laughter loud enough that the sun goddess opens the door to see what could be funny without her. She is drawn out, not fetched. The pattern of the episode, an offended deity coaxed back by ritual and mirth, is repeated in shrine practice for centuries afterwards.
The second is Izumo, and it is the puzzle. A chronicle written to justify the Yamato court gives an extraordinary share of its space to a rival centre on the Japan Sea coast, to Susanoo's exile there, to Okuninushi's trials and his building of the country, and finally to the negotiation in which he surrenders it in exchange for a great shrine. A conquest could have been asserted in a line. Instead the text concedes that Izumo built the land it is handing over, and pays for the transfer with a sanctuary.
Historians read the emphasis in different ways, as the incorporation of a genuinely powerful cult that could not be written out, or as a literary device that makes the handover look consensual. What is not in doubt is that the compilers thought Izumo had to be answered rather than ignored.