Ōkuninushi

Name

Ōkuninushi is referred to by multiple names in the Kojiki. His original name is Ō(a)namuji-no-Kami. In three instances in the narrative proper he is called Ashihara-Shikoo, meaning 'Ugly Man / Young Warrior of the Reed Plains'. After receiving new names from Susanoo, he is called Ōkuninushi-no-Kami ('Master of the Great Land') and Utsushikunitama-no-Kami ('Spirit of the Living Land').

In the story of his wooing Nunakawahime of Koshi, he is called Yachihoko-no-Kami ('Eight Thousand Spears'). An anecdote in the annals of Emperor Suinin uses the name Izumo-no-Ōkami ('Great Deity of Izumo').

In the Nihon Shoki, the god is mainly referred to as Ō(a)namuchi-no-Kami or Ō(a)namuti-no-Mikoto, with a variant listing the same alternate names as the Kojiki. The name Ōmononushi-no-Kami, originally an epithet for the deity of Mount Miwa, is depicted in the Shoki as essentially the same entity as Ōkuninushi, being his mitama 'aspect, spirit'. Other names include Kunitsukuri Ōnamuchi-no-Mikoto, Ōkunitama-no-Kami, and Utsushikunitama-no-Kami.

Mythology

Ōkuninushi first appears in the Kojiki in the tale of The White Hare of Inaba. His elder brothers, the yasokami, were suitors for Yagamihime of Inaba. The hare then predicted Ōkuninushi would win the princess.

Rejected by Yagamihime, the brothers conspired to kill Ōkuninushi. They forced him to catch a red boar, which was actually a red-hot boulder rolled down Mount Tema, burning him to death. His mother Sashikuniwakahime petitioned the primordial deity Kamimusubi, who sent clam goddesses Kisagaihime and Umugihime to revive him as a handsome young man.

The brothers then tricked him onto a split tree log that snapped shut, killing him again. His mother revived him and told him to seek refuge with Ōyabiko-no-Kami in the land of Ki. As he fled, his brothers pursued but he escaped by slipping through a fork of a tree.

Did You Know?

• Ōkuninushi is syncretized with the Buddhist deity Daikokuten in the shinbutsu-shūgō system.
• The sectarian group Izumo-taishakyo considers Ōkuninushi its central deity.
• The kuni-yuzuri event involved Ōkuninushi withdrawing into the netherworld, which was given to him to rule in exchange for ceding the terrestrial world.