Episode 7Meet the Father-in-Law: He's the Storm GodOkuninushi in the Land of Roots
Episode 7. Onamuji, the youngest brother, is killed twice by his older brothers. His mother's tears bring him back to life, and he escapes to the land beneath the earth, where he meets Suseribime, the princess he's fated to marry. There's one problem: her father is Susanoo, god of storms. A room full of snakes, a burning field, and a scalp crawling with centipedes are just the start of Susanoo's deadly tests for his new son-in-law.
Okuninushi and Susanoo's Trials: Kojiki Land of Roots Myth Explained
The Original Myth: Killed Twice, Revived Twice
This episode comes from the first volume of the Kojiki, Japan's oldest surviving chronicle, compiled by O no Yasumaro in 712. It picks up right after Princess Yagamihime of Inaba turns down the Yasogami, the "eighty gods" (a whole crowd of brothers), and announces that she will marry Onamuji, the brother they treat as their servant. Humiliated, the brothers agree to kill him.
At the foot of Mount Tema in Hoki, they tell Onamuji that they will drive a red boar down the slope, and that he must catch it or die. In fact they heat a boar-shaped boulder in a fire and roll it down. He catches it, and the burning rock kills him. His grieving mother, Sashikuni-wakahime, climbs up to heaven and begs Kamimusuhi, one of the primordial creator deities, for help. Two shellfish goddesses are sent down. Kisagai-hime, usually understood as the ark-shell goddess, scrapes something together, and Umugi-hime, the clam goddess, smears it on him like a mother's milk. Onamuji gets up again as a handsome young man. Later commentators explain the remedy as a paste of shell powder and clam liquid, but the Kojiki gives only those short phrases.
The brothers try again. They fell a great tree, hold it open with a wedge, get Onamuji inside the split, and then knock the wedge out so the trunk crushes him. His mother finds him, splits the tree open, revives him, and warns him that the brothers will finish him off if he stays. She sends him to Oyabiko, a god in the land of Ki. The brothers chase him there with arrows ready, but he slips away through the fork of a tree. Someone then tells him to go to Ne-no-Katasu-kuni, the Land of Roots, where Susanoo lives. The text doesn't say who gives this advice, but it is usually read as Oyabiko.
Susanoo's Deadly Tests in the Land of Roots
At Susanoo's palace, his daughter Suseribime comes out. Their eyes meet and they marry on the spot. She tells her father that a very beautiful god has arrived. Susanoo, the storm god who was earlier thrown out of heaven, takes one look and calls the newcomer Ashihara-shikoo, roughly "the shiko man of the Reed Plain." Scholars disagree about whether shiko here is an insult ("ugly") or a compliment ("mighty"). Then Susanoo puts him to sleep in a room full of snakes.
Suseribime secretly gives her husband a magic scarf (a hire) and tells him to wave it three times if the snakes come for him. It works, and he sleeps peacefully. The next night he is locked in a room of centipedes and bees, and a second scarf saves him. Next, Susanoo shoots a whistling arrow into a wide field, sends Onamuji to fetch it, and sets the grass on fire all around him. A mouse appears and says, in the original words, "hora-hora inside, sufu-sufu outside": the ground is hollow underneath and narrow at the opening. He stamps down, drops into a hidden burrow, and the fire passes over him. The mouse brings back the arrow, though its babies have chewed off the feathers. Suseribime, sure he is dead, arrives weeping with funeral items. Susanoo comes out to the field thinking the same. Then Onamuji walks up and hands him the arrow.
Last, Susanoo asks him to pick the lice out of his hair, which turns out to be crawling with centipedes. Suseribime slips her husband muku berries and red clay. He chews the berries and spits out mouthfuls of clay, and Susanoo, believing the young god is biting the centipedes to death, feels a fondness for him and falls asleep. Onamuji ties the sleeping god's hair to the rafters, blocks the door with a boulder that would take five hundred people to move, lifts his wife onto his back, and runs off with Susanoo's living sword, living bow and arrows, and heavenly koto (a zither). The koto brushes a tree and the earth shakes. Susanoo wakes and pulls the whole house down, but untying his hair gives the couple their head start.
The Storm God's Blessing
Susanoo follows them as far as Yomotsu Hirasaka, the slope on the border of the underworld, and shouts after them. Use the sword and bow, he says, to drive your half-brothers off every hillside and out of every river shallow. Become Okuninushi, "Great Master of the Land," and Utsushi-kunitama, "Spirit of the Living Land." Make my daughter your chief wife, and build a palace at the foot of Mount Uka with pillars sunk to the bedrock and roof beams that reach heaven. He speaks to his son-in-law in rough, insulting language the whole time, so the blessing comes out half as a curse.
Onamuji does exactly that, chases off his brothers, and starts building the land. Yagamihime does come to him as promised, but she is afraid of Suseribime. She leaves the child she bore him wedged in the fork of a tree and goes home. The child is named Kimata-no-kami, "god of the tree fork," also called Mii-no-kami.
What the Myth Tells Us
Okuninushi is a central figure in the traditions of Izumo, a region in western Japan, and is closely linked with Izumo Taisha shrine. He has an unusually large number of names. One common explanation is that the Kojiki combined several local traditions about him. In this episode the names also mark his rise: a bullied youngest brother is renamed by Susanoo and comes out of the trials as a ruler.
Dying and returning, surviving ordeals, and getting help from a wife and an animal are all familiar patterns, and many scholars read the story as a kind of initiation. The trial of a suitor by his bride's dangerous father is a motif found in folktales around the world. The stolen sword, bow, and koto can be read as symbols of authority, and some scholars link the koto in particular to ritual and divine communication.
What the Manga Changes
The Kojiki is very brief. Onamuji has almost no lines in it, and the text never says what he feels. Apart from the mouse's words, which come from the original, the manga's dialogue and inner thoughts are new. So are many of the visuals: the glowing rock, the shell goddesses and how they prepare the remedy, the excuse the brothers use for the second trap, the mother's climb to heaven, and the way Kamimusuhi and Oyabiko look.
The look of the Land of Roots, the tone of Susanoo's voice when he names Onamuji, the colors of the scarves, the number of snakes, Susanoo's fondness shown as an inner monologue, the chase, the modern wording of his final shout, and the battle with the brothers are all the manga's own choices. Yagamihime's story is shortened to a single panel. The order of events and how they turn out follow the Kojiki.
Where to Read It
To see these trials play out, read Episode 7 of KOJIKI: Chronicle of the Gods here on Manga Portal. Every episode is free and you don't need an account, so you can start from the beginning of the series or go straight on to see how Okuninushi begins building the land.
Characters in this episode
Onamuji (later Okuninushi)
The youngest of the brothers, who is killed twice, survives Susanoo's tests, and becomes the Great Master of the Land.
Susanoo
The storm god and ruler of the Land of Roots, who tests his new son-in-law and then shouts a rough blessing after him.
Suseribime
Susanoo's daughter, who marries Onamuji at first sight and quietly gets him through every trial.
The Yasogami (Eighty Gods)
Onamuji's jealous brothers, who trick and kill him after Princess Yagamihime chooses him over them.
Sashikuni-wakahime
Onamuji's mother, who brings him back to life twice and sends him away to safety.
The Mouse
A small helper who shows Onamuji a hiding hole during the burning-field test and brings back the arrow.
FAQ
Who is Okuninushi in Japanese mythology?
Okuninushi, "Great Master of the Land," is the god who builds and rules the earthly land in the Kojiki, and he is closely tied to Izumo. He starts out as Onamuji, a bullied younger brother, and Susanoo gives him the name Okuninushi after he survives the trials in the Land of Roots.
What tests did Susanoo give Okuninushi?
Susanoo made him sleep in a room of snakes and then a room of centipedes and bees, trapped him in a burning field, and had him pick centipedes out of Susanoo's hair. Suseribime's magic scarves, a helpful mouse, and a trick with berries and red clay got him through.
Why did Okuninushi's brothers try to kill him?
Princess Yagamihime of Inaba refused all of the brothers and chose Onamuji instead. Furious and jealous, they killed him with a red-hot boulder and then crushed him inside a split tree.
How was Okuninushi brought back to life?
After the first killing, his mother asked the deity Kamimusuhi for help, and two shellfish goddesses revived him with a remedy described like a mother's milk. After the second, his mother pulled him out of the tree and revived him herself.
What is the Land of Roots (Ne-no-Katasu-kuni)?
It is Susanoo's realm, described in the Kojiki as lying far away and reached by passing the slope Yomotsu Hirasaka. The text says little about what it looks like, and scholars disagree about how closely it relates to Yomi, the land of the dead.
