Who Is Takeshiuchi no Sukune (Takenouchi no Sukune)?
The minister who served many emperors
Takeshiuchi-no-Sukune
Takeshiuchi no Sukune is a minister in the Kojiki who served across the reigns of several emperors. He is famous for the legend of his extraordinarily long life.
In the reign of Emperor Chuai, he served as the one who sought the god's words at the saniwa, the place for receiving divine messages. When the emperor died, he performed a great purification of the whole land's offenses, questioned the god again, and learned that the child in the empress's womb would rule the land, as well as the names of the gods who had spoken. After Prince Oshikuma's rebellion, he took the young prince to Tsunuga (today's Tsuruga) and was present when the prince exchanged names with the Great God Izasawake.
The Kojiki names him as the ancestor of many powerful clans, including the Soga, Katsuragi, and Heguri.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 14
The Music Stopped, and the King Was DeadEmpress Jingū's Expedition to Silla
Kojiki series, Episode 14. A king who doubted the gods' words dies in the middle of playing his koto. "That voice came out of my mouth." Carrying both her guilt and her unborn child, the empress asks the gods again herself. Then she sets out to sea, trusting the fish to carry her fleet across the rough waves. *Based on myths written down some 1,300 years ago, not on historical fact.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 15
WaitEveryone Thinks I'm Dead? — The Revolt of Prince Oshikuma
A mother spreads the rumor that her son is dead, then sails for the capital with the prince and her soldiers hidden aboard a funeral ship. A battle with his scheming half-brothers, a stunning reversal thanks to a bowstring hidden in General Topknot's hair, a lord and his loyal retainer vanishing into a lake, and a strange gift from the god of the northern shore—until the child everyone thought dead returns to his mother, and one day becomes king.
19 pages