Okuninushi’s Family Tree

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Relationships & Genealogy(36 connections)

About Okuninushi

Family
  • Tagorihime(spouse),Ajisukitakahikone(child),Shitateruhime(child)Consort

    Okuninushi and Tagorihime, one of the Munakata goddesses, are the parents of Ajisukitakahikone and Shitateruhime as recorded in the Kojiki.

  • Ama-no-Fuyukinu(parent),Sashikuniwakahime(parent)Marriage

    Ama-no-Fuyukinu and Sashikuniwakahime are the parents of Ōkuninushi in the Kojiki's genealogy of Susanoo's descendants.

    The Nihon Shoki names Kamu-Ōichihime as Ōkuninushi's mother with different genealogy. The Kojiki traces him through a six-generation line from Susanoo.

  • Kamuyatatehime(spouse),Kotoshironushi(child)Consort

    Ōkuninushi fathered Kotoshironushi with Kamuyatatehime, a goddess of Miho whose son would inherit his father's oracular wisdom and speak on behalf of the earthly gods.

  • Nunakawahime(spouse),Takeminakata(child)Consort

    Ōkuninushi wooed Nunakawahime of Koshi in a celebrated poetic exchange, and their son Takeminakata inherited his father's fierce will — the only one of Ōkuninushi's children to resist the heavenly envoys by force.

  • Kamu-Ōichihime is the mother of Ōkuninushi, linking him to Ōyamatsumi's lineage through the Nihon Shoki genealogy.

    The Kojiki gives Ōkuninushi's parentage differently, listing him as a sixth-generation descendant of Susanoo. The Nihon Shoki variant names Kamu-Ōichihime as his mother.

  • Suseri-hime(spouse)Marriage

    Suseri-hime fell in love with Okuninushi at first sight when he descended to Ne-no-Kuni. She helped him survive Susanoo's deadly trials, and the two eloped together while Susanoo slept.

  • Yakami-hime(spouse)Marriage

    Yakami-hime of Inaba chose Okuninushi over his eighty brothers as the Hare of Inaba had prophesied, becoming his first wife as told in the Kojiki.

Has aspect
  • Okuninushi was syncretized with Daikokuten through a phonetic overlap between Ōkuninushi and Daikoku. Their identities merged in popular worship, linking the earth deity to wealth and prosperity.

  • Ōmononushi appeared to Ōkuninushi during the nation-building and declared himself Ōkuninushi's saki-mitama and kushi-mitama — his spirit dwelling on Mount Miwa.

Allied with
  • Sukuna-bikona arrived from across the sea in a tiny boat of bark and partnered with Ōkuninushi to build the land of Izumo, teaching the arts of medicine and agriculture before departing to the eternal realm.

Enemy of
  • Kashima (Takemikazuchi) descended as Amaterasu's war god to force Okuninushi to cede the earthly realm. He defeated Okuninushi's son Takeminakata and compelled the transfer of sovereignty (Kojiki).

  • The Yasogami burned Okuninushi alive with a red-hot boulder and crushed him in a tree trunk, killing him twice out of jealousy over Yakami-hime's preference for their youngest brother.

Slain by
  • The Yasogami killed Okuninushi twice — first by rolling a red-hot boulder down a mountain onto him, then by crushing him in a split tree trunk. Each time his mother petitioned the heavenly deities to restore him to life.

Rules over
  • Okuninushi ruled Ashihara no Nakatsukuni as its Great Land Master, developing and ordering the earthly realm before ceding it to Amaterasu's descendants (Kojiki).

  • When Ōkuninushi surrendered the visible world to the heavenly gods, they raised Izumo Taisha for him — a palace with pillars rooted in bedrock and crossbeams reaching the clouds — where he reigns as lord of the unseen realm and the bonds of fate.

  • Ōkuninushi received dominion over the kakuriyo — the unseen world of spirits — in exchange for surrendering the visible realm to Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi.

Associated with
  • Amaterasu sent heavenly messengers demanding Okuninushi cede sovereignty of the earthly realm. After negotiation and the threat of force, Okuninushi surrendered the visible world to Ninigi in the kuniyuzuri as told in the Kojiki.

  • Amaterasu and Takamimusubi dispatched heavenly envoys to demand Okuninushi surrender sovereignty over the Central Land of Reed Plains, culminating in the kuniyuzuri that cleared the way for the divine descent.

  • Ame-no-Hohi was the first envoy sent by the heavenly gods to pacify Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, but he was won over by Ōkuninushi and defected, sending no report back to heaven for three years.

  • Inaba no Shirousagi, healed by Ōkuninushi's kindness after its skin was torn away by crocodiles, prophesied that Yakami-hime would choose him over his eighty brothers — and so she did.

  • When the tiny god Sukuna-Bikona appeared before Ōkuninushi and none could name him, Kamimusubi recognized the stranger as his own child who had slipped through his fingers, and commanded Sukuna-Bikona to join Ōkuninushi in building and healing the land.

  • When Takemikazuchi descended to demand the earthly realm, he found Kotoshironushi fishing at Cape Miho and demanded his answer first — Kotoshironushi counseled his father Ōkuninushi to yield, clapped his hands, transformed his boat into a green fence of branches, and vanished behind it forever.

  • Suseri-hime secretly aided Okuninushi through Susanoo's deadly trials in Ne-no-Kuni — giving him scarves to repel snakes and centipedes, and guiding his escape with Susanoo's bow, sword, and koto.

  • When Ōkuninushi was crushed to death by a burning boulder rolled down by his jealous brothers, Kamimusubi dispatched Kisagai-hime and Umugihime from Takamagahara to scrape and nurse the shattered god back to life.

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