Suseri-hime- Japanese GodDeity

The Trials in Ne-no-Kuni

Ōkuninushi came to Ne-no-Kuni, the land of roots beneath the earth, fleeing brothers who had already killed him twice. Suseri-hime met him at the door of her father's hall. She brought him inside, and Susanoo, her father, put the visitor to work dying.

The first night, Susanoo placed Ōkuninushi in a room full of snakes. Suseri-hime gave him a snake-repelling scarf, the hebi no hire, and he waved it through the dark until the serpents drew back. The next night the room held centipedes and wasps. Again she brought a scarf, and again he survived. Then Susanoo shot a humming-bulb arrow into a vast field and sent Ōkuninushi to fetch it. When he reached the tall grass, Susanoo set the field ablaze. A mouse showed Ōkuninushi a hole in the ground. He dropped in. The fire passed over him.

The last trial was intimacy. Susanoo told Ōkuninushi to pick the lice from his hair. What crawled through those locks were centipedes, not lice. On Suseri-hime's advice, Ōkuninushi chewed red clay and spat it out so Susanoo would think he was crushing vermin between his teeth. Soothed by the grooming, Susanoo fell asleep.

The Elopement

Ōkuninushi tied Susanoo's hair to the rafters. He blocked the door with a boulder, lifted Suseri-hime onto his back, and seized Susanoo's great sword and his heavenly speaking koto. They ran. But the koto brushed a tree branch as they fled and sounded a note so loud it shook the earth. Susanoo woke.

He gave chase. By the time he reached Yomotsu Hirasaka, the boundary between Ne-no-Kuni and the upper world, the pair had crossed over. Susanoo stood at the border and called after them. He told Ōkuninushi to use the sword to subdue his brothers and rule as the Great Lord of the Land. It was a concession, shouted across a threshold he could not cross.

Principal Wife

The Kojiki names Suseri-hime as Ōkuninushi's principal wife, but he took many others. When he prepared to leave for Yamato to visit Yagamihime, Suseri-hime handed him a cup of sake and sang. The song was about being left behind. Ōkuninushi answered with his own, promising he would return, and they drank from each other's cups in reconciliation. The Kojiki preserves both songs complete, two of the oldest love poems in the tradition.