Okuninushi (大国主神)

Okuninushi (大国主神, Okuninushi) is one of the most fully developed rulers in Japanese myth. Unlike the more abstract primordial kami, he appears as a figure who suffers, learns, courts, heals, governs, and finally relinquishes the visible land. In art and shrine tradition he may look noble and composed, but the stories around him keep the memory of danger close: jealous brothers, humiliating trials, descent into a darker realm, and the fragile making of order.

Okuninushi's interactions define him as both ruler and survivor. Early on he helps the Hare of Inaba and distinguishes himself from his cruel brothers, setting the tone for a figure whose authority depends on discernment as much as power. His pursuit of Suseribime brings him into the domain of Susanoo, where he endures deadly tests before escaping and establishing himself in Izumo.

He also interacts with the land as something to be built rather than merely inherited. In the classical tradition he works with Sukunabikona in ordering the realm and making it habitable. Later, when heavenly envoys demand the transfer of the land, Okuninushi's interactions become political and cosmic at once. His yielding of the visible world defines the great transition from earthly autonomy to heavenly rule.

Okuninushi is preserved most fully in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as the great ruler of Izumo and the master of the terrestrial realm before the descent of the heavenly line. These texts present him as a deity of unusual narrative density, with a biography-like sequence of peril, love, kingship, and negotiated surrender. He therefore stands much closer to a legendary ruler than to a merely named divine power.

Later religion gives him further lives through shrine cult, regional devotion, and syncretic overlap with Daikokuten and other fortune associations. Those later layers are important but should remain secondary in this entry. The classical Okuninushi is first and foremost the sovereign of Izumo whose rule must be recognized before it can be ceremonially ceded.

Okuninushi's major legends include the healing of the Hare of Inaba, the rivalry with his brothers, the courtship of Suseribime, the trials imposed by Susanoo, the partnership with Sukunabikona in building the land, and the cession of the realm in the kuni-yuzuri cycle. Together these episodes give him a range unusual among early kami. He is compassionate, clever, vulnerable, erotic, political, and ritually significant.

The most consequential legend is the transfer of the land. When the heavenly deities send envoys and warrior gods to claim the earthly realm, Okuninushi eventually yields visible rule in exchange for sacred recognition. That myth matters far beyond Izumo. It helps explain how the chronicles integrate regional power into an imperial heavenly order while still preserving the dignity of the god who ruled before submission.

Okuninushi.

§Appearance

§Interactions

Izanagi

Izanami

Prince Shotoku

§Origin

§Legends

References

Primary Sources