Ōkuninushi

Ōkuninushi is a Yomi god of land that watches over the island of Inuzo as his own realm, waiting for the return of a true emperor to cede control, at which point he is destined to become master over the Ethereal Plane's overlap with Sendoru, the spirits in that plane, and with ethereal arcana.

### Ōkuninushi's Courtship of a Princess

Ōkuninushi is one of eighty brothers, the youngest and smallest of them all. The eighty brothers were competing for the love of a mortal princess known as Yagami and set out in a large convoy, each brother wanting an equal opportunity to get close to the princess (Ōkuninushi included). They made him hold their luggage, as he had no chance of being the one chosen.

As the brothers traveled they came upon a flayed hare who was in great pain and when he saw them he told them his tale. He had wanted to cross from Oshiro to Inuzo across the ocean and he came up with a cunning plan- he told the croc-fish that he wanted to challenge them to a contest to see who had the most kin and when they all lined up to count he jumped across their heads. Nearly making it to the end he started gloating about his cunning and wit, but this premature celebration caused the croc-fish to snap at him, tearing his fur right off.

Ōkuninushi's brothers were cruel and heartless and they gave the hare the advice to wash his wounds in salt water and dry in the open air, leaving the hare in worse pain than before, on the verge of passing out from his wounds he met Ōkuninushi who threw down his bags and helped the hare. He rinsed him off in a freshwater spring and bade him to roll around in cattails which clung to his skin and became a new coat of white fur. The rabbit went into a trance, telling the young god that he had seen the future and the princess would choose him, even if he was the youngest and even though he was little more than a beast of burden.

The hare's predictions did come to pass, despite the odds Ōkuninushi was to become the Princess's husband and his brothers were furious. They took him on a hunting trip to catch a red boar but in fact the boar was a red-hot iron boulder that ran him down instead and he died of his burns. His mother, weeping, petitioned the heavenly kami to revive her son and they sent two lesser goddesses, Kisagai and Umugi (two goddesses of clams), to revive the young god. His brothers met the revived runt and tricked him into walking in the middle of a tree they had split down the middle, then they slammed it in half, killing him again. This time after he was revived he went to Ni No Kuni, the spirit realm of Susanoo in the Elemental Chaos to receive counsel from a wiser kami. He was welcomed into Susanoo's palace where he met his daughter Suseri, with whom he quickly fell in love. Susanoo was not pleased.

Susanoo bade Ōkuninushi to sleep in a room full of snakes, but Suseri had given him a boon that protected him. The next night he slept in a room full of centipedes and wasps and once again he was protected. On the third day Susanoo shot an arrow in a field and made the young man retrieve it, lighting the field on fire after the search was underway. A mouse in the field showed him a place to hide from the flames and brought the arrow to him, the trial had been won.

Ōkuninushi may not have realized at the moment, but he had gained Susanoo's respect by being so hard to murder. Susanoo allowed the young god to bathe him in his home and wash his hair (full of centipedes and spiders) and while he did he got his own idea. He tied Susanoo's long hair to the rafters of the palace and took Suseri along with Susanoo's bow and his koto. As he went to leave the koto brushed up against the wall, waking Susanoo who brought the entire palace down upon himself. Susanoo met the eloping couple at the borders between Ni No Kuni and Yomi and gave them his blessing, he told Ōkuninushi to use the bow to slay his brothers and that he should be king of Inuzo and Suseri his queen.