NAME: Oh-Kuni-Nushi, `The Great Land Master.' also Okuninushi no mikoto, Okuninushi no kami, Onamuchi no mikoto, Ookuninushi.
SYMBOLS: Koto (Japanese harp), Bowl, Bow & Arrow, Sword.
USUAL IMAGE: Handsome young man who appears to be in his late teens to early 20's with a kind look. Sometimes shown with a white hare.
PLACE OF WORSHIP: Temple
RELATIVES: Sasanoo God of Forests & Storms (Grandfather & Father in Law), Princess Suzeri (Wife), Kotoshironushi & Takeminakata (Sons). 80 mostly unnamed brothers.
RULES: Healing, Medicine, Sorcery, the Unseen World. Resourcefullness, Compassion., Creator of sakę
SYNODEITIES: Geb & Osiris (Egyptian), Odin (Norse), Resurrected gods, Earth gods.
DETAILS: The Human world we know is called Ashihara no Nakatsukuni and came about when Ohkuninushi shed a ray of light on what had been an area of only darkness and chaos.
He also pioneered it placing lands and the rest and making it livable for animals, humans, and spirits. However being extremely humble he did not dominate this land but gave it to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami who appointed her son Ninigi and his descendants (the Emperors of Japan) to rule over it.
As compensation Ohkuninushi was given rule over the hidden Earth and it's spirits, kami, other usually invisible beings.
This however was far from the end of the adventures of Oh-Kuni. His compassion in time both got him into trouble and found him a wife. While you would think the creator of the Land would not be someone who could easily be pushed around this was not the case. He had 80 older cruel brothers who gave him grief that Cinderella never dreamed off, twice even killing him, once by pressing him into a split open tree which they closed up on him.
Even after being brought back to life by his mother he still did everything his brother told him to do to the point of acting as their servant and stand in for their beasts of burden.
This lead to the tripping up of the 80 Brothers when they all went to vie for a princess. On the way they gave advice to a hare that had lost it's fur that lead to the hare being put in pain.
Oh-Kuni-Nushi at the end of the line helped the hare with advise that lead to his healing. In return the hare gave him information that helped him win his wife the Princess Suzeri.
However from the above don't go away with the idea that Nushi was a wuss. In the end he outwitted Susanoo no Mikoto the powerful God of Storms. He did this so well in fact that Susanno not only ended up approving of the marriage that he also gave him his magic Koto, bowl, sword, bow & arrow.
Which in the end shows that compassion works out in the end.... as long as your smart about it.
Still, letting one self be killed twice seems a bit much to me, I guess sometimes I just don't get the Gods.
