Do you have annoying siblings?
Then you would sympathize with Okuninushi in this story.
Okuninushi (大国主) was a Shinto god that helped to create the world.
He was the great-great-great-grandson of Susanoo, the powerful God of the Sea and Storms.
It seems Okuninushi’s father wore pants that had defective zippers, because Okuninushi
had 80 older brothers.
He was the youngest of the bunch.
This meant he never had to worry about being bullied at school, but he always had to worry
about being bullied at home.
Although he was the youngest and considered the least important, he eventually became
the great master of the land, that’s actually what his name translates to.
Our story starts with a rabbit.
Mr. Rabbit lived on an island, but wanted to visit the mainland.
Problem was, he had to cross the sea, and his cute lil legs could not carry him far.
The rabbit saw a crocodile in the sea and called it over.
He said, “Oh Crocodile, you look big and strong, you must come from a powerful clan.”
After getting over the shock that a rabbit could speak, the Crocodile spoke.
"I sure am part of a mighty clan, I reckon we got hundreds in our ranks.”
“Hundreds?” said the rabbit.
“Well the only way to know how many is if you line up your clan members side by side
in the sea so I can count them.
That way, we’ll know exactly how strong your clan is.”
The proud Crocodile agreed and called out to his clan.
And it was a big clan indeed, about the size of a bridge across the sea.
The rabbit hopped along the crocobridge and as he neared the end, he got cocky and bragged
about how he tricked the crocodiles.
While still on the crocobridge.
Bad move, Mr. Rabbit.
As he hopped over the last crocodile, it snapped at him and tore his fur right off his body.
As the rabbit was sitting there lamenting the loss of his fur, 80 brothers came along,
with an 81st brother in the back carrying their belongings.
They were on their way to win the hand in marriage of a beautiful princess, except for
Okuninushi in the back of course, he was just carrying luggage.
Who would want to marry an 81st son?
The brothers told the rabbit there was a way to grow his fur back.
He just had to bathe in the sea, then lie in the sun.
But they were just being dicks.
The salt from the seawater plus the sun’s rays made the rabbit’s skin dry and cracked
and agonizing.
Our hero Okuninushi was appalled.
He told the rabbit to bathe in a river, which has freshwater, and roll his adorable lil
body around on a pile of a certain cattail plant that had these furry bits.
Upon doing this, the bald rabbit regained his fur, because the plant’s furry bits
became his fur.
Interestingly, upon hearing this story, Danny Devito immediately started rolling his head
in cattail plants.
The rabbit was so happy that he gave Okuninushi a prediction as a reward.
He predicted that Okuninushi would win the princess’ hand in marriage.
Turns out Mr. Rabbit was right.
When the 80 brothers plus one arrived at the palace, the princess took a liking to Okuninushi
and became his first wife.
Little did Okuninushi know, this happy occasion would cause his death.
So did Mr. Rabbit have powers of precognition?
Or could he change the future?
Or was there another explanation?
Let me know in the comments what you think about this very important question.
Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyways, the 80 brothers were pissed.
They heated up a huge boulder until it was red hot and rolled it down the hill at Okuninushi,
as brothers do.
The boulder smashed into Okuninushi and he… died.
That’s right, he died.
Didn’t expect that, did you?
But don’t fret, we’re following comic book rules, so he didn’t stay dead.
His mother went to heaven to plead for his life.
The heavenly gods agreed, and revived him.
The 80 obnoxious brothers actually killed him again by putting him in a tree trap, and
again his mother got the heavenly gods to revive him.
It was too much, so his mother suggested he go to the underworld and seek help against
his brothers from his great-great-great-grandfather Susanoo, who was the God of the Sea and Storms.
So Okuninushi went to the underworld, but before he could meet the great god, he met
Susanoo’s daughter, Suseri-hime.
They fell in love and got married, because that’s how gods roll.
But if you thought the 80 brothers were bad…
When Suseri-hime told Susanoo that they got married, Susanoo was super annoyed.
He decided to test his new son-in-law, he put Okuninushi in a nest of poisonous snakes
and told him to sleep there for the night.
Which, to be fair, is loads better than asking him embarrassing questions like a normal father.
Luckily his new wife Suseri-hime gave him a magic anti-snake scarf.
He waved it about and the snakes fell asleep, allowing him to sleep through the night unharmed.
Susanoo wasn’t done though.
Next, he made Okuninushi sleep in a room full of centipedes and wasps.
Apparently, Suseri-hime had a scarf for every animal because she gave him an anti centipede
and wasp scarf, and again he slept through the night.
Miki: But why didn’t he just kill Okuninushi Linfamy: Oh great..
directly rather than doing it in a roundabout
way with snakes and centipedes?
Well, Miki, it would look bad to his daughter and the other gods if he killed his own son-in-law,
wouldn’t it?
He’s gotta do it indirectly and not be rude about it.
His plan wasn’t working, so Susanoo changed tactics.
He shot an arrow into some tall grass and told Okuninushi to retrieve it.
When Okuninushi went in to do so, Susanoo set the grass around him on fire, preventing
his escape.
Fortunately, a mouse came to the rescue and helped Okuninushi hide in a cave until the
fire burned through all the grass.
Then he presented the arrow to his father-in-law.
At this point, after all the homicide attempts, Susanoo was becoming impressed with his son-in-law,
and even allowed Okuninushi the honor of picking lice from his head.
Susanoo’s head had centipedes instead of lice, but whatever, he did it anyways.
And then while Susanoo was asleep, Okuninushi tied his father-in-law’s hair to the rafters
and blocked the door to the room with a boulder.
He ran away with his new wife, but not before stealing Susanoo’s sword, bow, and arrows.
By the time Susanoo woke up and freed his hair and chased them, the couple was long
gone.
Susanoo yelled after them, but approvingly, because his son-in-law was as much of a troublemaker
as he was.
He told Okuninushi to make Suseri-hime his main wife, raise a grand palace for themselves,
and use the stolen weapons to defeat his 80 brothers.
And he did.
After a while, it seemed like the zipper to Okuninushi’s pants was as loose as his father’s,
because he married even more women and produced a bunch of kids.
It even made his main wife mad and made his first wife leave.
Over time, Okuninushi finished the great project of creating the land, a project that Izanagi
and Izanami started long ago.
He probably wanted to make room for his kids.
Now this story about Okuninushi reads like another Shinto creation myth, which is a bit
weird because there’s already a creation myth that included Izanagi and Izanami.
I know because I made a video about it.
This led some scholars to believe that the story was originally the creation myth of
a people that existed long ago.
The Yamato were the ancestors of the modern Japanese.
In ancient times, the Yamato defeated a competing group, the Izumo.
This story could have been the creation myth of the Izumo people, that was later incorporated
into the Yamato’s.
Alright, time for today’s quiz question.
What were the names of the two provinces that the Japanese established over Emishi lands?
I’ll randomly pick a winner in 24 hours, and you’ll get to choose one of these babies.
Good luck!
So you guys, I run this channel all by myself, and it’s thanks to the patrons on Patreon
that I can do that.
So if you want to support the channel and keep boba tea entering my mouth and exiting
my bum, go to patreon.com/Linfamy and give a few bucks.
It’s really helpful you don’t even know.
So this week’s new patrons are Talia Ruiz, Sebastien Bataille, and Marie-Venise POLETTI.
So sorry.. Thanks you guys.
And do you want more Japanese myths?
Check out this awesome playlist.
Alright much love and spread the knowledge!
Prou cocodile
Proud crocodi--
Proud crocodowd
Proud croc--
Proud crocodi--