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古事記 · Kojiki mythsKojiki18 sentences

大国主の試練と根の国

Ōkuninushi's Trials and the Land of Roots

The brothers plotted to kill Ōnamuji.

From the mountaintop they rolled down a huge boar-shaped rock heated red in a fire and shouted, “A boar! Catch it!”

Ōnamuji caught the rock and died from the burns.

His mother wept and asked Kamimusuhi for help, and Kamimusuhi sent two shell goddesses, Kisagai-hime and Umugi-hime.

The two mixed powdered shell with a milk-like liquid and applied it, and Ōnamuji came back to life as a fine young man.

The brothers killed him again by trapping him in a split tree, but his mother saved him and helped him flee, and a god called Ōyabiko told him, “Go to Susanoo in the Land of Roots.”

In the Land of Roots, Ōnamuji met Susanoo's daughter Suseribime, and the two fell in love.

Susanoo gave Ōnamuji several trials.

He was made to sleep in a room of snakes and a room of centipedes and wasps, but when he waved the scarf (hire) Suseribime gave him three times, they calmed down.

Next, Susanoo shot an arrow into a wide field, sent him to fetch it, and set the field on fire.

A mouse told him, “Inside it is hollow, but the entrance is narrow,” so he hid in a hole and was saved, and the mouse brought the arrow too.

Last of all, Susanoo had him pick the lice from his head.

Suseribime gave him red clay and the fruit of a muku tree, and when Ōnamuji chewed them and spat them out, Susanoo thought he was biting centipedes and fell asleep.

Ōnamuji tied Susanoo's hair to the roof beams, blocked the door with a huge rock, and fled with Suseribime.

He also took Susanoo's sword, bow and arrows, and a koto, but when the koto touched a tree and rang, Susanoo woke up and pulled the house down.

Susanoo, chasing as far as Yomotsu-hirasaka, called out, “Defeat your brothers with that sword and bow, and call yourself Ōkuninushi.”

He added, “Make Suseribime your wife and build a splendid palace at the foot of Mount Uka.”

After defeating his brothers, Ōnamuji was called Ōkuninushi and began to rule the Central Land of Reed Plains.

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