Kushinadahime


Kushinadahime, also known as Kushiinadahime or Inadahime among other names, is a goddess in Japanese mythology and the Shinto faith. According to these traditions, she is one of the wives of the god Susanoo, who rescued her from the monster Yamata no Orochi. As Susanoo's wife, she is a central deity of the Gion cult and worshipped at Yasaka Shrine.

Name

The goddess is named 'Kushinadahime' in the Kojiki, while the Nihon Shoki variously names her 'Kushiinadahime', 'Inadahime', and 'Makamifuru-Kushiinadahime'.
'Inadahime' may be translated either as "lady / princess of Inada", with "Inada" here being understood as the name of a place in Izumo Province, or "lady / princess of the rice fields". The element kushi meanwhile is usually interpreted as the adjective meaning "wondrous"; it is homophonous with the word for "comb", which features in her story in both the Kojiki and the Shoki. The epithet makamifuru, found in a variant account cited in the Shoki, is understood as a stock epithet or makurakotoba associated with the word "comb".
The Fudoki of Izumo Province meanwhile gives the name of the goddess as 久志伊奈太美等与麻奴良比売命, commonly read as 'Kushiinada-Mitoyomanurahime-no-Mikoto'. One theory interprets the name to mean roughly "princess of the wondrous rice fields soaking wet overflowing with water ".

Mythology

The slaying of the Yamata no Orochi

In the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, the god Susanoo, after his banishment from the heavenly realm Takamagahara, came down to earth, to the land of Izumo, where he encountered an elderly couple named Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, both children of the mountain god Ōyamatsumi. They told him of a monstrous creature from the nearby land of Koshi known as the Yamata no Orochi that had devoured seven of their eight daughters. Upon hearing this, Susanoo agreed to kill the serpent on condition that they give him their sole surviving daughter, Kushinadahime, to be his wife.
The version recounted in the Nihon Shoki's main narrative is as follows :
After defeating the serpent, Susanoo built a palace or shrine for Kushinadahime in a place called Suga - so named because Susanoo felt refreshed upon arriving there - and made her father Ashinazuchi its head, giving him the title 'Inada-no-Miyanushi-Suga-no-Yatsumimi-no-Kami'. On that occasion, he composed a song in tanka form later held to be the root of Japanese waka poetry:
The child born to Susanoo and Kushinadahime is variously identified as Yashimajinumi in the Kojiki and Ōnamuchi in the Shoki's main account.

Variants

While most accounts identify the headwaters of the river Hi in Izumo as the place where Susanoo descended, one variant in the Shoki instead has Susanoo arriving at the upper reaches of the river E in the province of Aki. In this version, Inadahime - whose name is given here as 'Makamifuru-Kushiinadahime' - is not yet born when Susanoo slew the Yamata no Orochi.
A legend associated with Yaegaki Shrine in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture claims that Susanoo hid Kushinadahime in an "eightfold fence" in the forest within the shrine's precincts during his battle with the Yamata no Orochi.

In the Izumo ''Fudoki''

A legend recorded in the Izumo Fudoki concerning the township of Kumatani in Iishi District relates that Kushinadahime - as 'Kushiinada-Mitoyomanurahime' - passed through the area while she was about to give birth. The township's name is said to come from her exclamation: "How deep and well hidden this valley is!"

In the Hōki ''Fudoki''

An excerpt claimed to be from the now-lost Fudoki of Hōki Province relates that Inadahime fled to Hōki and hid in the mountains when the Yamata no Orochi was about to devour her. The province's name is here said to be derived from her cry for help: "Mother, come!"

Worship

As with other Shinto kami, Kushinadahime is venerated at many shrines across Japan, usually together with her husband Susanoo but also sometimes by herself or with other deities. Some examples of Shinto shrines which enshrine her are as follows.
During the medieval and early modern periods, Susanoo was popularly conflated with the pestilence deity Gozu Tennō, the god originally worshiped in Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, Hiromine Shrine in Hyōgo Prefecture, and Tsushima Shrine in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture. As Susanoo's consort, Kushinadahime was in turn identified with Gozu Tennō's wife, Harisaijo, the third daughter of the dragon king Sāgara. Indeed, while Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto currently enshrines Susanoo, his wives, and his eight children takeru, Ōya, its original deities were Gozu Tennō, Harisaijo, and their eight sons, collectively known as the 'Eight Princes'.

Legacy

The asteroid 10613 Kushinadahime, discovered in 1997, is named after Kushinadahime.
Kushinadahime was portrayed by Misa Uehara in the 1959 film The Birth of Japan.
In the Nintendo video game Golden Sun: The Lost Age, characters named Kushinada and Susa are roughly based on Kushinadahime and Susanoo.

Family tree