Princess Kushiinada

Japanese: 奇稲田姫 - くしいなだひめ

A goddess who appears in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. In the Kojiki, she is Kushinadahime. She lived upstream of the Hii River in Izumo, and was saved from being eaten by the Yamata no Orochi by Susanoo, who later married her. One of her descendants (some legends say she is his child) was Okuninushi no Mikoto. As her name suggests, Okinadahime is a goddess who symbolizes "rice fields bearing rice," while the Yamata no Orochi, which is depicted as a monster, is actually a water god. Originally, this myth was a story about the marriage of the water god and the rice field god, who represent the proper amount of water being drawn into the rice fields to ensure a bountiful harvest, but since water sometimes floods and destroys the rice fields, it seems that the story of the gods coming to marry changed to one of them coming to eat the goddess. <References> Kanda Noriaki, "Considerations on Japanese Mythology"

(Noritaka Kanda)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

『古事記』『日本書紀』にみえる女神。『古事記』では櫛名田比売。出雲の斐伊川の川上に住み,八岐大蛇に食われるところを素戔嗚尊に救われ,同神と結婚する。子孫(子供とする伝承もある)に大国主命が生まれる。奇稲田姫とは,名称からして「稲の実る田」を象徴した女神で,一方怪物として表現されている八岐大蛇は,本来は水神である。この神話のもともとは,田に水が適当に引かれて豊かな実りが実現することを表す,水神と稲田の神が結婚する話であり,それが,水は時に洪水となって水田を破壊したりすることから,結婚しにやってくるというのが女神を食いにくる話に変化したらしい。<参考文献>神田典城『日本神話論考』

(神田典城)

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