Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 2. Kami (Deities)
カテゴリー2： Kami in Classic Texts
Title
Ōgetsuhime
Text [Ōgetsuhime no kami] (Kojiki)
A deity of grains. The name Ōgetsuhime means the "great female of foods" (ge or ke here signifying foodstuffs). The kami is described as an offspring of Izanagi and Izanami, and is also considered a divinized referent to the ancient province of Awa. At the time Susanoo was expelled from the Plain of High Heaven, he asked for food from this deity, whereupon she produced various foodstuffs from her mouth, nose, and rectum, preparing them and offering them to Susanoo. Incensed that she had presented foods taken out of her body in this way, Susanoo was killed her, and various grains and other items then appeared from various parts of her body, including silkworms from her head, rice from her eyes, millet from her ears, red beans from her nose, barley from her genitals, and soybeans from her rectum. The kami of production, Kamimusuhimioya no mikoto used the resulting grains as seeds for planting.

While this story is recounted in Kojiki alone, it closely resembles the myth of Ukemochi no kami and Tsukuyomi found in Nihongi, with the result that Ogetsuhime is sometimes identified with Ukemochi.

-Nakayama Kaoru

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

No movie/映像なし