Encyclopedia of Shinto

詳細表示 (Complete Article)

カテゴリー1: 2. Kami (Deities)
カテゴリー2: Kami in Classic Texts
Title
Umugaihime, Kisagaihime
Text [Umugai hime][Kisagai hime](Kojiki)
According to the Kojiki account, the two deities dispatched by Kamimusuhi to resurrect Ōnamuchi after his eighty brothers had killed him with a heated rock. Kisagaihime gathered shavings from seashell and Umugaihime mixed them with the juice from a clam, applying them "as mother's milk" to the burns and thus reviving Ōnamuchi.

Umugaihime is a personification of the cherry-stone clam (hamaguri), while Kisagaihime personifies the ark-shell (akagai). As a result, this story appears to involve the mythic iteration of an ancient folk remedy, in which grindings from the ark-shell were mixed with the juice from the cherry-stone clam to produce a treatment for burns. The names Umukahime no mikoto and Kisakahime no mikoto are also found in the Izumo no kuni fudoki.

-Yumiyama Tatsuya

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

No movie/映像なし