ŌKUNINUSHI NO MIKOTO, also known as Ōkuni or Ōnamuchi, is one of the major deities, or kami, in Japanese mythology. The earliest chronicle of Japan, the Kojiki (712 CE), refers to him as "the kami of the Great Land." According to legend, Ōkuni came to the land of Inaba with his brothers to court a Yakami beauty. Because his brothers made him carry their heavy bundle, he reached the shore of Inaba long after they did. On the beach Ōkuni found a white hare crying, and he asked the reason for the animal's distress. The hare replied that he had been bitten by a shark and that Ōkuni's brothers had advised him to bathe his wounds in salt water, but the treatment had only aggravated his pain. Ōkuni told him to use fresh water and apply sedge pollen to the wound...