Tenazuchi

Tenazuchi is recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE) as a deity of Izumo, the mother of Kushinadahime and consort of Ashinazuchi. In the Susanoo passage of Kojiki Upper Volume the text describes an old man and an old woman weeping with a young woman between them; Ashinazuchi tells Susanoo, "My wife's name is Tenazuchi, and our daughter's name is Kushinadahime." Tenazuchi herself does not speak in the text, but stands alongside Ashinazuchi as the old mother whose seven elder daughters have already been taken by the Yamata-no-Orochi. After the slaying of the serpent she gains Susanoo as son-in-law through Kushinadahime's marriage. By a tradition recorded in later genealogies, her father is Oyamatsumi-no-Kami. She is enshrined together with Ashinazuchi at Suga Jinja in Unnan, Shimane, and at Yaegaki Jinja in Matsue.