Yakami-Hime

Yakami-Hime is recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) Upper Volume as a goddess of Inaba (present-day eastern Tottori Prefecture), who becomes the first wife of Okuninushi-no-Kami. She is bound to the narrative of the white hare of Inaba. In the Okuninushi passage of Kojiki, when the eighty deities (yasogami) journey toward Inaba to woo Yakami-Hime, the white hare of Inaba, whose skin has been torn off and who is weeping in pain, is helped by Onamuji-no-Kami (Okuninushi); the hare then says, "You shall obtain Yakami-Hime." Yakami-Hime in turn declares that she will not wed the eighty deities but Onamuji-no-Kami, and the union is established. Her consort is Okuninushi-no-Kami, and her child is Kimata-no-Kami (also called Mii-no-Kami), whom she places in the fork of a tree before returning to Inaba in fear of the jealousy of the principal wife Suserihime-no-Mikoto. The child Mii-no-Kami is a deity of springs and wells, linked to Izumo well-ritual. The chief seat is Menuma Jinja in Tottori, listed in the Engishiki (927 CE) shrine register as an old shrine of Yakami District in Inaba. Hakuto Jinja in Tottori is identified with the hare of Inaba narrative.