Sukunabikona-no-Mikoto Toraitan

The Kojiki records that as Okuninushi stood on the cape of Miho in Izumo, a small deity arrived across the waves on a boat of metaplexis pod-skin, dressed in goose feathers. Kamimusubi-no-Kami identified him as her son Sukunabikona-no-Kami, and the two deities are said to have collaborated on the building of the Central Land of Reed Plains. The Nihon Shoki adds that the figure was wrapped in wren feathers and floated in with the tide. The Iyo no Kuni Fudoki fragment cited in the Shaku Nihongi records that when Sukunabikona fell ill, Okuninushi bathed him in the hot springs of Iyo (Dogo Onsen), restoring him to health.

The episode unfolds as arrival, recognition by Kamimusubi, joint land-building, the founding of medicine and brewing and hot spring culture, the healing at Dogo, and the eventual departure for the eternal realm.

The cape of Miho in Izumo is given as the arrival point. Dogo Onsen in Iyo (Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture) is named as the healing site. Veneration of Sukunabikona is recorded at Sukunahikona Jinja in Osaka.

Kojiki, Book One. Nihon Shoki, Age of the Gods, Volume II, eighth section variant. The Iyo no Kuni Fudoki fragment preserved in the Shaku Nihongi (Kamakura period compilation by Urabe Kanekata).