THE BŌ
世 界 棒 鑑 定 局
Kunitsukami

少彦名神

スクナビコナ
Sukunabikona
None

Origin

A child of Kamimusubi, and so small that he is said to have slipped between his parent's fingers.

While Okuninushi stood at the cape of Miho in Izumo, this kami came across the waves in a boat made from a split pod, wearing a garment of moth skin. He would not give his name and no one knew him, until a toad said that Kuebiko would know, and Kuebiko the scarecrow revealed him as a child of Kamimusubi.

Smallness as the power

The distinguishing feature of this kami is simply that he is small. He is not strong, not large, and calls neither thunder nor storm.

And yet it was he and Okuninushi together who made and firmed the land. In Japanese myth the making of the country is set down as the joint work of the greatest god and the smallest. The casting itself says that either one alone would not have been enough.

Departure for the eternal land

With the work half finished, Sukunabikona crossed to the eternal land. The Nihon Shoki says he was flung there from a cape in Kumano, springing from the stalk of a millet plant.

Left behind, Okuninushi lamented: with whom am I now to make this country? Myth does not often keep a record of grief at a parting.

Domain and shrines

Medicine, hot springs and sake brewing. Sukunahikona Jinja in Osaka stands in the Doshomachi pharmaceutical district and still draws the devotion of the drug trade. His name appears in the founding legends of hot springs across Japan, Dogo and Arima among them.

Why this kami inhabits a stick

Bureau reading

A small stick: short enough to sit in the palm, thin and light, and yet well formed.

The Bureau selects for this kami on size itself — though not on smallness alone. Just as Oyamatsumi shows presence through bulk, this kami shows presence through being small. Not negligible: a stick whose smallness is itself its distinguishing quality.

Note: this section is the Bureau's own reading, not a record from the chronicles.

Encounter rate

not yet recorded

The share of issued certificates in which this kami appeared. It shifts as more sticks are appraised. Variant spellings are reconciled before counting.

Certificates bearing this kami

No published certificate bears this kami yet.

Sources

There is a kami in your stick too
Back to the Register of Kami (all twenty-five)
Hall of SticksAbout THE BŌ日本語