Izumo Furune

• • Period: Legendary Period
  • Occupation: –
  • Family: Ihiirine (brother) Umashikarahisa (brother)
  • Birth: –
  • Death: –

Izumo Furune

Izumo Furune (出雲振根) was a man who resided over the Izumo Shrine, and the Sacred Treasures there that had once been brought to earth by the kami Takehiratori.

He is said to have been in Tsukushi when Emperor Sujin sent Takemorosumi to collect these treasures so he may see them.

When Furune returns he finds out his brother Ihiirine had entrusted them to Umashikarahisa and his son Ukatsukunu to take them to the Emperor and he is angered by this.

He then decides to take Ihiirine to the Yamiya Pools to see the plants there. He places upon his back a wooden blade which looks real and after arriving at the pools takes up his brother own blade and kills him with it.

The nihongi relates a song which was written about this event:

The sword girt on
By the warrior of Idzumi
(Where many clouds arise)
There is the sheath enwound with creepers
But, alas! There is no blade.

Umashikarahisa and his son Ukatsukunu then send word to the Emperor of what occoured and so he despatches Kibitsuhiko and Takenumakahawake to kill Furune.

Due to this it was said the Omi of Idzumo did not worship Ōkuninushi for some time.¹

Footnotes

1. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.

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