One version of the tale of the White Hare of Inaba is found in the
Kojiki, the oldest extant chronicle in
Japan, which dates from early in the 8th century (711-712). The legend appears in the first of the three sections of the
Kojiki, the
Kamitsumaki, also known as the
Jindai no Maki, or "Volume of the Age of the Gods". This section of the
Kojiki outlines the myths concerning the foundation of Japan prior to the birth of the
Emperor Jimmu, the
first Emperor of Japan. In the
Kojiki version of the myth, a
hare tricks some
wanizame into being used as a land bridge in order to travel from the
Island of Oki to
Cape Keta. Cape Keta is now identified with the Hakuto Coast in the present-day city of
Tottori. The hare challenges the sharks to see whose clan is larger—that of the sharks, or that of the hares. The hare had the sharks lie in a row across the sea. The hare then hopped across them, counting them as he went. Nearing the end, the hare exclaims that he has deceived the sharks in order to use them as a bridge. The last shark attacks the hare, ripping his fur from him. Ōnamuchi-no-kami (Ōkuninushi's name at that time) and his eighty brothers were traveling through the Inaba region to woo
Princess Yakami of Inaba. While the brothers were on their way to visit the princess, the flayed hare stopped them and asked them for help. Rather than helping the hare, they advised it to wash in the sea and dry itself in the wind, which naturally caused it great pain. In contrast, Ōnamuchi, unlike his quarreling elder brothers, told the hare to bathe in fresh water from the mouth of a river, and then roll in the pollen of
cattails. The body of the hare was restored to its original state, and after its recovery, revealed its true form as a god. In gratitude, the hare told Ōnamuchi, the lowest born in the family, that he would marry Princess Yakami. The White Hare of Inaba legend emphasizes the benevolence of Ōnamuchi, who was later enshrined at the
Izumo-taisha. Japanese scholars have traditionally interpreted the struggle between the kind Ōnamuchi and his wrathful eighty brothers as a symbolic representation of civilization and barbarism in the emergent Japanese state. The version of the White Hare of Inaba legend told in the
Kojiki has been compared to similar myths from
Java in
Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, and
India. ==Ise ga Naru version==