Ōkuninushi-no-Kami ('Great Lord of the Country') is the powerful indigenous deity of the earthly realm (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni), especially associated with Izumo [S1]. In the Kojiki's Kuniyurinshi ('pacification/subjugation of the country') episode, when the heavenly prince Ninigi is sent down to rule, Ōkuninushi and his retinue (led by the crossroads god Sarutahiko) resist the heavenly takeover [S1]. After a contest—centered on the throwing of the sword and the subduing of Sarutahiko—Ōkuninushi is defeated and yields the land, handing over the three sacred regalia (mirror, jewel, sword) as pledge [S1]. Thereafter he is a deity of the earth, healing, and agriculture (especially in Izumo), but no longer the sovereign of the whole land. He is a complex figure: the displaced indigenous power who becomes a local, beneficent deity [S1][S2].