Michinoomi no mikoto (道臣命)

Michinoomi no mikoto was a figure who appears in "Kojiki" (The Records of Ancient Matters) and "Nihonshoki" (Chronicles of Japan). His original name was Hinoomi no mikoto. He was the descendent of Amanooshihi no mikoto. And he was the ancestor of the Otomo clan. He took the leadership in the Tosei (Eastern expedition) of Emperor Jinmu and at the enthronement of Emperor Jinmu, he took charge of the security of the Imperial Palace's gates.

Achievements

During the Jinmu tosei (Eastern expedition of the Emperor Jinmu), he opened the way to Uda guided by Yatagarasu (Japanese mythological big crow), leading the troops of the Kume clan.
For this achievement, he was recommended by Emperor Jinmu to change the name and called himself 'Michinoomi.'

When Eukashi set up a trap called 'Oshi' (crusher) to kill Emperor Jinmu, Michinoomi said to Eukashi, you should step in first, now that you yourself made the residence,' and as he forced Eukashi to enter his residence with the trap, gripping the sword by the hilt and fixing the arrow to the bow with the tip of the arrow to him, Eukashi was smashed by his own trap and died. Michinoomi cut his body into pieces, and therefore, this site is called bloody field of Uda.

After the defeat of Yasotakeru in Mt. Kunimidake, he set out to eradicate the remnants of the defeated Yasotakeru's party by the confidential order of the Emperor. To begin with the operation, he constructed an Omuro (a big hall) in Oshisakano-mura Village, and leading his warfare experts, he held a feast with the remnants; when the party became in full swing, to the Kumeuta music that Michinoomi started to sing, Michinoomi's soldiers drew a sword and destroyed the remnants completely.

Sometime before this operation, when Emperor Jinmu was to preside at a ritual to serve Takamimusubi as if this god were visible, the Emperor appointed Michinoomi to serve as Saishu (master of religious ceremonies) of the ritual and conferred the name 'Izuhime' (Princess Izu); (although Michinoomi was a man, he was given a female name, probably because there still remained at that time a tradition that it was a female's task to celebrate the god.)

After Emperor Jinmu's enthronement, on the first day when Emperor Jinmu took the office, Michinoomi sang a piece of Soeuta (waka poem sung to express one's wish in commemorating a certain occasion) and pronounced Sakasago (reverse-spelling) to fend off evil. It is documented that the next year of Emperor Jinmu's enthronement, he was granted a residential estate in Tsukisakamura (the vicinity of Toriya-machi, Kashihara City), which was an extremely preferential treatment, as an award based on the evaluation of the merit he had achieved during Tosei (the eastern expedition).

[Original Japanese]