Kuebiko


Kuebiko is the Shinto kami of knowledge and agriculture, represented in Japanese mythology as a scarecrow who cannot walk but has comprehensive awareness.

Names

Kuebiko had an alternate name of Yamada-no-sohodo, with sohodo transcribing sōdo.
The traditional etymological explanations are Kuebiko from kuzue-biko and Yamada no Sohodo meaning "someone left soaking wet from standing guard over mountain rice fields", a euphemism for ''scarecrow".

Mythology

The Kojiki has the earliest reference to Kuebiko in the myth of Ōkuninushi. When Ōkuninushi was at Cape Miho in Izumo, a small kami arrived in a boat. Nobody knew his name, but a toad suggested asking Kuebiko, who revealed the god was a scion of the goddess Kami-musubi named Sukuna-bikona. In Basil Hall Chamberlain's translation,
Then the toad spoke, saying: "As for this, the Crumbling Prince will surely know it." Thereupon summoned and asked the Crumbling-Prince, who replied, saying: "This is the Little-Prince-the-Renowned-Deity, the august child of the Deity-Producing-Wondrous-Deity." … So called the Crumbling Prince, who revealed the Little-Prince-the-Renowned-Deity, is what is now the scarecrow in the mountain fields. This Deity, though his legs do not walk, is a Deity who knows everything in the Empire.

Many cultures have knowledge deity myths. Kuebiko is paralleled by two other Japanese kami of wisdom: Fukurokuju and Omoikane.

Modern usages

In the present day, Kuebiko is worshipped as the god of agriculture or scholarship and wisdom. The Kuebiko Shrine, which is a subordinate shrine of Ōmiwa Shrine in Sakurai, Nara, is dedicated to this deity.
Kuebiko is an optional boss in the video game Shin Megami Tensei IV. Appearing in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, he refuses to negotiate with humans, saying he has lived in Shinjuku long before humans arrived to 'rule' over it.
Kuebiko is the name of a 2011 agricultural art exhibit, "Because he stands all day outdoors, he knows everything", held in Kimito, Finland.
In astronomical naming conventions, 10725 Sukunabikona is an asteroid belt discovered in 1996.