Ogetsuhime is not a simple deity explained only once in the *Kojiki*. The Kokugakuin University Deity Name Database lists her appearances as Volume 1: "Birth of the Land and Gods," "Banishment of Susanoo-no-Mikoto," and "Genealogy of O-toshi-no-Kami"^[1]. In the "Birth of the Land," "Ogetsuhime" appears as the name of Awa Province, one of the four faces of the island of Iyo-no-Futana. In the "Birth of the Gods," she is born as "Ogetsuhime-no-Kami." Furthermore, in the genealogy of O-toshi-no-Kami, she and Haya-mato-no-Kami give birth to eight deities: Wakayamakui, Wakatoshi, Wakasaname, Mizumaki, Natsutakatsuhi, Akibime, Kukutoshi, and Kukiki-wakamuro-tsunane. A place name, a deity name, and a mother goddess in a genealogy are all superimposed under the same name of food.

Her connection to Awa Province pulls her away from being a merely abstract "food deity." The "Various Theories" section of Kokugakuin introduces theories regarding why Awa Province (one face of Iyo-no-Futana) is called Ogetsuhime^[1]: one theory sees it as a naming based on "Awa" (millet) as a food deity, while another suggests the name of the food deity was given after associating the pronunciation of the province's name with millet. Regardless, here the place name and the food name attract each other. The "Awa" of Awa Province and the "awa" of millet function to make the reader perceive the land itself as the body of food within the myth.

The murder tale placed in Susanoo's banishment episode decisively determines Ogetsuhime's divinity. After the Heavenly Rock Cave myth, before the story of Susanoo—banished by the myriad gods—moves to the earthly realm, Ogetsuhime is asked for food. She produces various foods from her nose, mouth, and rectum, cooks them in various ways, and offers them—a feast from the body^[1]. The eeriness of this scene, like that of Ukemochi, comes from food being too close to the inside of the body. For Ogetsuhime, the body itself is the source that generates food, and the feast is a manifestation of her divine ability. However, to Susanoo, it appeared as a defiled act.

After her murder, the myth moves more clearly toward the origin of grains. From Ogetsuhime's corpse, silkworms grow from her head, rice seeds from both eyes, millet from both ears, adzuki beans from her nose, wheat/barley from her genitals, and soybeans from her rectum^[1]. Kami-musubi-no-Mioya-no-Mikoto has these seeds collected. What is important here is that rice is not placed alone at the center. The line-up of millet, adzuki beans, wheat/barley, soybeans, and silkworms strongly carries the atmosphere of dry-field farming, slash-and-burn agriculture, and sericulture, rather than just paddy-field rice cultivation. The Kokugakuin's "Various Theories" section introduces a theory that views the prototype as a myth of the origin of crops cultivated by slash-and-burn, since many of the generated items are slash-and-burn crops—indicating its relationship with slash-and-burn agricultural culture^[1].

This murder tale also leaves a mystery in its narrative placement. Kokugakuin's commentary notes that while this story is placed between the episode of the myriad gods banishing Susanoo in the Heavenly Rock Cave myth and the episode of the banished Susanoo descending to earth, it gives the impression of not being directly connected to what comes before and after. Thus, there is a theory that it was originally a separate tradition added episodically—a debate over its episodic placement^[1]. At the same time, some view it as bridging the Takamagahara myth and the Izumo myth, and by narrating the origin of agriculture, laying the foundation for the subsequent land-creation by Okuninushi and others. Ogetsuhime can be read as the deity who places the seeds of earthly life in the chaotic world following Susanoo's banishment.

A comparison with Ukemochi in the *Nihon Shoki* further highlights the characteristics of this deity. Kokugakuin summarizes that in the Ukemochi myth (Nihon Shoki, Book 5, Alternate Writing 11), Tsukuyomi visits Ukemochi by order of Amaterasu. Because Ukemochi entertains him with food produced from her mouth as if vomiting, he becomes angry and kills her. From her corpse spring cattle, horses, millet, silkworms, barnyard grass, rice, wheat, soybeans, and adzuki beans—a comparison with the Ukemochi myth^[1]. While Ukemochi connects to the separation of sun and moon and Amaterasu's agricultural order, with Ogetsuhime, the focus shifts to Susanoo's roughness, Awa Province, and the trajectory toward the earthly creation of the land. Though they share a similar mythic type, the narrative's center of gravity is not exactly the same.

Furthermore, Kokugakuin introduces research comparing the myths of Ogetsuhime and Ukemochi as Hainuwele-type myths^[1], where crops spring from a corpse. In the myth of the girl Hainuwele from Seram Island in Indonesia, tubers grow from the fragments of the murdered girl's body. Of course, comparison does not immediately determine origin. Kokugakuin cautions that due to the lack of clarity regarding traditions prior to the *Kojiki* and *Nihon Shoki* and insufficient regional data, it is difficult to limit the origin to a specific region or period. Still, the fact that Ogetsuhime represents a Japanese manifestation of the widespread mythological sense that "food comes from a dead body" is a crucial clue for interpretation.

When reading Ogetsuhime, it is vital not to separate defilement from fertility. She is a god who gives food, but her giving is not a neatly packaged gift. She produces food from the boundaries of the body—the nose, mouth, and rectum. When murdered, her body turns into a map of seeds. The parts—head, eyes, ears, nose, genitals, rectum—are allocated to silkworms, rice, millet, adzuki beans, wheat, and soybeans. Eating is not established by distancing oneself from the body; it is established while embracing the danger of coming too close to the body. Ogetsuhime is the goddess who takes this danger entirely upon herself to open up the earthly world of food.