hare of inaba
因幡の白兎 / 稻羽之素菟 (Inaba no Shiro Usagi)
Kojiki version
a hare tricks some sharks into being used as a land bridge, in order to travel from the Island of Oki to Cape Keta. He challenges the sharks to see whose clan is larger—the sharks or the hares—by having 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. The god Ōkuninushi with his eighty brothers was travelling through the area to visit princess Yakami. While the brothers were on their way to visit the princess, the flayed hare stopped them and asked them for help. They told the hare to wash in the sea and dry itself in the wind, which naturally caused great pain for it. Ōkuninushi then met the hare, and he told it to bathe in fresh water and then roll in the pollen of cattail. The hare immediately got better, and it revealed its true form as a god. In gratitude, the hare told Ōkuninushi that Yakami would be his.
Ise ga Naru version
Long ago, when Japanese goddess Amaterasu and her group traveled around at the boundary of Yakami in Inaba, they were looking for a place for their temporary palace, suddenly a white hare appeared. The white hare bit Amaterasu's clothes and took her to an appropriate place for a temporary palace along Nakayama mountain and Reiseki mountain. About two hours' walk, accompanied by the white Hare, the Amaterasu group reached a mountain top plain, which is now called Ise ga naru. Then, the white Hare disappeared at Ise ga naru. The place of this legend is in Yazu town and Tottori city, in Tottori Prefecture (ancient Inaba and Houki).
