Tsuchigumo

Alternative names for the mythological Tsuchigumo include yatsukahagi (八握脛, roughly "eight grasping legs") and ōgumo (大蜘蛛, "giant spider").

As a local clan, the Tsuchigumo were described as short in stature but long in limbs, with the temperament of a wolf and the heart of an owl, and living an uncivilized life.

[3][4] Historian Sōkichi Tsuda (ja) points out that unlike Kumaso and Emishi, Tsuchigumo is not treated as a group in the Fudoki, but as an individual name.

Minamoto no Yorimitsu and Watanabe no Tsuna, who participated in the extermination of the tsuchigumo in these stories, are legendary heroes in Japan; they also appear in the legend of the powerful oni Shuten-dōji.

When both were captured and about to be killed, Oomimi and Taremimi lowered their foreheads to the ground and fell prostrate, and pleaded, "we will from now on make offerings to the emperor" and presented fish products and begged for pardon.

Also, in the Bungo no Kuni Fudoki, there appeared many tsuchigumo, such as the Itsuma-hime (五馬姫) of Itsuma mountain (五馬山), the Uchisaru (打猴), Unasaru (頸猴), Yata (八田), Kunimaro (國摩侶), and Amashino (網磯野), of Negi field (禰宜野), the Shinokaomi (小竹鹿臣) of Shinokaosa (小竹鹿奥), and the Ao (青) and Shiro (白) of Nezumi cavern (鼠の磐窟).

This word "Yaso" (八十), literally "eighty," is a figurative term for "many," so this story is interpreted to mean that many of the female chief class opposed the Yamato imperial court, and met a heroic end, choosing to die alongside their men.

[10] From the Japanese middle ages (Kamakura/Muromachi/Azuchi-Momoyama periods, or the late 12th to the early 17th centuries) onward, tsuchigumo began to be depicted as giant, monstrous spiders.