The priest Sasa also tells me this:
When Naomasu, grandson of the great Iyeyasu, and first daimyo of that
mighty Matsudaira family who ruled Izumo for two hundred and fifty
years, came to this province, he paid a visit to the Temple of Kitzuki,
and demanded that the miya of the shrine within the shrine should be
opened that he might look upon the sacred objects--upon the shintai or
body of the deity. And this being an impious desire, both of the Kokuzo
[13] unitedly protested against it. But despite their remonstrances and
their pleadings, he persisted angrily in his demand, so that the priests
found themselves compelled to open the shrine. And the miya being
opened, Naomasu saw within it a great awabi [14] of nine holes--so large
that it concealed everything behind it. And when he drew still nearer
to look, suddenly the awabi changed itself into a huge serpent more than
fifty feet in length; [15]--and it massed its black coils before the
opening of the shrine, and hissed like the sound of raging fire, and
looked so terrible, that Naomasu and those with him fled away having
been able to see naught else. And ever thereafter Naomasu feared and
reverenced the god.