Musubi comes from the verb to tie or bind, and it names the generative and connective power in things — the force by which crops grow, people are born, and relationships form. Two of the very first kami named in the Kojiki carry it in their names, Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi, and they do nothing narratively; they are principles standing at the head of the list. Norinaga made musubi central to his reading, and it is the closest the tradition comes to a metaphysical first principle. What is notable is that it is a process rather than an agent: the world in this account produces itself rather than being made by someone outside it, and there is no creation from nothing anywhere in the material. The everyday word for a rice ball, musubi, and the word for tying a knot come from the same root, which practitioners point out with some pleasure.