Kuni-yuzuri, the transfer of the land, is the point where the Izumo cycle is stitched to the Yamato claim, and the seam shows. Heaven repeatedly sends envoys to demand the country from Ōkuninushi; the first two defect or are killed, and the third finally puts the question with a sword stuck point-up in the waves. Ōkuninushi defers to his sons: one agrees, the other, Takeminakata, refuses and is beaten in a trial of strength — described as a grip contest that later tradition claims as the origin of sumo — and flees to Suwa, where he is confined and where his shrine now stands. Ōkuninushi then yields the visible world on condition that a palace be built for him with pillars sunk to the bedrock and a roof reaching the sky, and retains the hidden world of spirits, relations and the unseen. Archaeology at Izumo has found enormous pillar bases consistent with the claim that the ancient shrine was extraordinarily tall. Izumo local tradition and Yamato's chronicle do not weight this story the same way, and reading them side by side is the closest one gets to hearing the losing side.