The earliest recorded transcription of "tamagushi" is 玉籤, using "kuji" "bamboo slip; (divination) lot; written oracle; raffle; lottery" instead of "kushi". The (ca. 720 CE) "Nihon Shoki" "Chronicles of Japan", which repeatedly mentions a 500-branched "masakaki" 真榊 "true "sakaki"" tree (tr. Aston 1896:43, 47, 121), is the "locus classicus" for "tamagushi" 玉籤. This mytho-history records a legend that when the sun-goddess Amaterasu got angry with her brother Susano'o and closed the door on the "Rock-cave of Heaven", the gods decorated a giant "sakaki" tree in order to lure the sun out of the darkness.