and heard from the queen of the land, Hayatsuhime (速津媛) that there was a big cave in the mountain, called the Nezumi cave, where two tsuchigumo, Shiro and Ao, lived. In Negino (禰疑野), Naoiri, they were informed of three more tsuchigumo named Uchizaru (打猿), Yata (八田), and Kunimaro (国摩侶, 国麻呂). These five had great amount of allies, and would not follow the emperor's commands. Yōkai tsuchigumo 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. A commonly cited early text depicting the yōkai tsuchigumo is The Tale of the Heike, or rather some variant texts of the Heike. This work, which was passed down orally among biwa lute players, has a complicated textual history and numerous variants, including the massively expanded Genpei Jōsuiki, and some versions include an extended passage on swords, known as the "Sword Scroll", or tsurugi-no-maki. This is regarded as one of the most important and influential texts that depict the conflict between Yorimitsu and the tsuchigumo, and is the source for many later artistic representations. It describes Yorimitsu's using the sword to defeat a yamagumo, which led to his renaming it 'Kumokiri' (蜘蛛切, "Spider-Cutter"). At present, Daikaku-ji Temple, Hakone Shrine and an individual, have tachi that have been handed down as Hizamaru, which are also called by other names such as 'Kumokiri', 'Hoemaru' and 'Usumidori' based on various legends. Works such as the 14th-century picture scroll Tsuchigumo Sōshi and the 15th-century Noh drama Tsuchigumo envision various versions of a legend in which Minamoto no Yorimitsu, also known as Raikō, a famous 10th-century general and ancestor of the Minamoto clan defeat an enormous spider yōkai referred to as a tsuchigumo or yamagumo ("earth spider" or "mountain spider", respectively). In some versions, Yorimitsu and his retainer Watanabe no Tsuna pursue the spider, which takes various forms such as a beautiful woman, and when they defeat it they cut it open and skulls pour out of its torso, while in others, Yorimitsu is incapacitated and a young retainer hunts the spider down in his stead. Tsuchigumo Sōshi (see scrolling image below) interestingly contains a visual depiction that doesn't appear to match the accompanying text, as the text has Yorimitsu and Tsuna take down an enormous, 60-foot monster that they later realize is a giant spider, but the imagery shows them doing battle