大八洲

Etymology
, referring to the eight islands of Japan created by Izanagi and Izanami according to the Kojiki. However, was also used in various ancient compounds to mean simply, as opposed to specifically , so this term may be interpreted instead to mean originally "the many islands of Japan".

This compound most often uses the less-common spelling of for the shima (“island”) portion.

First cited to a text from 849.

Proper noun

 * : Japan