 This, in turn, had implications for the polity, since in the revealed world one is subject to the emperor, but in the concealed world one becomes a ghostly spirit, and one’s loyalty transfers to Ōkuninushi-no-kami. Traditionally, this deity had been worshiped as an “earthly god” (kunitsu kami) and ruler over the Central Land of Reed Plains (Ashihara no nakatsu kuni), and yet Atsutane identified Ōkuninushi as lord of the kakuriyo realm whom souls of the dead were expected to serve faithfully. Atsutane describes the spiritual realm of yūmeikai or kakuriyo (幽冥界／幽冥) as dark and, therefore, invisible to those inhabiting the world of the living, though those in the spiritual realm could freely see the realm of the living. Because the invisible kakuriyo and visible realm of the living occupied common space, it was believed that souls of the dead dwelt near graves or shrines from where they watched over and offered protection to their surviving descendants.