Ajishiki-Takahiko-ne-no-Kami

Ajishiki-Takahiko-ne-no-Kami is a kunitsukami (earthly kami) recorded in the *Kojiki* (Records of Ancient Matters, 712 CE) and *Nihon Shoki* (Chronicles of Japan, 720 CE). Son of Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto and Taki-ri-bime-no-Mikoto, he embodies both agricultural fertility—his name carries the character for ploughshare—and a thunderous or lightning-like aspect. He appears prominently in the narrative of the pacification of Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni (the central land of reed plains), particularly in a scene surrounding the funeral of his cousin Ame-no-Waka-Hiko.

According to the *Kojiki*, when Ajishiki-Takahiko-ne arrived at Ame-no-Waka-Hiko's funeral rites, his relative Shita-deru-Hime-no-Mikoto (widow of the deceased) mistook him for her late husband and rejoiced. Angered by this error, Ajishiki-Takahiko-ne drew his ten-span sword and toppled the funeral shelter, then kicked it aside. Shita-deru-Hime-no-Mikoto is said to have praised his prowess in song.

His lineage places him at the centre of Izumo's divine succession: his father was Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto, his mother Taki-ri-bime-no-Mikoto (the eldest of the three goddesses of Munakata), and he had a sister in Shita-deru-Hime-no-Mikoto. He stood as a cousin to Ame-no-Waka-Hiko, the heavenly kami sent by the celestial powers.

Worship of Ajishiki-Takahiko-ne centred on Takakamo Shrine (Takakamo Jinja) in Gose, modern Nara Prefecture—the ancestral seat of the Kamo clan—where he is listed in the *Engishiki* (Procedures of the Engi Era, 927 CE) Register of Shrines as a major shrine deity. He is also enshrined at Tosa Shrine in Kōchi, Tosa Province, where he is revered as the ancestral deity of the Tosa provincial governors. His worship spread across Yamashiro (modern southern Kyoto), Yamato (modern Nara), and Shikoku through the Kamo and related clans.