Amatsu-Kunitama-no-Kami

Amatsu-Kunitama-no-Kami is a heavenly kami (*amatsukami*) recorded in the *Kojiki* (Records of Ancient Matters, 712 CE) and *Nihon Shoki* (Chronicles of Japan, 720 CE). He appears in the land-cession myth as the father of Ame-no-Wakahiko, the second emissary dispatched from heaven, and is positioned within the heavenly kami lineage as one of those who send forth emissaries to the earthly realm.

According to the *Kojiki*, during the pacification of Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni (the central land of reed plains), Amaterasu-no-Omikami and Takami-Musubi-no-Kami deliberated to send Ame-no-Wakahiko as an emissary after the first messenger, Ame-no-Hohi-no-Kami, failed to report back. Ame-no-Wakahiko was granted the Ame-no-Asakamako bow and descended to the earthly realm. When Ame-no-Wakahiko perished, struck through by an arrow and did not return, Amatsu-Kunitama-no-Kami led mourning-women and the deity Sata-no-Hikone from the heavens to construct a mourning house, conducting a *mogari* (lying-in-state) rite for eight days and eight nights.

In matters of lineage, Ame-no-Wakahiko was his sole child. No consort or mother-deity is recorded, and he occupies an independent position within the heavenly kami. Later genealogical texts sometimes place him within the line of Takami-Musubi-no-Kami, though the *Kojiki* and *Nihon Shoki* present him as an independent deity.

Though few independent shrines list him as their principal enshrined kami (*shusaijin*), he is co-enshrined as a father-kami at sites associated with Ame-no-Wakahiko tradition, such as Moyama-Tenjinja in Tarui, Gifu Prefecture. As the presiding deity of funeral rites, he holds significance in scholarly study of ancient *mogarinomiya* (mourning palace) ritual and the mythological origins of mourning observance.