Amatsumara

Amatsumara is a heavenly deity recorded in Kojiki (712 CE, upper volume, Ame-no-Iwato section). When Amaterasu Omikami concealed herself in the Heavenly Rock Cave, Omoikane-no-Kami proposed crafting the Yata-no-Kagami mirror to draw her out. Kojiki records: 'taking iron from Mount Kanayama of Heaven, calling on the smith Amatsumara, and entrusting Ishikoridome-no-Mikoto with the making of the mirror.' The word kanuchi ('smith') marks Amatsumara as the deity of forging and a typical artisan-deity. No genealogy is given in Kojiki, but later genealogical literature sometimes identifies him with Ame-no-Mahitotsu-no-Kami, the one-eyed smith deity venerated as the ancestor of nationwide smith clans. Shinsen Shojiroku (815 CE) records Amatsumara-related lineages in connection with the kanuchi-be (smith corporations). He is associated with traditions at the Ichimokuren Shrine, the auxiliary shrine of Tado Taisha in Kuwana, Mie, and with the Takachiho Shrine area in Miyazaki where the Iwato narrative is locally preserved.