Ame-no-Oshihi-no-Mikoto

Ame-no-Oshihi-no-Mikoto is a heavenly deity recorded in Kojiki (712 CE, upper volume, Tenson Korin section). When Ninigi-no-Mikoto descended from the heavens to the central reed-plain land, Ame-no-Oshihi and Amatsu-Kume-no-Mikoto attended him as armed vanguards, bearing the heavenly quiver, the kabuto-tsuchi great sword, the hashi-bow, and the makago arrow, and going before the procession to open the way. Nihon Shoki (720 CE, Jindai-ge, ninth-segment alternate texts) likewise records his service. Shinsen Shojiroku (815 CE, Ukyo Jinbetsu) records the Otomo clan as descendants of Ame-no-Oshihi, the corresponding pair to Amatsu-Kume-no-Mikoto, ancestor of the Kume-no-Atai. These paired genealogies form the prototype of the warrior-attendant lineages of the imperial court. The Nara-period poet Otomo-no-Yakamochi (718-785) preserves the Otomo clan's consciousness of this descent in the Man'yoshu. The compilation of Shinsen Shojiroku in 815 CE made these warrior-clan genealogies a key reference axis for early-Heian clan studies.