Futsunushi-no-Kami

Futsunushi-no-Kami is a heavenly kami (amatsukami) whose principal narrative appears in the *Nihon Shoki* (Chronicles of Japan, 720 CE). According to the chronicles, this deity was dispatched to Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni alongside Takemikazuchi-no-Kami (Tatakeru-no-Kami) at the behest of Amaterasu-no-Omikami and Takahiko-no-Mikoto to compel Ōkuninushi-no-Kami into ceding his realm. The *Kojiki* (Records of Ancient Matters, 712 CE), by contrast, names only Takemikazuchi-no-Kami as the emissary, and Futsunushi-no-Kami does not appear. Textual comparison suggests that Futsunushi-no-Kami originated in the hereditary traditions of the Mononobe clan and may have been fundamentally a sword deity.

According to one account in the *Nihon Shoki*, Futsunushi-no-Kami was born from blood droplets that scattered when Izanagi-no-Mikoto severed the fire deity Kagutsotsuchi. The deity is recorded as the child of Iwasaku-no-Kami and Ne-saku-no-Kami. Paired with Takemikazuchi-no-Kami as a principal deity in the realm-cession narrative, Futsunushi-no-Kami was subsequently venerated by the Mononobe clan as an ancestral deity.

Futsunushi-no-Kami is primarily enshrined at Katori Grand Shrine (Katori City, Chiba Prefecture, ranked as the chief shrine of Shimōsa Province). Together with Kashima Grand Shrine (home to Takemikazuchi-no-Kami in Kashima City, Ibaraki Prefecture), it formed the ritual centre of eastern Japan. The deity is also venerated at Kasuga Grand Shrine (Nara City) alongside Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, Amanokoyane-no-Mikoto, and Hime-no-Kami as one of the four principal deities of the Fujiwara clan. From the early modern period onward, Futsunushi-no-Kami became widely revered among the warrior class as a patron of martial prowess and the sword.