Kanayamabime-no-Kami

Kanayamabime-no-Kami (金山毘売神) is the female metal deity recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) deity-birth phase. With Kanayamabiko-no-Kami, the pair governs mining and smithing. The deities belong to the lineage formed in the fire-death section of Izanami. According to the Kojiki upper scroll on deity-birth (fire-death scene), "the deities born in the vomit were Kanayamabiko-no-Kami and next Kanayamabime-no-Kami". When Izanami was burned by birthing the fire deity Kagutsuchi and suffered, a paired set of metal deities was born from her vomit. The principal shrine is Nangu Taisha in Tarui, Gifu (Mino Province ichinomiya), where both Kanayamabiko and Kanayamabime are enshrined as a pair. The shrine was listed as a Myojin Taisha in the Engishiki (927 CE) and served as the head shrine for miners and smiths nationwide; from the medieval period it connected to mining-industry rituals.