Nozuchi-no-Kami

Nozuchi-no-Kami is recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE) as an alternate name of Kayanohime-no-Kami, the grass deity. Kojiki gives her as Kayanohime-no-Kami and Nihon Shoki as Kayanohime, ancestral grass goddess. The name kaya refers to the thatch grass used for roofing, and nozuchi reads as the spirit of the open field, personifying the wild plant cover bordering on human habitation. Kojiki Upper Volume records that she was born to Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto in the deity-making passage. She then weds the mountain deity Oyamatsumi-no-Kami and bears eight deities in four pairs (Amenosatsuchi, Kuninosatsuchi, Amenosagiri, Kuninosagiri, Amenokurato, Kuninokurato, Otomadoiko and Otomadoime), the ancestors of deities of mountain and field boundaries, weather and sacred precincts. She is enshrined at Kayazu Jinja in Ama, Aichi as the deity of pickled foods, at Tarumaesan Jinja in Tomakomai with Oyamatsumi and Kukunochi as the deity of forests, and at Kiyonoiba Jinja in Ise as an irrigation deity, with the rank of subsidiary shrine of Ise Naiku.