Takeminakata-no-Kami

Takeminakata-no-Kami is recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) Upper Volume in the Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni pacification passage. After his elder brother Kotoshironushi-no-Kami consented to cede the land, Takeminakata appeared bearing a thousand-pull boulder on his fingertips and challenged Takemikazuchi-no-Kami to a contest of strength. Takemikazuchi's hand turned into an icicle and then into a sword blade; defeated, Takeminakata fled to the lake of Suwa in Shinano and vowed not to leave that place. His father is Okuninushi-no-Kami, and his elder brother is Kotoshironushi-no-Kami. The Sendai Kuji Hongi gives his mother as Nunakawahime of Koshi. His consort is Yasakatome-no-Kami, the deity of the Lower Shrine, paired with him in the structure of Suwa Taisha. Suwa Taisha (four-shrine complex of Honmiya, Maemiya, Harumiya and Akimiya) is the principal seat, and from medieval times he was revered by the Genji and the Takeda as a martial deity; the Onbashira festival in years of the tiger and monkey is famed.