Kanahebisui Shrine

Kanahebisui Shrine (金蛇水神社) is a Shinto shrine in Mishikiyoshi, Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, a water-deity shrine widely venerated in the Tohoku region for commerce and wealth. The principal kami is Mizuhayame-no-Mikoto (Mizuhanome-no-Kami), with Onamuchi-no-Mikoto and Sukunabikona-no-Mikoto as auxiliary kami. Mizuhanome is recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as the deity born from the urine of Izanami and is enshrined at water-deity shrines throughout Japan. According to shrine tradition, the Heian-period swordsmith Kokaji Munechika sought the spring water of this place to forge an imperial sword and dedicated a golden serpent in thanksgiving — the source of the shrine name. The cult of the serpent as a symbol of water and wealth developed into commercial-prosperity devotion in the early modern period.