Ame-no-Koyane

The Nakatomi became the Fujiwara, and the Fujiwara ran Japan. A myth in which one's own ancestor recites the liturgy that brings the sun back is a considerable political asset, and the eighth-century compilers of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki were working under Fujiwara patronage — a fact the record states because the alternative is to present a family charter as a disinterested cosmogony.

Domains

• divination
• priesthood

Relations

• companion: Futodama

Sources

• Reference treatments of Ame-no-Koyane and of the rock-cave episode.