Ame-no-Minakanushi

The first sentence of Japanese literature names him and the registry did not have him. He is also the clearest case in this tradition of a deity who does almost nothing: he appears, he is named, he hides himself, and the narrative moves on — an abstraction placed at the head of a genealogy rather than an actor in it. That is precisely why the Nihon Shoki could replace him with a different abstraction without disturbing anything downstream, and the record carries both openings rather than choosing.

Domains

• creation
• supreme deity

Relations

• companion: Takamimusubi

Sources

• Kojiki, the opening sequence of kami.
• Reference treatments of the Kotoamatsukami and of the Nihon Shoki variants.