The god of the forge and of iron. The Nihon Shoki names him Ame-no-Mahitotsu and records that, in the episode of the rock cave, he made the sword, the axe and the iron bells with which the gods drew Amaterasu back into the world.
As his name says, he has a single eye. One explanation holds that smiths judged the colour of the furnace with one eye held to it; one-eyed smith gods appear in local traditions across Japan.
Most gods in the myths stand either on the side that wields power or on the side that gives birth. This one stands on neither. He makes the things through which power is wielded.
The chronicles do not go so far as to say that what saved the world at the rock cave was the hand that made the mirror and the sword rather than the one that danced or the one that pulled. But the maker's name was kept.
Ame-no-Mahitotsu is not the only one-eyed god. One-eyed kami and one-eyed fish appear in local traditions across Japan, and they cluster in places where iron was worked.
One explanation is that the figure of a smith who lost an eye to the furnace became a god. Nothing can be settled about it. But the fact itself — that stories of a single eye gather where metal is handled — is recorded in place after place.
Smithing, iron, metalwork. Counted among the ancestral kami of the Inbe clan, he is enshrined at Hitotsume-Ren Jinja, an auxiliary shrine of Tado Taisha in Mie. Hitotsume-Ren is also remembered as a raiser of storms — metal and wind meet at the bellows.
A hard stick: dried through until the grain has tightened, wood that rings clean when struck, a shaft so dense it hurts the hand to grip.
The Bureau selects for this kami on material alone. Whether the shape resembles a weapon is beside the point. A smith looks at stock, not at finish.
Note: this section is the Bureau's own reading, not a record from the chronicles.
not yet recorded
The share of issued certificates in which this kami appeared. It shifts as more sticks are appraised. Variant spellings are reconciled before counting.
No published certificate bears this kami yet.