The kami named in the first line of the Kojiki. When heaven and earth first parted, this was the first to come into being on the High Plain of Heaven.
Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi came next, and the three are called the gods of creation. All were solitary — they came into being alone, without a partner, and hid themselves as soon as they had.
Not one deed is recorded of Ame-no-Minakanushi. He hides himself immediately after the line describing his coming into being, and never appears again.
The name means the lord who holds the centre of heaven. At the centre, unmoving, doing nothing. The sense that the centre of the world is empty is set down in the first line of Japanese myth.
In antiquity almost no shrine was dedicated to him. From the medieval period he was joined to the Myoken cult, which deified the pole star, and was treated as the root deity by the Ise and Yoshida schools of Shinto — so his worship spread late.
The oldest god in the myths is among the newest in devotion. Only the name survived a thousand years; the content was supplied afterwards.
The centre of the cosmos; origin. Few shrines are his alone, but he is widely enshrined at Suitengu shrines and at Myoken shrines such as Chiba Jinja.
A stick in which no quality can be found: not burnt, not wet, not twisted, not rotting, neither large nor small.
The Bureau sends this kami down when no other reading applies. Where Kukunochi is the kami of the plain branch, this one is the kami of the branch that cannot be characterised at all. He appears rarely because sticks in which the Bureau can find nothing are themselves rare.
Note: this section is the Bureau's own reading, not a record from the chronicles.
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.