The god of fire, the last child born in the great birthing of gods by Izanagi and Izanami. The Kojiki names him Hi-no-Kagutsuchi; the Nihon Shoki writes him as Kagutsuchi.
His mother Izanami was burned in giving birth to him, and died of it. Bereaved, Izanagi drew the ten-span sword Ame-no-Ohabari and struck off the head of his newborn son — one of the very few scenes in Japanese myth in which a parent kills a child.
Also written: Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, Homusubi, Kagutsuchi-no-Mikoto. The Bureau treats all of these as one and the same kami.
From the scattered blood came Iwasaku, Nesaku and Iwatsutsunoo, and Takemikazuchi, the god of thunder. From the severed body came eight mountain gods, beginning with Masakayamatsumi.
The fire was not extinguished. It remained in the world, changed into thunder and into mountains. Kagutsuchi's story is not one of destruction but of transformation — which is why the Bureau reads a broken or split stick as altered rather than damaged.
Fire itself — but not fire as destruction alone. He governs the hearth fire, the forge fire, and above all the power to keep fire from spreading.
He is enshrined at Akihasan Hongu Akiha Jinja in Shizuoka and at Atago Jinja in Kyoto, and the Akiha and Atago shrines throughout Japan have long been venerated as protectors against fire. Tokyo's Akihabara takes its name from an Akiha shrine raised on a firebreak in the Edo period.
The god who kindles fire and the god who quells it are one and the same. That is the heart of this kami.
Kagutsuchi descends on a stick that carries the mark of fire: a scorched surface, a tip blackened into charcoal, a branch broken from a lightning-struck tree. Sticks recovered from the edge of a campfire draw him strongly.
The Bureau also weighs the break. A kami who was cut down and still gave birth to gods is closer to a severed stick than to a whole one. A branch split partway along invites him more surely than a straight, unmarked shaft.
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.