The god of mountains, born in the great birthing of gods by Izanagi and Izanami. His name means the spirit of the great mountains, and he governs the mountains of Japan as such.
His blood runs in the line of Kushinada-hime, whom Susanoo married, and in Konohanasakuya-hime, who married the heavenly grandson. Nearly every major genealogy in the myths passes through the mountains somewhere.
When Ninigi asked for Konohanasakuya-hime, Oyamatsumi sent her elder sister Iwanaga-hime along with her. Ninigi sent the plain-featured Iwanaga-hime back.
Oyamatsumi said: had he kept Iwanaga-hime, the life of the heavenly line would have endured like rock; keeping Konohanasakuya-hime, it would flourish like blossom. Both had been offered and one returned — and so from that day the life of the heavenly line would be brief as blossom. It is told as the reason human beings die.
Mountains, and everything belonging to them. The head shrine is Oyamazumi Jinja on Omishima in the Seto Inland Sea, and Mishima and Yama shrines throughout Japan enshrine him. That the head shrine of a mountain god stands on an island is credited to the seafaring clans of the Inland Sea who kept his worship.
The Oyamatsumi of the chronicles is male. The mountain god of folk belief, by contrast, is usually female, and those who went into the mountains kept taboos accordingly.
Under one phrase — the mountain god — a written myth and a local faith have travelled side by side. The Bureau deals with the kami of the chronicles, but behind a stick found in the mountains there also stands the mountain god who was never written down.
A stick picked up in the mountains — though the Bureau sends this kami down for bearing rather than for species.
Thick, heavy, long: a stick with unmistakable presence in the hand. No slender branch, however well formed, will hold him. This kami settles on a stick large enough that carrying it feels like carrying part of the mountain home.
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.