The god of wind, born from the breath with which Izanagi and Izanami blew away the morning mist after the birthing of the land. The 'shina' of his name is understood to mean the length of a breath.
The Nihon Shoki records him as Shinatsuhiko together with Shinatobe, a paired male and female kami.
Almost nothing is said of this kami's form. He appears in a single passage of his birth, and no deeds are told of him.
That is not weakness — it is exactly what wind is. It has no shape, and you know it has been there only after it has passed. By saying so little, the chronicles describe him precisely.
The wind rites at Tatsuta were a matter of state: prayers to calm the wind so the rice would ripen. What is asked for is not that the wind blow, but that it not blow too hard.
The same structure appears with the god of fire, who is also the god who quells fire. A Japanese kami takes on the task of restraining the very force it governs.
Wind. Tatsuta Taisha in Nara has received imperial rites as a shrine of the wind gods since antiquity; its enshrined kami, Ame-no-Mihashira and Kuni-no-Mihashira, are identified with Shinatsuhiko. Ise Jingu also keeps the Kazahinomi-no-Miya.
Typhoon and harvest are two faces of one thing, so a wind god carries both blessing and ruin. That is why calming the wind was a matter of state ritual.
Wind flattens the rice and also carries the grain. Because ruin and blessing ride on the same motion, prayers to a wind god are worded more carefully than most. Asking for a measure is harder than asking for a cutting stroke or a harvest.
A light stick: one that lifts more easily than it looks, a branch dried through until it is nearly hollow, something long and thin that whistles when you swing it.
What the Bureau measures is not weight but the gap between weight and appearance. The thicker it looks while staying light, the closer it stands to Shinatsuhiko.
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.