When Izanagi returned from the land of the dead and purified himself at Awakihara in Tsukushi, three gods were born of the washing: Sokotsu-Watatsumi from the depths, Nakatsu-Watatsumi from the middle water, and Uwatsu-Watatsumi from the surface.
This kami is the sea itself, and the three are spoken of as one. That the god divides by depth is already a statement about what the sea is.
It was to this kami's palace that Hoori — Yamasachi-hiko — came after losing his brother's fishhook. The undersea palace was built like fish scales, and a sacred katsura tree stood beside its gate.
Watatsumi gave him his daughter Toyotama-hime in marriage, and after three years sent him home with two jewels: one to raise the tide, one to lower it. In handing over command of the tides, the kami handed over the sea itself. The grandson of the child Toyotama-hime bore was Emperor Jimmu.
The Azumi who served this kami were a people of the sea, yet their name is scattered across the land: Azumino in the mountains of Shinano, the Atsumi peninsula in Mikawa, and Atami — all held to derive from Azumi.
That the name of a sea clan survives in an inland mountain basin says something about this kami. He was never merely a god of fishing. Water does not belong to the sea alone.
The sea and the tides. Shikaumi Jinja on Shikanoshima in Fukuoka is held to be the head shrine, kept by the seafaring Azumi clan. Watatsumi and Kaijin shrines across Japan invoke him for safe passage and good catches.
A stick worn smooth by water: recovered from a riverbed or a shoreline, driftwood with its edges gone, a branch heavy with water it has drunk.
What the Bureau weighs most here is smoothness of surface. Watatsumi does not carve; he takes edges away over time. He will not descend on a stick that still has a sharpness to it. Driftwood bleached white by the tide is the clearest case.
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.