Ame-no-Minakanushi

Ame-no-Minakanushi (天之御中主, lit. "Lord of the August Center of Heaven") is a deity (kami) in Japanese mythology, portrayed in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki as the very first or one of the first deities who manifested when heaven and earth came into existence. The kami is given the name 'Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Kami' (天之御中主神; Old Japanese: Ame2-no2-Mi1nakanusi) in the Kojiki (ca. 712 CE). The same deity is referred to as 'Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto' (天御中主尊) in a variant account cited in the Nihon Shoki (720 CE). The Kojiki portrays Ame-no-Minakanushi as the first god to appear in the heavenly realm of Takamagahara after the emergence of heaven and earth from the primeval chaos: Unlike later generations of kami, the first seven gods were "single" or "solitary" in that they came into being one by one, without any counterparts, and are described as hiding their presence upon coming into existence. Ame-no-Minakanushi is reckoned as the first of the "three deities of creation" (造化三神, zōka sanshin) and one of the five "distinguished heavenly gods" (別天津神, kotoamatsukami). In the Nihon Shoki's main narrative and many of the variant accounts cited in it, the very first kami is identified instead as Kuni-no-Tokotachi; Ame-no-Minakanushi only appears in passing in one of these variants: In the Sendai Kuji Hongi, the first deity to appear is named 'Ame-Yuzuruhi-Ame-no-Sagiri-Kuni-Yuzurutsuki-Kuni-no-Sagiri-no-Mikoto' (天譲日天狭霧国禅月国狭霧尊). Here, Ame-no-Minakanushi - given the alias 'Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Mikoto' (天常立尊; the name of a distinct kami in the Kojiki) - along with the deity Umashi-Ashikabi-Hikoji(宇摩志阿斯訶備比古遅神) is instead counted as the first generation that emerged after this god. No further mention is made of Ame-no-Minakanushi in these texts.