Hayaakitsuhime

• • Affiliation: Shinto
  • Kami of: Sea Estuaries.
  • Family: Izanami (mother) Izanagi (father) Hayaakitsuhiko (brother) Aha Nagi (son) Awa Nami (daughter) Tsuranagi (son) Tsuranami (daughter) Amenomikumari (child) Kuninomikumari (child) Amenokuizamochi (child) Kuninokuizamochi (child)

Hayaakitsuhime

Hayaakitsuhime (速秋津比売神 – Lady Rushing River Mouth) was the last of ten kami created after Izanami and Izanagi had created the Eightfold Isles and the six subsequent isles, according to the Kojiki. She is the kami of Sea Estuaries. She is invoked in the Prayer of Great Purification (Hymn. 10), which describes her as swallowing defilement’s at the seas cross currents. She, with her own brother, gives birth to eight kami. These are Aha Nagi, Awa Nami, Tsuranagi, Tsuranami, Amenomikumari, Kuninomikumari, Amenokuizamochi and Kuninokuizamochi.¹

The Nihongi does not name this kami or her brother, however, it mentions them collectively as the kami of the River Mouths Hayaakitsumi. It also states they are born after the kami Yamatsumi.²

Footnotes

1. Yasumaro. O, translated by Gustav Heldt. (2014) “Kojiki. An Account of Ancient Matters”. New York: Columbia University Press.
2. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.

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