Kanayago Kami

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Kanayagogami 金屋子神 / カナヤゴガミ Deity of the Blacksmith
Goddess of Tatara
tutelary of mines, metals, and the techniques associated with them.


source :　たたらの話 - wakou-museum.gr.jp


Tatara-buki (buki, from fuki, means air blowing)
is an ancient Japanese method for manufacturing iron. The tatara process has a history stretching back more than one thousand years, being a method for fabricating iron unique to Japan built up through the unceasing efforts of our ancestors.
. Takadono tatara 高殿鑪 たかどのたたら .


金屋子神社 Kanayago Jinja


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The History of Tatara - Kanayago-Kami
Kanayago-kami (the deity Kanayago) is enshrined at tatara in the Chugoku mountains. While the main shrine dedicated to this deity (whose name is written with characters that literally mean “child of the metal worker") is located at Nishihida in the city of Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture. Devotion to Kanayago-kami is widespread, centered on the Chugoku region but extending from Kyushu and parts of Shikoku to the distant Kanto region and parts of Tohoku. The ritual deities celebrated at present are Kanayama-hiko-no-mikoto and Kanayama-hime-no-mikoto with origins in the Yamato line (see section 2.1.3 for background), but originally it was Kanayago-kami, more familiarly called “Kanayago-san” throughout the region. Worship of Kanayama-hiko and Kanayama-hime (male and female, respectively) dates almost certainly to early modern times. This is believed to have been aimed at increasing the authority of the shrines.

The story of Kanayago-kami is as follows:
"In the distant past, Kanayago-kami decided from the heavens to a place called Shiso-no-kori (Shiso County) in the province of Harima (in what is now southern Hyogo Prefecture, in the San'yo district). She taught the people there how to make iron, and made an iron kettle out of rock. Since then, that place has been called Iwanabe (“rock kettle”), which is in the vicinity of the town of Chikusa, Shiso County, Hyogo Prefecture. However, as there were no mountains nearby where she could live, Kanayago-kami declared,
“If I am to be the deity who rules the western reaches, I will proceed to the west and live in a suitable place there.”
So saying, she climbed on a white heron to travel to the mountains of Okuhida in Kurota in Nogi County of the province of Izumo (around Nishihida in Shimane Prefecture). The heron alit upon on a katsura tree to rest, and Kanayago-kami then taught the technique of making iron in that region to the members of the Abe clan."

Since then, Kanayago-kami has continued to be worshipped by the descendents of the Abe clan. The Abe clan involved itself not only with priestly affairs, but also with traveling around to instruct others in tatara techniques.

There are a variety of curious taboos associated with Kanayago-kami.
Among them:

Kanayago-kami hates dogs, ivy, and hemp.
She favors wisteria.
According to the legend in Hino County, Tottori Prefecture, a dog howled at Kanayago-kami when she descended from the heavens. The deity tried to escape by climbing a vine, but the vine broke. She was attacked by the dog and died as a result. The version of the story told in I'ishi County, Shimane Prefecture, is that, rather than ivy, she became entangled in hemp or flax and died. The legend in Nita County, Shimane Prefecture, holds that the ivy did indeed break, but she then grabbed onto a wisteria tree and was saved. She may be a deity, but in this humorous story she is a rather human character. Such legends are the reason why dogs are not allowed near tatara and hemp is not used for any tatara tools or equipment. Also, katsura trees are not burned in tatara because they are regarded as divine.

Kanayago-kami hates women.
Kanayago-kami is a female deity so she hates women. A murage 村下 (a chief engineer in metal forging) will not enter the tatara when his wife is menstruating. He shuts down his tatara temporarily just before and after his wife gives birth. If work is at a point that he cannot put it aside, it is said that he will not go home nor look at the face of his newly born child. It is also said that murage are especially strict about not getting into a bath if a woman has used it.

Kanayago-kami likes corpses.
The disciples of Kanayago-kami did not know what to do with their tatara when she died so suddenly. It is said that just as they were praying to and beseeching her for help, just when the iron could not be brought to birth no matter what they did, they received an oracle calling for them either to stand a dead body up against the tatara's four supporting pillars (Nita County) or bind the bones of a murage to the four pillars (the village of Yoshida, Shimane Prefecture). There similarly appears to have been no taboos about death in tatara in other locales, either. They apparently made coffins in tatara when a person died in Aki or Yamagata in Hiroshima Prefecture, while in Futami county in the old Bingo province (around Hiroshima today) people would carry a coffin around the tatara when holding a funeral.

Actually, it is unclear as to whether or not Kanayago-kami is meant to be a male or female deity, but in the tatara the deity has been said to be female. Masaya Abe, a descendent of the Abe clan and chief priest at Kanayago Shrine, writes,
“Kanayago-kami is usually held to be a female deity. However, that is because it was a woman who enshrined it. The deity was originally a youthful male.”
Details about Kanayago-kami turn up in various stories, including those related to such other deities as Yawata-kami, Ama-no-hiboko, Takuso-susano-no-mikoto, and Kanayama-hiko-no-mikoto. In all cases, Kanayago-kami was the patron deity of blacksmiths, worshipped from the start by people involved in metalwork. These artisans spread devotion to Kanayago to many locations, and the present form of that worship was probably created by the Abe clan.

Festivals are held at the shrine Kanayago-jinja in the spring around the middle of the 3rd month and in the autumn early in the 10th month, the dates being determined according to the Chinese zodiacal calendar. In the past, the Kanayago festival at Hida was an event to which tatara masters and blacksmiths would come from distant provinces, as well as from Izumo and the neighboring province of Hoki.
- source : www.hitachi-metals.co.jp

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source : facebook


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Kanayamabiko, Kanayamabime (Kanayama Hiko, Kanayama Hime)
According to Kojiki, these kami were produced from the vomit (taguri) emitted by Izanami as she lay dying following the birth of the kami of fire Kagutsuchi. An "alternate writing" relating the same event in Nihongi mentions only the kami Kanayamabiko. Both kami are considered tutelaries of mines, metals, and the techniques associated with them. They are enshrined at the Nangū Taisha (Nangu Taisha) in Fuwa District, Gifu Prefecture, as well as at numerous Kanayama and other shrines throughout the country.
- source : Nakayama Kaoru, Kokugakuin 2005


Kanayamahiko no Kami 金山彦神（かなやまひこのかみ）
は、日本神話に登場する神である。『古事記』では金山毘古神、『日本書紀』では金山彦神と表記する。金山毘売神（かなやまびめのかみ、金山姫神）とともに鉱山の神として信仰されている。

神産みにおいて、イザナミが火の神カグツチを産んで火傷をし病み苦しんでいるときに、その嘔吐物（たぐり）から化生した神である。『古事記』では金山毘古神・金山毘売神の二神、『日本書紀』の第三の一書では金山彦神のみが化生している。

神名の通り「金山」（かなやま、鉱山）を司る神で、嘔吐物から産まれたとしたのは、嘔吐物の外観からの連想によるものと考えられる。鉱山を司どり、また荒金を採る神とされ、鉱業・鍛冶など、金属に関する技工を守護する神とされている。岐阜県垂井町の南宮大社（金山彦神のみ）、南宮御旅神社（金山姫神のみ）、島根県安来市の金屋子神社、宮城県石巻市金華山の黄金山神社を始め、全国の金山神社で祀られている。
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Kanayama Jinja 金山神社　－ Fuwa, Gifu　岐阜
金属や鉱山(こうざん)の守り神として、崇敬されてきました。
その神が住まうのは、岐阜県西部(せいぶ)、不破(ふわ)郡垂井町(たるいちょう)。隣には「関ヶ原の戦い」が行われた決戦地、関ヶ原町(ちょう)があります。 そして、「伊吹(いぶき)おろし」という強い風をこの地域にもたらす伊吹山がそびえています。 そんな Tarui 垂井町に鎮座する南宮大社は、金属や鉱山の守り神、金山彦命- 金(かな)山彦(やまひこの)命(みこと) Kanayamahiko no mikoto をまつる、全国３０００社の総社でもあります。そのため奉納品や神事も、金属にまつわる珍しいものが たくさんあります。 しかし、なぜ金属の神をまつる総社(そうしゃ)がこの地にあるのでしょうか。 その由縁は、そびえたつ「二つの山」に隠されていました。
- source : graceofjapan

The clear water and wind down from Ibukiyama was suited for the metal forging craftsmen.


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Have you ever heard of Tatara?
Tatara was likely imported into Japan from Korea by way of Shimane Prefecture, and seeing as the San’in region is rich with titanium magnetite, a necessary ingrediant for iron production, it took hold here very early on in Japanese history. Way back in ancient Japan–specifically 713ad, two years after the compilation of the Kojiki (originally ordered by Emperor Temmu) was completed, Empress Gemmei ordered the compliation of the Fudoki. While the Kojiki is like a history book (which we would now consider a book of Shinto mythology), the Fudoki were like encyclopedia, conducted in each province to chronicle geography, plant and animal species, the lifestyles of the people, and significant historical events (many of which we would now refer to as myths). Most of the Fudoki no longer exist, but the Izumo-no-Kuni-Fudoki remains mostly in tact. Therefore, we know a lot more about life in 8th century Izumo than about any other part of Japan. It includes many details about tatara.

..... There is a patron god of Tatara, though many of the popular local myths say she is a goddess. This is Kanayago, the kami that is revered throughout Japan for teaching craftsmen how to making iron. Having particular influence over Western Japan, she wanted to settle in the mountains there, so she descended upon a particular spot in southwestern Yasugi where a heron perched upon a katsura tree, a very brief hike up the hill from Kanayago-jinja, the head shrine of all Kanayago shrines.



... As numerous as Kanayago shrines are (especially in the Chugoku region), many of them make donations to this head shrine.

A short walk across from the entrance to the shrine is the folk tradition hall dedicated to the shrine and legends about Kanayago. It’s small, but well designed and with lots of information and 3D displays.

..... if you’re a fan of Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli studio movies, then you likely are already familiar with tatara after all. Iron Town in the 1997 film Princess Mononoke was based on Okuizumo (not to be confused with Higashiizumo)!
- source : Buri-Chan


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source :　www.kanayago.co.jp/yurai


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Kanagayo, Kanayako Kami 金屋子神（かなやごかみ、かなやこかみ、等）
とは、中国地方を中心に、鍛冶屋に信仰される神。一般には女神であるとされるが、男神とする説もある。金山彦・金山媛や天目一箇神と同一、もしくは何らかの関係がある神とされるが、全く別神とする説もある。
金屋子神の総本社とされる島根県安来市広瀬町西比田にある金屋子神社には、以下の伝説がある。
... 、伯耆国日野郡宮市の住人 下原重仲が著した『鉄山秘書』にも詳しく書かれている.
... 金屋子神社より西方約40kmに石見銀山があり、当地に佐毘売山神社（さひめやまじんじゃ）があるが、この『佐毘売』は、金屋子神の別名ではないかと言われている。『さ』、『さひ』は鉄を意味していると推測されている。
... 尚、饒速日尊や物部氏と関係が深いとされる三瓶山は古来、佐比売山と呼ばれていた。また、三瓶山の西約5kmに、石見国一宮で、石上神宮と表裏一体であると言われる物部神社が鎮座する。

また、岡山県英田郡西粟倉村に伝わるタタラ唄に『金屋子神の生まれを問えば、元は葛城 安部が森』との言葉が残る。
Abe-ga-Mori in Okayama 安部が森
... more
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !



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金屋子神は秘伝の製鉄技術
- source : furusato.sanin.jp

- Reference : 金屋子神社
- Reference : Kanayago shrine Shimane

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. 出雲風土記 Izumo Fudoki .

. sumigama 炭竈 と伝説 Legends about charcoal kilns .

. Shrine, Shinto Shrine (jinja　神社) - Introduction .


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. Japanese Legends - 伝説　民話　昔話 – ABC-List .


............................................................................　Hiroshima 広島県　
高田郡 Takada district

Kanayago san 金屋子さん Deity of Blacksmiths
This deity dislikes anything connected to giving birth. Therefore after a birth a woman is not allowed to come near the Tatara 鑪. Even now she is not allowed to come near a charcoal kiln.

. Takadono tatara 高殿鑪 hut for working with metal .



............................................................................　Shimane 島根県　
飯石郡 Iishi district

Kanayago sama no tatari カナヤゴ様のたたり the curse of the Kanayago deity
Kanayago is 炭焼きの神・火の神・鉄山の神 the deity venerated by charcoal makers, protecting from fire and in mines.
she is venerate way back in the valley of Ibaradani 井原谷.
The deity tends to curse people who do not keep the rituals, pee in her direction or cut off branches from sacred trees.
Once she cursed the family of 山口恭一家 Yamaguchi Kyoichi.


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- reference : Nichibun Yokai Database -
21 to explore カナヤゴガミ Kanayagogami (02)

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