Tagitsuhime- Japanese GodDeity"Munakata Goddess"

Born from the Sword

When Susanoo ascended to Takamagahara, Amaterasu suspected the worst and armed herself, binding her hair in warrior's knots and slinging a quiver on her back. To prove his sincerity, Susanoo agreed to an ukei, an oath-trial in which the nature of the offspring each produced would reveal his true intentions. Amaterasu took his ten-span sword, snapped it into three pieces, rinsed them in the heavenly well, chewed the fragments, and blew forth a divine mist. From that mist three goddesses emerged: Takiribime, Ichikishimahime, and Tagitsuhime. Their birth from Susanoo's weapon, transformed through Amaterasu's breath, was taken as proof that his heart was pure. The three became the Munakata goddesses, charged with guarding the waters between Japan and the continent.

The Middle Island

Each goddess was assigned to a shrine along the maritime route stretching from the Kyūshū coast into the Genkai Sea toward the Korean Peninsula: Takiribime to Okitsu-miya on the remote island of Okinoshima, far out in open water; Ichikishimahime to Hetsu-miya on the mainland shore; and Tagitsuhime to Nakatsu-miya on Ōshima, the island between them. The Munakata clan who served as the goddesses' hereditary priests held influence as mediators of the sea crossing. Sailors venturing into the strait offered worship at each shrine in turn, seeking the protection of all three sisters.

Tagitsuhime stands at the middle point: the intermediate island, the goddess between the sheltered mainland coast and the open ocean beyond. Her shrine on Ōshima marks where the familiar waters give way to the deep sea, the point where ancient seafarers committed themselves to the crossing and placed their lives in the hands of the goddess between.