Yato-no-kami

In the account recorded in the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki and summarized in later reference works, Yato-no-kami are presented as local snake kami inhabiting fields near the government office of Namegata county. The fudoki-derived narrative tells that during the reign of Emperor Keitai a man named Yahazu no uji no Matachi killed and enshrined the Yato-no-kami, converting their status into a shrine cult; at a later moment the same tradition relates that a man named Mibunomuroji Maro drove them away when they disturbed him and his workers during moat construction. These narrative elements situate the beings as place-tied spirits who were confronted by named human actors in the local legendary record.

The sources describe Yato-no-kami simply as snake deities: serpentine local kami associated with the landscape. The available texts and summaries provide no further physical detail (such as color, size, or anthropomorphic features), and the record is explicit in offering only the identification of their form as snakes.

The tradition records that Yato-no-kami were feared as harmful: they were 'rumored to bring familial extermination on anyone who saw them,' indicating a folkloric belief that sighting them caused extreme misfortune to a household. As an instance of araburu-kami, they are characterized as belonging to the class of fierce, aggressive kami that embody dangerous natural forces and that can disturb people and human activities (for example, interfering with workers building a moat). The sources do not enumerate specific supernatural powers beyond these reported effects and disruptive behavior.