Kuraokami

In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki genealogies Kuraokami is listed among the deities born in the aftermath of the killing of the fire-deity Kagu-tsuchi by Izanagi. Kojiki passages name Kura-okami (闇淤加美) as one of the deities formed from the blood that collected on the hilt of the august sword and leaked out between the fingers; Nihon Shoki presents related versions and orthographies (e.g., 闇龗) in its recounting of the same episode. Commentarial traditions group Kuraokami with other water-related progeny (such as Kuramitsuha / Kurayamatsumi) produced by that event.

Classical texts quoted in the provided sources give no extended iconographic description of Kuraokami. Later commentators and regional records cited in the sources interpret the okami element as snake or dragon, and summaries (e.g., modern encyclopedic entries) commonly describe Kuraokami as a rain- or snow-associated dragon; these draconic/serpentine images derive from later commentarial readings (such as De Visser's citing of Bungo Fudoki) rather than explicit physical portraits in the Kojiki/Nihon Shoki excerpts.

Primary classical attestations present Kuraokami as the named personification or tutelary deity of precipitation—rain and snow—and as part of the cosmological ordering of forces generated by the Kagu-tsuchi episode. Sources describe Kuraokami as associated with atmospheric precipitation and with water-related places in later commentary. Specific acts of agency (ritual miracles, canonical narratives of intervention) are not recorded in the provided Kojiki/Nihon Shoki excerpts; the attribution of mountain-, valley-, well-, or sea-associated behaviors follows later commentator inferences that align Kuraokami with water-dragons or serpents.