Ame-no-Nuboko

天沼矛

also known as The Heavenly Lake-Lance

Tool · Lance / ScepterJapaneseAtlas class — Divine (S)Status: UnknownSources: High confidence
Susanoo slays Yamata no Orochi (Tsukioka Yoshitoshi)MODERN ART
You are looking atNo Ame-no-Nuboko survives. This is a 19th-century woodblock print of the serpent-slaying — a related myth of the same creator-cycle — a later artistic interpretation, not the lance itself.Susanoo slays Yamata no Orochi (Tsukioka Yoshitoshi) — Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met Open Access) · 1861 CE · Public domain (artist d. 1884) · Public domain (Met Open Access)

Overview

Ame-no-Nuboko ('the Heavenly Lake-Lance') is the lance with which, in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, Izanagi and Izanami stood on the Bridge of Heaven and stirred the brine below, forming the islands of Japan. [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗[S2]S2 · *Nihon Shoki* ('Chronicles of Japan', 720 CE) — PRIMARY TEXT (annalistic + mythographic) — (translation: G. Cameron, 1968; see Internet Arch It is the instrument of the creative act and the emblem of the power to make the world. It is the scepter of the creator-god, the emblem of the cosmic order that the islands embody.

Creation & Origin

It is the celestial lance of the creator-cycle; its making is not specified in the surviving sources.

The instrument of the island-forming, the emblem of the creative act. [S1]S1 · *Kojiki* ('Records of Ancient Matters', 712 CE), trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1882/1933) — PRIMARY TRANSLATION — https://sacred-texts.com/Open source ↗

Atlas Power Profile

Interpretive, 0–10. An Atlas editorial reading — not a historical or canonical ranking.

CREATION9

The lance with which Izanagi and Izanami stirred the brine and formed the islands of Japan — the instrument of creation.

MAGIC8

A divine instrument of the highest order; it is the emblem of the creative act.

DIVINE AUTHORITY8

It is the scepter of the creator-god, the emblem of the power to make the world.

CONTROL6

It stirs the brine and sets the islands in order; it is the instrument of the cosmic act.

Named Abilities

Each ability carries a certainty level — how firmly the sources support it.

ISLAND-FORMING
Attested

Izanagi and Izanami stirred the brine with the lance and formed the islands of Japan.

Source — Kojiki; Nihon Shoki

CREATOR'S SCEPTER
Likely

It is the scepter of the creator-god, the emblem of the power to make the world.

Source — Kojiki; later tradition

Limitations & Constraints

  • The instrument of the creator-god; not a common weapon, and its later fate is not specified.

Notable Facts

  • Ame-no-Nuboko is the Japanese equivalent of the "world-making" instrument; it is the scepter of the creator-god.

Where the record is thin

Interpretation note
  • The lance's later fate and its relationship to the other Regalia are not specified in the surviving sources.

Woven into the Atlas

Every link here is a real graph relationship — the artifact is part of the same mythology, not a side table.