Which primordial kami is considered the first deity in the Kojiki?

Which primordial kami is considered the first deity in the Kojiki? Amenominakanushi is the first deity to appear in the Kojiki’s creation account.

The name Amenominakanushi means “Lord of the August Center of Heaven.” The Kojiki, completed in 712 CE, presents this kami as the first of the Kotoamatsukami, the “distinguished heavenly kami” who arise at the beginning of creation. Amenominakanushi appears in Takamagahara after heaven and Earth emerge from primordial disorder.

Amenominakanushi is also the first member of the Zōka Sanshin, or Three Deities of Creation. Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi follow him in the Kojiki’s sequence. Unlike later gods such as Izanagi and Izanami, these early kami are solitary beings who appear without partners and then withdraw from the narrative.

The answer is specific to the Kojiki. The Nihon Shoki’s main creation narrative instead begins with Kuni-no-Tokotachi, although its variant accounts preserve different traditions. That textual difference is why “first deity in Japanese mythology” can be disputed, while “first deity in the Kojiki” has a clear canonical answer. Later interpretations also associated Amenominakanushi with the North Star and the Buddhist deity Myōken.