The Parturition-House of Cormorant's Feathers

When she was pregnant with Ugaya-fukiaezu, Toyotama-hime-no-mikoto (122) came from her natural habitat of the sea (her father was Ōwatatsumi (18A), the Kami of the sea)  to dry land to tell Hiko-hohodemi, her husband, that she was close to giving birth to his child. and that it would not be fitting for a child of a heavenly deity to be born in the ocean.  Construction of a parturition hut using cormorant feathers as thatching was started, but before it could be completed her labour pains began and she went into the incomplete hut. Just as she was about to give birth she told her husband that when people of other lands, including herself, give birth they revert to their original forms, and she therefore did not want Hiko-hohodemi to watch her delivery.   He, like Izanagi before him, was unable to resist temptation, and so terrified was he at the sight of Toyotama-hime turning into a crocodile just as she was giving birth and then crawling and slithering around that he fled. The new mother was shamed at having been seen, and although she had intended to go back and forth from sea to land she withdrew into the sea and closed the sea border. The newborn child's name reflects the circumstances of the uncompleted parturition hut. Though still embittered at Hiko-hohodemi for having peeked at her, Toyotama-hime nevertheless still felt affection for him and sent her younger sister, Tamayori-hime-no-mikoto (123) to act as nursemaid to their child. Hiko-hohodemi lived on to the age of 580 and his tomb is to the west of Mt. Takachiho.

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The Children of Ugayafukiaezu

Ugayafukiaezu wed his aunt, Tamayori-hime, and they bore a child, AItsuse-no-mikoto (125A), followed by Inahi-no-mikoto (125B), Mikenu-no-mikoto (125C), and then last, but emphatically not least, Kamuyamato-iware-hiko-no- mikoto (125D). This latter is the family name of Emperor Jinmu, the first of Japan's legendary emperors, who is said to have reigned from 660 to 585 B.C.