Japan’s First Emperor Jimmu

So it’s said that the story of Japan starts with a guy named Jimmu. Now Jim’s lineage is a bit crazy, and really the full story goes back 6 generations, but for this lets settle with with his grandparents. We’ll zig zag around a bit but I think the order in which I’ll explain this makes it the most digestible.

Jim, the first emperor of Japan was the youngest son of a guy named Ugayafukiaezu, we’ll call him Uga for short. Uga’s dads name is Hoori, he and his brothers were the second generation of heavenly beings who travelled to Earth, and this story starts with them.

Hoori was a hunter and the youngest of 3 brothers, he didn’t fish a lot. Hoori’s older brother Hoderi was a fisherman, he fished all the time, he had a magical hook. Their dads name was Ninigi, he emigrated from heaven with the 3 sacred items of the Japanese imperial family. The mirror, sword, and jewel. For the record, their mom is the goddess of Mt. Fuji.

One day Hoori asked his brother to borrow his magical fishing hook, he said no, you don’t know how to use it. Hoori took the fishing hook from behind his brothers back and tried to use it anyway. It fell to the bottom of the sea. When Hoori told his brother that he stole and lost his hook, Hoderi said that he wouldn’t accept a replacement, and that if he truly is sorry and wanted forgiveness, he’d better go find the original.

Many attempts at finding the hook later, he noticed there was a beautiful woman also swimming at the bottom of the sea, he signalled for her to follow him, they surfaced together and while waddling at the surface, she introduced herself as Toyotama. She asked what Hoori was doing down there, he explained that he was looking for his brothers magical hook. She said she could probably help and took him to meet her father, the king of the ocean. With his help they found the hook in no time.

Hoori was invited to stay at their undersea palace, which he did for several years. Toyotama and Hoori got married and life was going great — but one day, feeling a little homesick, Hoori said to his now pregnant wife that he would return home, and that she should come with him. The timing was difficult.

It would have been more convenient for Toyo to give birth in her undersea palace, surrounded by family and servants, but she was convinced to have the birth on land. When Hoori and Toyo surfaced, Hoori returned his brothers magical hook and began to construct a home on the shore for them to live. Rather than reeds to build a standard thatched roof, it was Toyos request to use feathers from a bird called ‘the great cormorant’ – there was a pile of them on the floor and so Toyo laid on top of the feathers and prepared to give birth.

She said to Hoori, I yearn to give birth in the manner of my homeland, so please during the birth you must not look at me! Promise me!

Hoori thought these words were strange, but assured her that he wouldn’t look. During the birth he heard strange noises and curiosity got the best of him. It turns out Toyo was a sea monster, a dragon-crocodile humanoid thrashing around on her belly, trying to push out the bulging infant slithering around on the inside.

Hoori, absolutely frightened by what he saw, screamed in terror and took off running, never to be seen by her again. Toyo was so embarrassed and disheartened by this that after the childbirth, she crawled back into the water and swam to her fathers undersea palace never to return to land again. She named their son Ugaya Fukiaezu (the name stemming from him being born on a thatch of Ugaya feathers) and asked for her younger sister Tamayori the life favor to live transformed above land and raise Uga in her place.

Tama must have also been absolutely gorgeous as well, because when Uga became a man, he couldn’t refuse the lust for his aunt and ended up having 4 children with her, the youngest of which was Jim, the first emperor of Japan. All the other brothers died during Jim’s expedition to conquer the island.