Delivery of Toyotamabime

Jinmu ancestors

 

 One day Toyotamabime came and visited Hoori-no Mikoto, saying, “I am expecting your child, whom I am about to give birth to. I came here to deliver your child because his father is the Heavenly God and he shouldn’t be born in the ocean.”

 At the seashore, she tried to build a special hut with cormorants’ feathers to have a baby. Before the hut was completely built, she felt strong contractions. Her labor pain was so severe that she had to get in the hut for delivery.

 Before her delivery, she gave her husband, Hoori-no Mikoto, a warning – “Women from other worlds are supposed to go back to what they are before delivery. Now I am about to deliver a baby, I will go back to what I am. You never look at me during delivery.”

 What Toyotamabime said didn’t make sense to him at all, so Hoori secretly looked at her in the hut. Toyotamabime transformed back into Yahiro (6 feet X 8 = 48 feet) Wani! Hoori saw her (Yahiro Wani) wiggling and wriggling so hard, which made him jump to escape.

 Toyatamabime, knowing Hoori saw what she was, became so ashamed of herself that she blocked the border between the Earthly World and the Sea God’s World and went back to the world she belonged to after delivery. She said, “I was going to come back and forth between two worlds. However, I cannot stand you saw me when I was what I am. What a shame!”

 By the way, the baby was born before the hut for delivery was completed. That is why he was named “Amatsuhikohikonagisatakeukayafukiaezu-no Mikoto (Ukayafukiaezu-no Mikoto).”

wani