Ninigi, who is also known as Honinigi, is one of the great ancestral deities from the Japanese Shinto belief system. He was the son of Ame-no-Oshiho-mimi and the grandson of Taka-mi-musubi and the sun goddess Amaterasu.
According to mythology, Amaterasu had been desperately trying to find someone worthy of ruling over earth. Initially, she sent her son, Ame-no-Oshiho-mimi, to rule but as he looked over the Floating Bridge of Heaven, he saw the many disturbances on earth and refused to go.
The gods gathered and decided that Ame-No-Hohi should be sent. However, after three years the gods had not heard from him so they decided that his son, Ame-No-Wakahiko, should investigate. Before he left, they gave him a bow and arrows.
Ame-No-Wakahiko went to earth and eventually married Shitateru-Hime, the daughter of Okuninushi, the god of medicine and magic. This time, eight years passed without any word to the rest of the gods. Determined to find out, they sent a pheasant down to watch him.
The pheasant perched outside a tree of the god’s house. When one of the women of the house saw it, she told Ame-No-Wakahiko that it was a bad omen and immediately, the god shot it. However, the arrow passed straight through the bird and entered heaven, falling straight at the feet of Amaterasu. Recognising the arrow, she flung it back at the direction it came in fury, where it killed Ame-No-Wakahiko.
Two of the gods then visited earth themselves and came before Okuninushi, who told him that they had come on the sun goddess’ orders to bring peace and prosperity to the land under her control. Okuninushi spoke to his sons; the elder son agreed to worship Amaterasu but the younger son refused. The two gods then overcame the younger son who then promised not to resist the goddess. Okuninushi also agreed to recognise the sun goddess’ rule, on the condition that a place should be reserved for him amongst the major deities worshipped at the Izumo shrine. This Amaterasu agreed to.
The great sun goddess finally sent her grandson, Ninigi, to earth. Before he left, he was given many divine objects, including the mirror that Amaterasu had gazed into when she first emerged from the cave. He was also given the jewels that had produced Amaterasu’s sons and the storm god Susano-Wo’s sword, Kusanagi. It was these signs that would become the emblems of Japanese imperial power in later years.
On earth, Ninigi married Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime, the daughter of a mountain god. When she conceived their child on the first night of their marriage, Ninigi suspected that she had been unfaithful to him. He built her a house with no doors and when she was ready to give birth, she entered it. She stated that if she had been unfaithful then her child would die. Eventually, Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime gave birth to three sons; one of them, Hikohohodemi, would later go on to father a child who, upon his death, would be known as Jimmu-Tenno. It would be Jimmu-Tenno that would be the founder of the imperial line of Japan.
Looking at the history and significance of the god, one scholar states that Ninigi was the “exemplary ‘archetype’ of the historical Japanese emperors who, based on the richness and abundance of the rice harvest, maintain the cosmic order overarching the three cosmic zones”. His myth also establishes the most important event in the traditional, official myth structure of early Japan, accentuating the divine derivation of the imperial family line and the kinship theology, established in the Kojiki (compiled 712 CE) and the Nihongi (720 CE).
Bibliography:
Waida, Wanabu (1976) Sacred Kingship in Early Japan: A historical Introduction, History of Religions, The University of Chicago Press.
Waida, Wanabu (1973) Symbolism of “Descent” in Tibetan Sacred Kingship and Some East Asian Parallels, Numen, BRILL.
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