Read, reflect, pray
Kojiki: Blossom and rock: two sisters
Kojiki · Story 12 of 22
花と岩、二人の姉妹
Konohanasakuyahime and Iwanagahime.
English translation of this site’s published story summary and reading notes. This is a selected reading guide, not a complete translation of the ancient chronicle.
Story summary
At Cape Kasasa, Ninigi meets Konohanasakuyahime, daughter of Ōyamatsumi. Her father sends her elder sister Iwanagahime as well, but Ninigi sends the elder back and receives only the younger as his wife.
Ōyamatsumi explains that through Iwanagahime he wished for life enduring unchanged like rock, and through Konohanasakuyahime for prosperity like blooming flowers. Because the elder was returned, the heavenly deity’s descendants have lives limited like flowers, the story says.
When Konohanasakuyahime later becomes pregnant, Ninigi doubts children conceived in a single night. To prove their father, she sets fire to the sealed birthing hut and gives birth inside to Hoderi, Hosuseri, and Hoori—the three brothers leading into the story of sea fortune and mountain fortune.
Reading note
Ōyamatsumi’s explanation of the wishes entrusted to stone and flower is central here. Konohanasakuyahime is also given the name Kamuatatsuhime.
Compare with the Nihon Shoki
Connected figures
Names and relationships in a chronicle may differ from later traditions. Each figure’s introduction identifies its sources.
Sources and edition (1)
English explanations on this page were prepared by Inori no Mori from the cited text and its Japanese explanations. They are not an official translation or a prescribed liturgy.