A daughter of Oyamatsumi. Ninigi saw her at the cape of Kasasa and took her as his wife. Her elder sister was Iwanaga-hime.
The 'blossom' of her name is taken to mean cherry blossom: a kami named for the beauty of what opens and falls.
Having conceived from a single night, she was doubted: no one conceives in one night, said Ninigi — is the child not some earthly god's?
She built a birth hut without a door, went inside, sealed it with clay and set it alight. If the child were truly of the heavenly line, she said, it would be born unharmed. In the blaze she bore three sons, Hoderi, Hosuseri and Hoori. The youngest, Hoori, is Yamasachi-hiko, and his grandson was Emperor Jimmu.
When her father offered both daughters, Iwanaga-hime — who stood for the permanence of rock — was sent back, and only this kami, who stood for the flourishing of blossom, was kept. For that, it is said, the life of the heavenly line became brief as blossom.
Beauty was chosen and duration lost. That Japanese myth reaches for this contrast to explain human death is not a small thing, and part of why the cherry remains a particular flower in Japan lies here.
Cherry blossom, and fire. Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha in Shizuoka is the head shrine, with Sengen shrines throughout Japan. She was first enshrined to quiet the eruptions of Mount Fuji, binding the story of a birth in flames to the mountain of fire.
A stick that once carried flower or fruit: a branch of cherry or plum, wood still marked where buds stood, a limb fallen unpruned from a flowering tree.
The Bureau sends this kami down on sticks that are beautiful and will not last. Dried, they go brittle and light and will eventually crumble — and still they catch the eye at once. A stick that traded durability for beauty belongs here.
Note: this section is the Bureau's own reading, not a record from the chronicles.
not yet recorded
The share of issued certificates in which this kami appeared. It shifts as more sticks are appraised. Variant spellings are reconciled before counting.
No published certificate bears this kami yet.