NINIGI-NO-MIKOTO

[Japanese] Prince-Ear-of Rice and Plenty; the rice-god, ancestral god the Japanese imperial family. He is a grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu and her husband Takami-Musubi. His mother sent him to the earth take charge of the general and political affairs. Accompanied by his sister, the vivacious Uzume, he descended to earth and arrived at the point where eight paths lead in all directions of the compass. They he met the terrible deity who guards the Floating Bridge to Heaven, who frightened him but not Uzume. Therefore, the god of the paths guided Ninigi to all the regions of his terrestrial kingdom. Out of gratitude, Ninigi give his sister in marriage to him. He himself married Ko-no-Hana. Later, Ninigi and his descendants fought their way from southern Japan to the Jamato plain (east of Osaka) and there they founded the imperial dynasty of Jamato. Amaterasu gave him a mirror, a jewel, and a sword (which are still the imperial symbols of sovereignty in Japan).