Matonuhime

• • Period: Legendary Period
  • Occupation: Princess
  • Family: Tanika no hiko Tatatsumichinoushi (father) Taniha no Kahakami no Masu no Iratsume (mother) Hibasuhime (sister) Mikadawake (brother) Otohime (sister) Nubatanoiribika (sister) Azaminoiribime (sister) Takanohime (sister) Utakorihime (sister) Yehime (sister)
  • Birth: –
  • Death: –

Matonuhime

Matonuhime (真砥野比売命) was the daughter of Taniha no Kahakami no Masu no Iratsume and Tanika no hiko Tatatsumichinoushi.¹²

She is summoned to the Emperor in the nihongi alongside her sisters Nubatanoiribika, Hibasuhime, Azaminoiribime and Takanohime by the Emperor after his first wife, Sahobime, recommended them as future marriage candidates.

She was then made one of his concubines.³

The kojiki differs slightly saying that she came with Nubatanoiribika, Hibasuhime and another sister called Utakorihime. However, after the emperor saw her and Utakorihime he sends them away saying they were ugly.

Matonuhime devastated says when people hear of this on their return home it will be mortifying. And so she tries to kill herself by hanging from a tree in Yamashiro, where she tried it now called Sagariki (hanging tree). This failed, and so later she jumps into a deep pool in a place now called Ochikuni where she died.¹²

Footnotes

1. Yasumaro. O, translated by Gustav Heldt. (2014) “Kojiki. An Account of Ancient Matters”. New York: Columbia University Press.
2. Chamberlain, B. H. (1932) “Translation of the Kojiki.” Kobe: J.L. Thompson & Co.
3. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.

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