n
those days.

When Sukunahikona went away, Ohonamuchi said: "It is I who should govern
this country. Is there any who will assist me?" Then there appeared over
the sea a divine light, and there came a god floating and floating, and
said: "You cannot govern the country without me." And this proved to be
the god Ohomiwa no Kami, who built a palace at Mimuro, in Yamato, and
dwelt therein. He affords a direct link with the Mikado family, for his
daughter became the empress of the first historic emperor Jimmu. Her
name was Humetatara Izudsuhime.

All the descendants of her father are named, like him, Ohomiwa no Kami,
and it is said that the present empress of Japan is probably a
descendant of this god. As regards the descent of the Emperor Jimmu
himself we already know that Ninigi no Mikoto, "the sovran grandchild"
of the sun-goddess, was sent down with the sacred symbols of empire
given to him in the sun by the sun-goddess herself before he started for
the earth. Now Ninigi married (reader, forgive me for quoting the lady's
name and her father's) Konohaneno-sakuyahime, the daughter of
Ohoyamazumino-Kami, and the pair had three sons, of whom the last named
Howori no Mikoto succeeded to the throne. He is sometimes called by the
following simple--and possibly endearing--name: Amatsuhitakahi
Kohoho-demi no Mikoto.

He married Toyatama-hime, the daughter of the sea-god, and they had a
son, Ugaya-fuki-ayedsu no Mikoto, born, it is said, under an unfinished
roof of cormorants' wings, who succeeded the father, and who married
Tamayori-hime, also a daughter of the sea-god. This illustrious couple
had four sons, of whom the last succeeded to the throne in the year B.C.
660. He was named Kamuyamatoi warehiko no Mikoto, but posterity has
fortunately simplified his designation to the now familiar Jimmu-Tenno,
the first historic Emperor of Japan, and the ancestor of the present
emperor.

The histories of Japan, prepared under the sanction of the present
Japanese government, date the commencement of the historic period from
the first year of the reign of the first emperor, Jimmu-Tenno, who
is said to have ruled for seventy-six years, viz., from B.C. 660
to 585. Some persons consider that this reign, and a few reigns that
succeeded it, probably or possibly belong to the legendary period,
because while, on the one hand, the Emperor Jimmu is described as the
founder of the present empire and the ancestor of the present emperor,
on the