Konohanasakuya-hime

Konohanasakuya-hime is the blossom princess whose beauty captivated Ninigi upon his descent to earth. Her father Oyamazumi offered both her and her elder sister Iwanagahime in marriage, but Ninigi chose only the beautiful Sakuya-hime and rejected the rock-faced Iwanagahime. Oyamazumi lamented that by refusing the rock princess, Ninigi had doomed his descendants to lives as fleeting as cherry blossoms rather than enduring as stone—a mythological explanation for human mortality.

When Ninigi doubted the paternity of her children (conceived after only one night), Konohanasakuya-hime proved her fidelity by entering a doorless birthing hut and setting it ablaze, declaring that if the children were truly of heavenly descent, they would survive the flames. Her three sons—including the ancestors of the imperial line—emerged unharmed.

As the deity of Mount Fuji, she is enshrined at Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha and its associated shrines, which collectively form the Sengen faith. Her association with both cherry blossoms and volcanic fire embodies the Japanese aesthetic of beauty in transience.