Toyotamahime no Mikoto

Toyotamahime is the beautiful daughter of the sea god Watatsumi who married Hoori when he visited the undersea palace. Their love story contains one of the most poignant taboo-breaking episodes in Japanese mythology: when she came ashore to give birth, she asked Hoori not to watch the delivery, but he peered through a gap and saw her transform into a great sea creature (wani).

Humiliated, Toyotamahime returned to the sea, sealing the border between land and water behind her. However, she did not abandon her child—she sent her younger sister Tamayorihime to serve as nursemaid. This mix of wounded pride and maternal devotion makes Toyotamahime one of the more emotionally complex figures in the mythology.

She is venerated as a deity of safe childbirth, and her story shares structural elements with folk tales of supernatural wives who depart when their true nature is revealed—a motif found across Japanese and East Asian traditions.