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Myths & Sacred Narratives

Ninigi's Descent From Heaven

Also Known As Tenson Korin (heavenly grandchild descent), the standard Japanese term for this narrative of Ninigi's descent to found earthly rule.
Cosmic Event Myths

A Shinto narrative in which the sun goddess Amaterasu sends her grandson Ninigi down from the heavenly plain to rule the earthly land of reed plains, equipping him with the mirror, sword and jewel of the imperial regalia and settling him on the peak of Takachiho, an event treated genealogically as the founding of the imperial line.

Facts
Meaning
Central Motif
The heavenly grandchild's descent to found earthly rule, carrying the regalia that legitimize it 1
Controversy
Point in Dispute
Scholars dispute which real mountain the narrative's Takachiho refers to, since two peaks in modern Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures both carry the name and both host shrines claiming the descent. 2
Text
Source Text
Kojiki, Book One, and the parallel Nihon Shoki account of the heavenly descent 1
Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly Note
Historians of Shinto read the descent narrative as a genealogical charter myth, composed to root imperial legitimacy in an unbroken line from Amaterasu, rather than as an account meant to be read as literal history. 2
History
Historical Note
Recorded in the Kojiki (712 AD) and Nihon Shoki (720 AD), both compiled under imperial commission to fix the genealogy connecting the reigning line to the sun goddess. 1
Sources
Primary Source
Kojiki, translated by Donald Philippi and by Gustav Heldt, collated against the Nihon Shoki's version of the same descent. 1
Connections

Associated With

Ninigi, Deities

Belongs to Tradition

Shinto, Religions
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Sources
1. Kojiki
Donald L. Philippi (translator), University of Tokyo Press, 1968View the Source
2. Shinto: A History
Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press, 2017View the Source
Ninigi-no-Mikoto (Wikipedia)
In Group: Descent from Heaven and National Founding Myths, Introduction, sentence 2
Quote, In Group: Descent from Heaven and National Founding Myths, Introduction, sentence 2
(no-Mikoto here is an honorific title applied to the names of Japanese gods; Ninigi is the specific god's name.) Grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, Ninigi is regarded according to Japanese mythology as the great-grandfather of Japan’s first emperor, Emperor Jimmu.
View the Source

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