Shitateruhime-no-Mikoto

Shitateruhime-no-Mikoto (下照比売命) is an earthly deity recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE). She is the daughter of Okuninushi-no-Kami and Tagirihime-no-Mikoto, and in the transfer of the central reed-plain country she became the wife of the heavenly deity Amewakahiko. Known for her radiant beauty, her poem appears in the Kojiki as one of the earliest waka. According to the Kojiki upper scroll on the central reed-plain transfer, Amewakahiko, sent to the central reed-plain country, married Shitateruhime and failed to report back for eight years. When he was killed by his own returning arrow and his elder brother Ajisukitakahikone visited in mourning, his form so resembled Amewakahiko that Shitateruhime praised him with the poem "Amenaruya, otōtanabata-no..." Mother: Tagirihime-no-Mikoto. Brother: Ajisukitakahikone-no-Kami. Shrines include Himekoso-sha in Osaka.