Udo Jingu Birthing-Hut Legend

The Udo Jingu birthing-hut tradition is the central tale of Hyuga myth, in which at the sea cave of Udo on the coast of Hyuga, Hoori-no-Mikoto (Yamasachi-hiko) and Toyotama-bime-no-Mikoto, daughter of the sea god, had their son Ugayafukiaezu-no-Mikoto (father of Emperor Jimmu). Returning from the sea palace, Yamasachi-hiko welcomed Toyotama-bime to the shore of Udo, where she had a birthing hut roofed with cormorant feathers built inside the cave. Asking that no one watch, she went into labor; Yamasachi-hiko broke the taboo and looked in, finding her writhing in her true form as a yahiro-wani (a vast shark or dragon). Ashamed, Toyotama-bime returned to the sea, leaving the child; her sister Tamayori-bime was sent to raise the boy. The Kojiki, upper scroll "Ugayafukiaezu-no-Mikoto" segment (712 CE), the Nihon Shoki, divine age book two tenth section with several variants (720 CE), and the lost Hyuga Fudoki form the textual core. Udo Jingu in Miyaura, Nichinan, Miyazaki, with main hall set inside the sea cave, is the site, with O-chichi-iwa and O-chichi-mizu as places of belief in safe childbirth.