Fire as Proof of Faithfulness: Konohanasakuya-hime's Trial by Flame

Konohanasakuya hime, whose name is generally translated as the princess who makes the blossoms of the trees bloom, married Ninigi, the grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, shortly after he descended from heaven to rule the earthly land of Japan. When she told Ninigi she was pregnant after only a single night together, he doubted the child could be his and suspected her of infidelity with an earthly kami. Konohanasakuya hime answered the accusation in the most direct way available to her: she entered a birthing hut, sealed herself inside, and set it on fire, declaring that if the children were truly Ninigi's divine offspring, they would be born unharmed within the flames. She gave birth safely inside the burning hut to three sons, among them Hoori, whose own descendants would eventually found the imperial line of Japan, and her survival was taken as proof both of her fidelity and of the children's legitimate divine parentage, a trial by fire that became one of the most striking single episodes in the entire Kojiki narrative. The episode also sits within a larger genealogical stake for Japanese religious tradition: Hoori's own grandson would become Jimmu, the legendary first emperor of Japan in the traditional chronology, so Konohanasakuya hime's ordeal by fire stands at a direct narrative link between the kami of heaven and the human imperial line said to descend from them.