Mimimotoji (耳面刀自)

Mimimotoji, also referred to as Mimomonotoji (year of birth and death unknown) was a female who lived in the Asuka period. She is considered to be as one of the Emperor Kobun's wives. Her father was FUJIWARA no Kamatari. Her mother was unknown.

There is no description about her in those historical materials of the same period such as "Nihonshoki" (Chronicles of Japan) and "Toshi Kaden" (Biographies of the Fujiwara clan), and the "Honcho koin jounroku" (the emperor's family tree, made in the Muromachi period) reports that she married the Emperor Kobun (the Prince Otomo) and gave birth to Ichishihime no Okimi. There is an opinion which questions her existence since no documentation in that period mentioned her. But there is no doubt that there was a person who was a daughter of Kamatari and became the wife of the Prince Otomo, since "Kaifuso" (Fond Recollections of Poetry) describes as 'Kamatari made one of his daughters a wife of the Emperor Kobun' (the Prince Oto).

She disappeared completely after the Jinshin War. However, in present Chiba Prefecture, there are several of shrines and temples with the legend which Mimimotoji was believed to be dead in their premises after escaping from Omo no miya.

[Original Japanese]