The sixteenth emperor, Nintoku, held his court at Takatsu in Naniwa. Climbing a high hill one day to survey his realm, he noticed that no cooking smoke rose from the houses of the land.
“The people are poor, and cannot even cook their rice.” Understanding this, he proclaimed three years’ remission of all taxes and labor service. Through those years the palace was left to decay; even when the roof broke and the rain came in, he forbade repairs, and wore his robes and shoes until they were threadbare.
When three years had passed and he climbed the hill again, smoke rose thickly from every house. Delighted, he told the empress, “I have grown rich.” When she objected that the palace was in ruins and his robes in tatters, he answered: “That the people are rich is what it means for me to be rich.” For this he was praised as a sage ruler.
His private life, however, was stormy. The empress Iwanohime was known for her fierce jealousy, raging whenever the emperor’s affections strayed. Once, while she was away, it came to light that he had summoned Yata-no-Wakiiratsume to the palace.
Hearing of it on her journey home, the empress threw all the ceremonial leaves she carried into the sea, refused to return to the palace, and shut herself away at Tsutsuki in Yamashiro. The emperor sent poem after poem to call her back, but she never returned.
The image of a sage ruler and the raw human drama of love and jealousy, set side by side — this is the particular fascination of the Kojiki.