Chūjō-hime

(also written Chūjō Hime or Hase-Hime) (c. 753?–781?) was by most accounts a daughter of the court noble Fujiwara no Toyonari who escaped persecution at the hands of her stepmother by becoming a nun at the Taima-dera in Nara. There she took on the name Zenshin-ni or the Dharma name Honyo (法如). She has become a folk heroine, the subject of numerous Japanese folktales which celebrate her filial piety. She is sometimes called the Japanese Cinderella.

==Folklore== thumb|left|200px|Amitābha welcomes Chūjō-hime to the Western Paradise. Japan, 16th century. She is said to be the daughter of an imperial minister of the Fujiwara clan and a royal princess. Different stories disagree on her date of birth: most place it in the 8th century, during Emperor Shōmu's reign, and suggest she was the daughter of Fujiwara no Toyonari; however, a few state she was the daughter of Fujiwara no Toyoshige, a century earlier. It is said that the childless couple had appealed to Kannon and been granted a daughter in exchange for the life of one parent. When Chūjō-hime is three, therefore, her mother dies; her father subsequently remarries.