Spendor of Okinawa Bonus: A story from the Ryukyu Kingdom

   

Taruchii’s Incredible Strength

The northern part of Okinawa, with its deep forests and mountains, is known as Yanbaru (Mountain District). A long time ago, there were boats that carried lumber and firewood, cut from its mountains, down to the south. They were called Yanbaru boats. Since the south had no mountains, almost all its lumber and firewood had to be brought down from Yanbaru on these boats.

A Yanbaru boat

One day, a Yanbaru boat full of lumber dropped anchor at a small southern village. There was a man in the village called Taruchii who had the brute strength to swing even the biggest of logs up on his shoulder and carry it away. When the Yanbaru boats came into port, Taruchii would buy up the lumber from them and then make his living by selling the wood off to the villagers.

        

That day, as usual, Taruchii tried to get a good price on the boat’s full load of lumber. But this time, the boat’s captain was a very greedy man. He insisted on selling the lumber at twice the usual price. Even the villagers who had come to buy just firewood were angry to be told they had to pay such an outrageous price.

The captain thought he had Taruchii and the villagers under his toe. So,Taruchii decided to teach this cunning captain a lesson. Cracking his knuckles, Taruchii set about making the captain angry. “Captain, if you want to do business unfairly like this, I’ll drag your boat up on the beach and ground it,” Taruchii threatened.

Throwing back his shoulders in anger and glaring straight at Taruchii, the captain shouted, “If you’re man enough, let’s see you do it.” Then, spitting out curses, he challenged, “Ok, big shot! If you can get my boat up on the beach, I’ll give you my lumber for free. But if you can’t, I’ll break off both your arms.”

“Got him!” Taruchii thought to himself with a smirk, as he rolled up his sleeves. “Captain, you’ve just made me a promise. If you break it, you’ll have more broken than just your arms,” Taruchii confirmed, as he closed his grasp firmly on the Yanbaru boat’s mooring line.

        

With the muscles of both arms bulging and his face beet red, Taruchii began to pull the boat’s line. Everyone thought that the Yanbaru boat could not be budged. But, little by little it moved, spreading a ripple from its bow. With each pull the Yanbaru boat edged closer to the shore.

        

Seeing such incredible strength, the captain and the villagers swallowed their words of doubt. It was unbelievable that there was anyone in this world, anyone at all, who could drag this huge lumber boat up onto the beach. But as they stared in amazement, there it was, slipping, sliding, then pulled up out of the water and  onto the beach.

“Wow! I totally misjudged you. Please forgive me,” the captain said, kneeling in front of Taruchii.  Then bowing his head again and again, the captain begged him to please put his boat back into the sea.

Without a drop of sweat on his cool face, Taruchii replied, “Captain, can you promise not to act like that and cause people trouble ever again?” Then, with the promise made and the now free lumber unloaded from the boat, Taruchii pushed the Yanbaru boat back into the sea.

Word of Taruchii’s incredible strength spread far and wide in Okinawa.

One day a demon, proud of his own strength and hearing of Taruchii’s reputation, came to his village. Just outside the village, the demon happened upon a young man. “Hey, you! I’ve heard there’s a big liar in this village who claims to have lifted a Yanbaru boat onto the beach. I’m the one who’s going to teach that big shot a lesson. So, take me to the guy’s place,” said the demon.

(A demon with an ironclub:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Oni.jpg)

The young man looked with a calm face at the demon’s bulk and replied, “Before that, could you lend me your iron club for a bit?” Then, taking the club, the young man thrust it straight into the ground with a loud thud. The iron club was stuck deep in the ground with only its hilt, about the size of a fist, still showing.

        

Smiling broadly, the young man said to the demon, who was now wide-eyed, “If there were such a man, it would be my big brother. But first, let’s see you pull out your iron club. If you’re actually strong enough to do it, I’ll take you to him.”

        

Since it was a matter of honor, the demon tried with all his strength to pull out the iron club. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not budge it an inch.

“Hey, what’s the big deal? Stuff like this is something even I can do before breakfast,” said the young man as he grasped the hilt of the iron club with his right hand. Then, as if he were pulling a burdock or a turnup out of the ground, he drew the club out in a single pull and showed it to the demon.

        

That scared even a demon like that one into losing his guts completely and running off home, in the blink of an eye.

Of course, the young man was no other than the incredibly strong Taruchii himself.

 

 Note on pronunciation: Okinawan consonants sound much the same as their alphabetical counterparts in English. Vowels follow the sounds of the a,e,i,o,u of Italian or Spanish. Doubling means that the vowel is lengthened, not repeated.

 

Story: compiled and written in Japanese by Kyoko Ishikawa. English translation by William A. O’Donnell (odomnail@rocketmail.com), edited by Thomas Marsh.