Spendor of Okinawa Bonus: A story from the Ryukyu Kingdom (Sunday: 3de23)

The Legend of the Toori Ponds Stepchild

 

On Shimoji Island in the Miyako chain, there are two round ponds shaped just like a pair of eye-glasses. The pair are called the Toori (Passage) Ponds because one of them is connected to the sea by a passage at its very bottom.

(Toori Ponds: http://www.rg-youkai.com/tales/ja/47_okinawa/14_mamakoiwa.html)

A long time ago, a fisherman whose wife had died of sickness lived with his remaining young son on this island. Feeling somewhat lonely living like that, after a suitable time, the fisherman remarried.

The stepmother got along with her stepson and the two of them seemed like they were truly mother and child. However, as soon as she and the fisherman had their own child, the wife doted over her own son while bullying her stepson. She was still carrying her own son on her back like a baby even after he had turned three years old. On the other hand, she worked her stepson like a beaver, having him fetch water and gather firewood.

        

Then one day the wife saw her own son being mocked by the village children: “Mama’s little cry-baby,” “Mama’s little milk-sucker!” Filled with uncontrollable rage, the wife got it into her mind that these words had been spread by her stepson and made a terrifying decision deep in her heart.

On that fateful day the wife set off with the two boys for the shore of the Toori Ponds. The two children were absolutely delighted, but it was the wife’s plan to put her stepson to death. As always, the Toori Ponds were deep blue and mysterious. But from time to time, the foam of the waves riding the wind would soak the surrounding shore.

“I’m going to take a look at the sea, so you two stay here and take a nice nap,” said the wife. Then, after putting her stepson right next to the pond and her own son up on the beach far from the water to let them sleep, she went confidently down to the seaside.

A little after the wife had left, her own son came sobbing to his step-brother, “Niinii (Big Brother), my clothes are all wet and it feels terrible.”

“Okay, okay, It’s no problem. Here, you can wear mine,” said the stepson and exchanged his own clothes for the water-soaked clothes of his little brother.

“Niinii, the place Mom left me next to the cliff is rocky and it hurts my back. I’d rather lie here by the shore where the ground is soft,” the wife’s real son complained once again.

        

The stepson knew if he did not obey the mother’s instructions, she would get angry. But if her son didn’t get his way, she’d be angry anyway. So, to stop his stepbrother’s crying, there was nothing to do but change places.

        

While the two boys were sleeping, the wife came back. Not noticing the changes and making sure no one was watching, the wife abruptly shoved the child she thought was her stepson into the pond. With a scary sound from the water, the child disappeared under the rippling waves.

        

The truly hideous mother, picked up the child she thought was her own with the intention of getting immediately away from that place. But then she noticed that the child, soundly sleeping in her arms, was not her own. It was her step-son!

        

“Oh God, what have I done!” she wailed in tears, tearing out her hair and calling out her son’s name again and again. Hopelessly, following her true son, she threw herself into the pond and sank beneath its calm water.

Then the wind blew, rippling the surface of the pond, as if it were crying, “Woo, woo, woo!” 

 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.