Spendor of Okinawa Bonus: A story from the Ryukyu Kingdom (Sunday: 10de23)

The Origin of the Hamauri (Down to the Sea) Ritual

      

 A long time ago in a seaside village, there was a really beautiful young woman. She was the kind of woman who could hold all the young men of the village as prisoners of love. But, for some reason or other, she always passed her time at home. 

(Hamauri: http://www.gyokou.or.jp/photo-con/photo-con2009.htm)

Because of that, there was not a single young man in the village who could steal her heart.

The young woman’s mother, worried about her daughter and wanting to do something about it, suggested, “Isn’t it about time for you to marry and take away my worries?” But her daughter just shut her ears.

But one such day, the daughter responded seriously, her face blushed with a smile, “Mom, there is a man I like. Please let me go off with him.

Her mother gave a sigh of relief and asked with a smile, “And your partner, who is he and where is he from?

But at her daughter’s story, the color of the mother’s face changed. Her partner turned out to be a samurai. But the daughter didn’t know his name or where he was from. On top of it all, the daughter was pregnant with his baby.

The mother was determined to find out just who this samurai was. But for some mysterious reason, this samurai appeared from somewhere or other every night and was suddenly gone by dawn. The mother thought, “There must be some kind of sorcery behind his actions.

So one day, the mother grabbed her unwilling daughter’s hand and hustled her off to a yuta’s (fortune-teller’s) house.

The yuta went through some sort of divination and then slowly explained, “This guy doesn’t seem to be human at all. His long slim body floated through my mind, but in the end I couldn’t figure it out. To find out his true nature, when he comes the next time, stick a needle with thread into his clothes. Afterwards follow the thread and you’ll learn his true nature.”

“Unbelievable! How are we supposed to do something so horrible?” the mother said, stunned at the extreme proposal, her face becoming gaunt as if ten years had been added to it.

But the daughter did not believe the yuta at all. She grumbled, “It’s a lie, of course. Not human, you say. But I’m going to prove he is,” and glared with a determined face at the yuta.

That day also, when darkness covered the surroundings, the samurai turned up as usual. Just as she had been told by the yuta, the daughter secretly stuck a needle into the collar of the samurai’s clothes as he was about to leave.

In her heart, the daughter apologized to the samurai for sticking the needle in his collar, “I’m sorry. But, I have to find out who you really are, for my mom’s peace of mind.”

The next morning, the mother and daughter followed the path of the thread. After going through one field and bamboo grove after another, the thread continued on to a cave in a cliff outside the village. The two of them peered into the scary depths of the cave, swallowing their voices without thinking. Deep in the back of the dimly lit cave, an akamata (big red-spotted snake) was writhing and moaning with unearthly groans. Blood was flowing from a needle stuck in the snake’s neck.

Be that as it may, it was now certain that this snake had changed its form and had been the samurai.

Full of grief, the daughter shouted while crying loudly, “Why did you deceive me like this?” Her mother could do nothing but just stand there shivering at the sight.

The snake said to the weeping young woman, “My heart was stolen by your beauty and so I changed into a man. Please forgive me. Tomorrow, go down to the beach. If you cleanse your body in the tide, it will be returned to its former purity.” Saying this with a voice wracked with pain, the snake took its last breath and died.

The next morning the mother and daughter ran hand-in-hand down to where the still cool waves were rolling up on the beach. When they arrived at the beach, the daughter slowly waded into the tidal water and sank her body from ankles, then knees, and finally up to around her waist into it.

As the young woman did this, her face colored slightly red. Then suddenly her body felt somehow light. Then the young woman’s body, cleansed by the tidal water, was returned to its original purity, just as the snake had said it would be.

        

That day was 3 March in the old (Chinese) calendar. With that as its origin, the Hamauri (Down to the Sea) ritual of homage to purification is celebrated in Okinawa. On this day, people go down to the beach to dip their hands and feet in the water and enjoy spending the day eating the delicious food they have brought along. Hamauri is celebrated by women only in some places.

 

  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.