Splendor of Okinawa Bonus: A story from the Ryukyu Kingdom (Sunday: 10mr24)



The Monster Eel


 There is a big pond in Nakazato Village on Kume Island. A long time ago, an eel as fat as a water urn lived in the pond. Because this so-called monster eel would even eat up people, nobody ever went near the pond.


(An Okinawan water urn)

One hot summer day, a young man named Taruu was alone plodding along a mountain path, thinking, “Ah! I’ve done it again. I might as well be dead.” 


Taruu was a likable young man, but short-tempered. That day he had gone at it over some trivial thing with the boss he was apprenticed to and ended up running off from the shop. “I’ve got no place to go. What’ll I do now?” thought Taruu, trying to come up with a good way to get his job back, as he walked along. But he ended up getting lost. Both tired and hungry, Taruu curled up in the trunk of a tree and soon was snoring away fast asleep.


When he opened his eyes, from somewhere or other, Taruu heard the faint cries of a cow. When he spread open a nearby bush and peered through, the sight was shocking. A huge eel was right in the act of devouring a cow whole. The cow, with only its tail hanging down and still moving, was down to its last breath. Somehow or other, Taruu had wandered near the pond where the monster eel lived. “Wow, what a huge eel!” thought Taruu, as he watched the terrifying spectacle.


After it finished devouring the cow, the eel’s belly looked painfully swollen.

“Ho! This guy’s not about to move anytime soon,” thought Taruu with relief. Then, figuring right now was the best time to get rid of the monster eel, he came up with a  brilliant plan. He left the cover of the bushes and ran as fast as he could to the nearby village. There he stuffed buckets chock-full of ash from a stove, put them on a carrying pole on his shoulder, and rushed back to the pond where he had seen the huge eel. Then he scattered the ashes from the buckets all around the monster eel’s body.


By and by, feeling satisfied with its meal, the monster eel decided to go back to the pond. But as it wriggled along, the ashes got stuck firmly on its body, especially around its belly, still swollen up like a knot. The monster eel could not move its body forward as it had intended.


“It’s stuck! Just as I’d planned!” thought Taruu, as he ran out in front of the monster eel. He raised his carrying pole over his head and, with all his strength, bashed it down on the monster eel’s head. Time and again, the monster eel tried to attack Taruu, but with the slime of its body lost because of the ashes, it could not follow Taruu’s movements. Raising up its head, the monster eel let out hideous hisses, but, with its head shattered, it finally died.


In the time needed to take a breath, news of the extermination of the monster eel spread across the island. When the boss of the shop heard about it, instead of scolding Taruu for running off, as expected, he told everyone with great delight, “That’s Taruu from our shop. He did us a great service, right!” They say wherever the boss went, he proudly boasted about Taruu.


They also say that from then on, even during the longest droughts, the crops in Nakazato never withered, now that its residents could safely use the pond.

 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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the suit over exercise of proxy in the case of the weak seabed at the new Henoko base, judgment to be handed down on 20 December. (4de23)

Image
Splendor of Okinawa: Shrubby Bush Clover, roadside Uruma, 30no23 The seabed at the new base construction site at Henoko in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, is weak and needs reinforcement. So, the Okinawa Defense Bureau requested permission for the necessary design changes, but Governor Denny Tamaki refused. In response, the Government intends to exercise proxy to give itself permission in place of the governor. The Naha Branch of the Fukuoka High Court announced on 29 November that it will hand down its judgment in the lawsuit filed over the case at 2 pm on 20 December. At the trial on 30 October, Governor Denny Tamaki emphasized in the first oral arguments, “We can in no way accept this exercise of proxy, which violates the autonomy and independence of Okinawa.”  He further stressed the will of the prefecture’s people in opposition to the new base construction as the ‘Public will’. In addition, he requested to show that the  path to resolution lay in dialogue. The trial was conclud...
Read more

Governor Denny receives the report on JUNGLIA at the 4 month mark after its opening. (7de25)

Image
Splendor of Okinawa: Temple Tree, Mihama Beach, 1de25 CEO Takeshi Kato of Japan Entertainment (JE), which manages JUNGLIA Okinawa, visited Governor Denny Tamaki at the Prefectural Office on 28 November.  　 The CEO reported on the 4 months since the attraction’s opening. He repeatedly brought up dealing with operational improvements and such based on the voices of visitors to the park.  　 The CEO specifically mentioned the evening concerts in the park’s garden and, starting from December, the free entry of one child with each adult, targeting the prefecture’s people. CEO Kato stated, “We’d like to be contributing to Okinawa’s tourism as well.” Governor Tamaki, alluding to his speech the same day, entitled “Declaration on Sustainable Tourism”, stated, “For the people, employees, and tourists of our prefecture, this is an important win-win format. We’d like to have JE’s cooperation in many, many more initiatives.” Original Japanese article: Ryukyu Shimpo, published Sunday 30 Nov...
Read more

In Okinawa, Candidate Takara takes hold of the Henoko opposition parties as their new face, urging,”Let’s earnestly come to grips with these issues together.” (21jy25).

Image
Splendor of Okinawa: Mexican Petunia, Gushikawa RC Church, 13jy25. In the House of Councilors Election for the Okinawa Election District, independent candidate Sachika Takara (46), endorsed by All Okinawa, which opposes the relocation of the US Military Futenma Airfield in Ginowan to Henoko in Nago, both in Okinawa Prefecture, scored a victory. She defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Party’s new candidate Ryo Okuma (38) in the election campaign.  Candidate Takara pledged before her supporters, “The Henoko problem is something our prefecture’s people have taken into our hearts. We’re going to earnestly come to grips with it together.”  With their eyes on a victory in next year’s gubernatorial election, her victory was a bitter blow to the LDP. Governor Denny Tamaki, who held the job of Candidate Takara’s campaign headquarters chief, stressed, “The will of the people in opposition to the relocation remains unshaken.” In recent mayoral elections, All Okinawa’s fortunes ha...
Read more