Saturday, April 9, 2016

Okinawan Folktale: Kouri Island -- The First Man and Woman

art, naked children,moon, ocean, stars

An Adam and Eve Sort of Legend

 

 

This photo of a mural comes from the front of a religious center on Kouri-Jima.

Inside the building are all sorts of mysterious things about the island.

There's a Japanese children's book with this story in it, you can purchase if, you like.


man and woman, monument, grass skirts

 Outside, facing the ocean is the adult version of the story and, some different artwork.

The first man and woman are wearing some clothes in this rendition.

When stuff, gets etched in stone, there might be some truth, to the myth.

So, lately, I've been Geo-tagging images and shooting any text, I find.


Japanese plaque,shrines, utaki,artwork, sketch

Behind the man and woman are some utaki (shrines) where people pray.

In the left side of this photo is a plaque inscribed with Japanese Kanji.

Using the Google Translate camera, a broken English version of the story was obtained.


Japanese, Kanji, characters, inscription, stone

Take this image and scan if for translation if, you like.

An easier (to understand) interpretation was found at Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai.



The First Humans of Kouri-Jima


They came down from above and, lived naked on this small island.

The only source of food was rice cakes, which came down from the skies on a daily basis.

They figured it would be a good idea, to store some food, in case the supply got cut off.

Once they started stashing rice cakes, the daily delivery suddenly stopped.

They began, begging the full moon, to start sending food again because they were starving.

Their prayers weren't answered and, they had to hunt for food for themselves.

One day, they noticed a pair of dugongs swimming near the shore.

That's when they realized male and females had different body parts.

Somebody must have gotten embarrassed and, they decided to start wearing clothes.

Clothing didn't stop them from being the best of friends and, they made lots of babies.

And, when the babies got older, they carried on the family tradition, making more babies.

Now, you know, where all these people on Okinawa came from!


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