Okinawan Folktale: Dragon, Centipede and Chicken

What Big Ears They Have

 

 

On an unbelievably hot day, a dragon flew down from the skies, to cool off.

It found a comfortable spot in the shade of some rocks.

A centipede entered a hole and followed the tunnel, deep within this dark space.

It became unusually warm. The 100 legged creature had crawled deep inside the dragon's ear.

At first, the centipede tickled and the dragon just dozed off to sleep.

When the centipede became too warm it began wiggling around, seriously trying to escape.

That led to the dragon, scratching and shaking its head violently.

The centipede ran around with its 100 feet, biting with sharp teeth, trying to hang on.

Soon the dragon was in pain crying, screaming, and jumping into the sky.

The tears of the dragon caused violent thunder and lightning rainstorm.

The dragon knew, he needed help but, a doctor would be afraid of him.

So, he flew back down to earth and transformed into a young man.

He visited a doctor and explained that some sort of demon had entered his ear.

When the doctor examined the ear he knew this wasn't a normal person.

The doctor told the boy, this wasn't a human ear.

He would only cure the problem if the young man returned to his original form.

When the boy became a dragon again, the doctor spotted the centipede inside the ear.

He sent a chicken into the ear to capture the insect.

The chicken grabbed the centipede and swallowed it on the way out of the dragon's ear.

The dragon was cured and happily flew off into the heavens.

Okinawan fisherman, sometimes painted centipedes on boats and sails, to ward off dragons.

REFERENCE:

Okinawan Folk Stories ISBN978-4-99009-146-0





MORE FOLKLORE

The Teahouse of the August Moon Arrived

Good Two Hours of Laughter

 

 

Have no fear, I'm not going into the business of doing movie reviews.

Last year,  having visited the Juri-uma Parade in Naha, I tried to order this movie.

Many times people ask if, I've ever photographed the teahouse in Naha.

They claim, it was in this 1956 movie, which I had never seen.

Online, I tried ordering through Amazon and, they were out of stock.

Gearing up for the festivities in Tsuji, again this year, I went to Amazon once more.

And, Bingo -- For the price of a few beers, the DVD came through.

Picturing Marlon Brando, as any kind of Asian, is a bit difficult but, he is hilarious.

The rest of the actors, playing roles of US military officers, are most excellent.

They act like something which rhymes with pampas grasses.

We still see a lot of them, proudly serving their country, over here, today.

Pampas grasses.

The Movie was not Filmed in Okinawa

 

 

 

 

Eleven acres of land were used for movie set and Tea House of the August Moon.

The location: Nara, Japan

The Teahouse of the August Moon in the Tsuji district of Naha, Okinawa wasn't in the movie.

Anyone interested in finding the location of the impostor teahouse, should go here.

When composing this shot of a concrete dragon, I was standing right on the spot.

Looking at a friends photos from way back, I found it.

The Teahouse of the August Moon, in Tsuji, was right over this piece of ground.

Visit Remembering Okinawa to see more of old Naha.

Related Posts: 

Brilliant Colors and Dancing with Horses

Have You Ever Heard of the Parade of the Prostitutes ? 

Prayer Before a Festive Occasion in the Ryukyu Islands

Photo Essay: A Fun-filled Day at the Ginoza Museum

Just as soon as you walk in the door at the Ginoza Museum in Okinawa, Japan you know this isn't going to be some stuffy old place like the British Museum of Natural History.

They have like, normal, everyday people statues waving at you, doing the the dance we call Eisa and a smiling, dancing lion-dog (Shishimai) is right up there on the stage with them.

The first thing I always do is make sure it's alright to shoot my camera.  Lots of museums don't let you so, it's best to ask permission first.  When they say "OK" that's when I know I'm going to have a blast.  I'm real careful about where I set up my tripod so nobody trips over it and I like to shoot photos without any flash.  
Slow and easy with whatever light is available; that's the way to have a fun-filled day of museum photography.  
I shot everybody and everything.

Old hand tools.  Man, what guy doesn't like them?  I bet I have some more rusty and older than these, somewhere out behind the house.  But, these guys were on display for me.

Just behind that cart I was looking at the straw-roofed house and wondering if there was a way I could get inside to have a look around.  Some museums are funny about those sort of things. 

This time I figured it would be best not to ask.

Look.  You can see right through the place and there wasn't a chain or rope across the door.

Everybody was busy doing whatever museum people do and nobody was watching me.

Next thing I know, there I was in the kitchen.

Those were the good old days, when you could barbecue right on the kitchen floor.

This looked like an example of how the first wooden floors were built to get folks up off the ground so they wouldn't get wet or dirty.  But, to me anyway, it looked like it might be real comfortable to lie down on.  
I peeked outside to make sure the museum people kept doing whatever museum people do.  
As long as they weren't watching me, that would be OK.

It felt GREAT but made a heck of a racket when all those bamboo poles started rolling around.

So, I jumped up quick and pretended I was taking a picture of this newer model kitchen fire thingy.  
Nobody came along to yell at me so, I figured it was safe to check out some more stuff.

All the way out the back door of the straw-roofed house there were more tools !

Oh, and that's where some girl hung a mini skirt, or something so, I got that, too.

The best part of my fun-filled day at the Ginoza Museum was finding a Dragon that I had never taken a photo of before.  It's something I'll be adding to my Year of the Dragon collection.

I bet they don't have things like this in the British Museum of Natural History.  If they did, they probably wouldn't let folks like me in there to have fun with my camera !


RELATED POST:  A CAMERAMAN'S DREAM, THE NAGO MUSEUM

 

Welcome Chinese New Year with a Bang: That's My Plan

Today is New Year's Eve by the Chinese calendar.

So, when my camera shootin' buddies came by today my plan was to go find some fireworks to end the 
Year of the Rabbit and welcome the Year of the Dragon tonight at midnight.

Buy some party goodies and shoot a new photo of a dragon.

That was the plan.

It is a cold, wet, cloudy day in Okinawa.  All I wanted to do was buy some stuff and shoot something like, a gold dragon bottle of sake.  These are things that could be done indoors.

Don't ask me how this stuff happens.

We got sidetracked, somehow and found Cherry Blossoms way up in the mountains.

And, we found another WATERFALL !

This one is at a not to be identified location.  It will be a closely guarded secret.

That's mostly because I don't know the name of the place or where we were at the time.

Map It Okinawa Dude with the GPS and Google Map know-how will have all that information for you, shortly. 
See, it was his bright idea to show us this waterfall and I'm glad that he did.

Here I am wearing a contraption around my waist and popping pain pills from the last time I fell down a waterfall (SEE CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND WATERFALLS IN OKINAWA).

Crynoutloud, I didn't need to be climbing a waterfall with my camera.

But, this one was a real beauty.  So, I did.

Only this time I was careful not to slip and fall.  Got me some great shots to show you.  Later.

RyukyuRusty and Ryukyu Ryu, those guys went all the way to the top.  Not me baby.

Somebody had to slip and fall on their fanny.  It wasn't gonna be me.

One of them young guys did it this time.

And, I'm glad that he did !

PS:  As an afterthought, we found some noisemakers (gentle fireworks) to pop at our party tonight.

According to the plan, we'll welcome the Chinese Year of the Dragon with a BANG !


YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:  2011 THE YEAR OF THE PARTY RABBITS

VISIT MY WEBSITE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY: BE HAPPY !

Friday Photos: Just a Couple of Nudies But They Are Works of Art

Today's photos come from Kouri Island in Okinawa, Japan.

The picture with the children facing a full moon should be easy to figure out.

It was a mural on the outside wall of a small museum I took shelter at when a storm was heading my way.  

The same photo was in a children's book sold at the museum.

Before taking any photos inside the place, I asked for permission and was given the green light.

That's how I managed to get this photo of a dragon and some sort of goddess.

Then, the rain stopped and I left.

Thinking I could just do an online search and get the history behind these nudie photos was a big mistake.  They had some books at the museum that may have explained the artwork.  There's nothing available online to help me.  So, now I have an excuse to go back to Kouri Island, again.

VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Photo of the Day: The Dragon of Ogimi Okinawa, Japan

Here is one of a few hundred photos taken in the Village of Ogimi over the past 24 hours.  There will be many more colorful pictures to show as quickly as I can get them developed.

There are plenty of stories coming out of this trip and a few mysteries remain unsolved at the festival called Unjami ( Ungami to some) especially concerning women.  Imagine that.

One of the mysteries that popped up today was this girl from Romania.  That's right.  A gal shows up at this remote festival in the middle of nowhere Okinawa, Japan and says she's from Romania.  She's been following this blog for a year and I just found out today.  How's that for a small world ?

Well I got busy shooting dragons, dragonboats, races and women dancing, drinking and beating drums then, jumping in the ocean and cheering on their dragonboat teams.  I was so busy I forgot to ask the girl from Romania if I could print her name on this blog.  So, I won't until she says it's OK.

Right now I'm headed out the door to go recharge my batteries and the camera's batteries, too.

VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Flowers and Birds: 10 Photos From A 20 Hour Day in Okinawa

There are probably not too many 20 hour photography days like this left in my body but, I'll share these 10 photos from last Saturday's trip to the north of Okinawa, Japan and hit the PUBLISH BUTTON so I can get back to work doing what I love to do.  Outdoors Photography; it makes me Happy.

The day started with an early wake-up for me.  I wanted to get up to Ogimi for the Iris Festival and do as much shooting as possible before 9AM.  So, I didn't have my usual Friday night massive quantities of beer, went home, walked the mutts and was snoring by 9:30PM. Saturday I was up at 3:30AM chugging cofffee.

My shooting partner didn't answer the 3:30, 4:30 or 5:30 instant messages I sent him so, I figured he must be doing stuff he thought was more important, like sleeping.

It's hard to find a reliable driver these days so, after downing my morning coffee and walking the dogs I figured I'd just load up a car and drive myself.  I hate driving.

Doc, the driver who didn't wake up early enough, started setting off the vibrator in my pocket (Cell Phone) just about the time I had driven halfway to Ogimi.  That's dangerous, vibrating while driving.  You know ?

I pulled over at a convenience store, got some iced coffee and sent a message back telling him I'd be waiting under the Ogimi Bridge.

The bird, in the photo above, is a Rockthrush.  I was going to shoot flowers but, when a bird comes on the scene nothing else matters to me.  I shot the bird, posing on the bridge, while waiting for Doc to show up.

The plan: Take photos of the purple flowers at the Iris Festival, a big event in Okinawa this time of year. 

It was kind of a bummer, though, because the Iris Fields don't always do things according to my plans.  There should have been thousands of purple flowers throughout the acres and acres of fields.

We wandered around the edges of the green fields and zoomed-in on the few flowers that looked interesting.  Japanese believe an Iris petal looks like a dragon's tongue.  So, when you throw one of your baby boys in the bathtub, you throw some Iris petals in the water with him and it'll make him strong, fearless, fierce and bring him good luck. Doesn't this Iris look like a dragon sticking his tongue out at you?

After about a half an hour of searching for an Iris that looked like a dragon, I had enough of the Iris Fields and told Doc, "Lets get outta here, I'm done."  We could go shoot birds somewhere.

That's when Doc said, "Look, Cosmos".  I had no idea what a Cosmos was and figured he was talking about some new car, Toyota, or somebody invented.  So, I followed him over to the Cosmos.  Turns out, they're just flowers but, I took some photos, anyway.

Here's a scene, for you, that shows the whole area.  There are patches of Cosmos in the foreground, a view of a disappointing (to me) Iris Field in the center and the hills and blue sky in the background.

There was another cameraman like me, only not so hairy, making the best of a bad situation.  He was taking pictures of the Cosmos, and kept showing up in my framed compositions so, I shot him, too. 

The Iris Fields will probably hold off for another week or two before they come into full bloom.

We went around and shot all kinds of photos of different breeds of flowers for about an hour and a half.

Then, spent the rest of the day getting lost in the mountains, taking pictures of other things you'll get to see, at a later date.

The day started with me snagging a photo of a bird and I ended my day shooting a bird.  This is a Grey-faced Buzzard Eagle.  They are migratory and usually only visit Okinawa from November until March. 

By the time the weekend rolls around again, I should have all my photos from the past week developed.  And, if the Iris Fields blossom by then, I'll go back out with the cameras and do another 20 hour day, shooting birds and flowers in Okinawa, Japan.  Cuz, that's what I do !

NOTE: READERS LIVING IN OKINAWA HERE'S A GOOGLE MAP FOR YOU.  THE IRIS FIELDS ARE LOCATED IN THE KIJIOKA DISTRICT OF OGIMI.  PLEASE, DRIVE SAFELY AND ENJOY YOUR VISIT !