The Ancient Ryukyus / Establishment of a Unified Royal Court 6/12

The Legend of Hagoromo or Celestial Robe

After King Eiso came King Satto and the following is legend told about him.
There was once a poor farmer who lived in Urasoe named Okuma Ufuya. At the Mori-no Kawa spring he chanced to see a beautiful celestial maiden who came to the spring to bathe. Okuma Ufuya hid her cloak so she could not return to heaven and then offered her refuge in his house. As time passed they became husband and wife and she bore a son and daughter. The son he named Janamoi. Finally one day the celestial maiden chanced to find the cloak again and returned to heaven.
The son, renowned for his virtue, grew up and eventually married the daughter of the Katsuren area Aji. One day he came upon a nugget of gold which he sold to buy iron farming tools for the village and divided among the village farmers. The village became prosperous and he was renowned throughout the country. Gaining the trust of the people, he became King Satto.
In a way similar to Shunten and Eiso, Satto's emergence into the noble lineage is brought about by an extraordinary fate, which he uses to innovate the age into which he was born. The history of the early kings is tinged with these kind of extraordinary occurrences.


Mori-no-Kawa Spring


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