Momoto-fumiagari
 | This article may require copy editing for tense. (April 2025) |
| Momoto-fumiagari 百度踏揚 | |
|---|---|
 Tomb of Mitsubatabuki and Momoto-fumiagari | |
| Princess of Ryūkyū | |
| Born | ? |
| Died | ? Nakaema |
| Burial | Tomb of Mitsubatabuki and Momoto-fumiagari (Nanjō, Okinawa |
| Spouses | Amawari (Katsuren Aji) Uni-ufugushiku (Goeku Aji) |
| Issue | Ka Shōki ♂ ? |
| Warabinā | ? |
| Divine name | Momoto-fumiagari |
| Title | Fumiagari Aji |
| House | Shō |
| Dynasty | First Shō dynasty |
| Father | Shō Taikyū (King of Ryūkyū) |
| Mother | Daughter of Gosamaru (Queen of Ryūkyū) |
Momoto-fumiagari (百度踏揚 or 百十踏揚) (dates of birth and death unknown, 15th century) is a princess of the first Shō dynasty of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.[1]: 677 [2]: 35
Name
[edit]"Momoto-fumiagari" is not her personal name, which is unknown, but her divine name as a high-ranking priestess.[3]: 51 It means "high spirit for all eternity".[4]: 39 The divine name of "Momoto-fumiagari" has not been used by any priestess since the death of Shō Taikyū's daughter.[3]: 51
The historical sources (all compiled several centuries after her death) call her Momoto-fumi-akari (もゝと・ふみ・あかり)[5] or Royal Princess Fumiagari Aji (蹈揚按司乃王女 or 王女踏揚按司).[6][7]
Family relations
[edit]Momoto-fumiagari is the eldest daughter of the sixth king of the first Shō dynasty, Shō Taikyū and of his queen, the daughter of Gosamaru (Aji of Yuntanza and then Nakagusuku). She also descends from the kings of Hokuzan[8] through her mother and paternal grandmother.
As the eldest daughter of the king, she took part in the religious ceremonies that protected the royal family and the kingdom. The sources mentioning her emphasize that she danced and sang religious songs.[5][7]
- father: Shō Taikyū (尚 泰久)
- mother: Daughter of Gosamaru (護佐丸女)
- older brother : Ashitomi-kanahashi or Ashitū-kanahashi (安次富金橋 or 安次富加那巴志) (ancestor of the Ashitomi household)
- younger brother: Mitsubatabuki (三津葉多武喜) (ancestor of the Nakaema household)
- youngest brother: Hachiman-ganashi (八幡加那志) (ancestor of the Shū clan)
- first spouse : Amawari (阿麻和利) (Katsuren Aji)
- second spouse : Uni-ufugushiku (鬼大城) (Goeku Aji)
- son (with Uni-ufugushiku) : Ka Shōki (夏 承基)
Omoro
[edit]Nine poems of the Omorosaushi mention Momoto-fumiagari (volume 6, poems 335 to 343), but it is not possible to determine if they concern Shō Taikyū's daughter or some older priestesses of the same name. Momoto-fumiagari's prayers and dances are presented as the cause of the royal power.[5]
Biography
[edit]
Momoto-fumiagari first marries Katsuren Aji, Amawari. He is a young man of peasant descent who rose to the rank of aji and is controlling the gusuku of Katsuren. His power is such that the king marries him to his daughter, likely in an attempt to control the increasingly powerful aji.[3]: 50–51 [4]: 39
During the troubles between Amawari and Gosamaru in 1458, after Gosamaru's death, Momoto-fumiagari discovers Awamari's intention to march upon Shuri to overthrow Shō Taikyū. She runs from Katsuren Gusuku with Uni-ufugushiku, one of the king's loyal vassals, who carries her on his back to Shuri for her to warn her father of the danger that her husband represents.[6][7]
According to tradition, upon arriving at Waniyama (和仁屋間) Beach (Nakagusuku, Okinawa), they spot a large number of torches coming their way from Katsuren, showing that Amawari has sent an army to prevent Momoto-fumiagari from warning her father. Momoto-fumiagari starts a sacred song and a strong rain puts the torches out, causing confusion among the pursuers.[7][9]: 60–61
The genealogical records of the Ka Clan mention poem 342 of the Omorosaushi, in which Momoto-fumiagari provokes a storm, as referring to this story.[10]
When they finally arrive at Shuri, the king, scandalised that his daughter was wandering at night with a man who is not her husband, first refuses to let her in. He only has the doors opened when she threatens to hang herself at one of the trees of the Akatauchiyau-nu-utaki sacred site. After telling the king about her husband's intentions, Momoto-fumiagari then began singing several sacred songs, in order to protect the kingdom.[7] The genealogical records of the Ka Clan mention poem 343 of the Omorosaushi, as referring to this story, as it describes the king as very proud of his daughter.[10]
Shō Taikyū gives the command of Shuri's armies to Uni-ufugushiku, who defeats Amawari.
After the battle, Momoto-fumiagari married Uni-ufugushiku, to whom the king gives the magiri of Goeku.[6][7][11]: 28–33 [3]: 50–51 [4]: 40
In 1469, after Shō En's coup d'état, that overthrows the first Shō dynasty and starts the second one, Momoto-fumiagari's husband, loyal to the former king Shō Toku, falls into disgrace and is assassinated after having retreated into a cave on the slopes of Chibana Castle.[4]: 41
Most of Momoto-fumiagari's brothers had left Shuri, probably in 1461 when Shō Toku had been crowned, or before, in relation with the conflict involving Gosamaru. They had been ousted from the throne probably because they were the children of Gosamaru's daughter. They had control over lands in the southern part of Okinawa Island.[12]: 102–104
Momoto-fumiagari takes refuge with her younger brother Mitsubatabuki in Ōkawa Castle (Tamagusuku, Nanjō) and is said to have dedicated the rest of her life to religious activities, living in a residence at the location of the current Nakaema Residence in Nakaema (Nanjō).[3]: 50–51 [4]: 41
Although official sources do not mention it, local traditions say that the resistance to Shō En's coup d'état and to the creation of the second Shō dynasty organised around Nakaema Castle, then held by the fourth son of Shō Taikyū and Gosamaru's daughter, Hachiman-ganashi.[9]: 64–65 The castle's destruction would have occurred under the reign of Shō Shin, third king of the second Shō dynasty, implying that conflicts persisted for some time and that the end of Momoto-fumiagari's life was probably marked by numerous battles as well.[13]
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Momoto-fumiagari's tomb was originally located in a limestone cliff in the Irihichimui (西ヒチ森) sacred forest (Fusato, Tamagusuku), but it was destroyed in 1962 during the construction of Tamagusuku Middle School. On this occasion, the tomb was moved to the cliff east of the school's sports ground, next to the collective tomb for Mitsubatabuki's descendants.[14]
A golden hairpin and a bronze mirror said to have belonged to Momoto-fumiagari's are kept by the clan of Mitsubatabuki's descendants.[4]: 41
Although the official sources do not mention any offspring, the Ka (夏) Clan claims Uni-ufugushiku as their ancestor and their genealogical records mention Momoto-fumiagari. Only the eldest son of Uni-ufugushiku, Ka Shōki (夏 承基).,[4]: 41 [10] is mentioned.
In popular culture
[edit]- Momoto-fumiagari is one of the main characters in the modern kumiodori play the brave Amawari (肝高の阿麻和利, Chimudaka no Amawari).[15]
- Momoto-fumiagari was played by Rino Higa in the television series Amawari the last hero broadcast by the channel RBC in 2024.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ Great Encyclopedic Dictionary of Okinawa Publishing Office [沖縄大百科事典刊行事務局] (1983). Great Encyclopedic Dictionary of Okinawa Vol. 3 Na-N [沖縄大百科事典 下 ナ〜ン] [Okinawa dai hyakka jiten ka na kara n]. Okinawa Times.
- ^ Ōshiro T. [大城立裕] (1980). Historical strolling in Okinawa, another Japanese History in the Southern Seas [沖縄歴史散歩 南海を生きたもう一つの日本史] [Okinawa rekishi sanpo, nankai wo ikitai mō hitotsu no nihonshi]. Sogensha.
- ^ a b c d e Arashiro T. [新城俊昭] (2008). History of Ryūkyū and Okinawa: History Manual in order to Understand Okinawa [琉球・沖縄史 沖縄をよく知るための歴史教科書] [Ryūkyū・okinawashi: okinawa wo yoku shiru tame no rekishi kyōkasho]. Kōbō Editions Tōyō Plan. ISBN 978-4-938984-56-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g JCC Edition Team [JCC出版部] , ed. (2011). The Ryūkyū Kingdom explained with illustrations: History and Historical Characters [絵で解る琉球王国 歴史と人物] [E de wakaru ryūkyū ōkoku: rekishi to jinbutsu]. JCC Editions.
- ^ a b c Hokama, S. [外間守善], ed. (2015). Omorosaushi 1 [おもろさうし 上] [Omorosaushi jō]. Iwanami Large Characters Books [ワイド版岩波文庫] [Waidohan iwanami bunko]. Iwanami.
- ^ a b c Sai Taku [蔡鐸], Sai On [蔡溫], eds. (1701). Chūzan Seifu volume 5 [中山世譜].
- ^ a b c d e f Tei Heitetsu [鄭秉哲], ed. (1745). Kyūyō volume 2 [球陽].
- ^ Editorial Committee of the Great Dictionary of the Genealogies of the Clans of Okinawa Prefecture [沖縄県姓氏家系大辞典編纂委員会], ed. (1992). Great Dictionary of the Genealogies of the Clans of Okinawa Prefecture [沖縄県姓氏家系大辞典] [Okinawa ken seishi kakei daijiten]. Kadokawa's Great Dictionary of Japanese Names and Historical Figures [角川日本姓氏歴史人物大辞典] [Kadokawa nihon seishi rekishi jinbutsu daijiten]. Kadokawa.
- ^ a b Shin'yashiki K. [新屋敷幸繁] (1976). Stories of Ryūkyū History [琉球歴史物語] [Ryūkyū rekishi monogatari]. Gekkan Okinawa.
- ^ a b c "Genealogy of the Uchimine House of the Ka Clan [夏姓家譜(内嶺家)]". www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ Shimaoka S. [嶋岡晨] (1992). The Ryūkyū royalty, questioning stories and historical remains [琉球王朝 物語と史蹟をたずねて] [Ryūkyū ōchō, monogatari to shiseki wo tazunete]. Seibido Editions.
- ^ Nanjō City [南城市] , ed. (2011). "Report on the Masterplan and Conservation and Utilisation Plan for History and Culture [歴史文化基本構想・保存活用計画 報告書] [Rekishi bunka kihon kōsō・hozon katsuyō keikaku hōkokusho]". Chapter 5 Guidelines for the development of the historical and cultural preservation and utilisation areas. [第５章 歴史文化保存活用区域の方向性] [Dai go shō rekishi bunka hozon katsuyō kuiki no hōkōsei] (PDF). Nanjō City. p. 187.
- ^ Nakayama T. [中山俊彦] (1992). History of Fusato in Tamagusuku Village [玉城村 富里誌] [Tamagusuku-son fusato shi]. Tamagusuku Village.
- ^ "The Tomb of Momoto-fumiagari [百十踏揚の墓(ももとふみあがりのはか)] |Nanjō City Hall [南城市役所]". Nanjō City Hall [南城市役所] (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ "Concerning Chimudaka no Amawari [肝高の阿麻和利とは]". Modern Kumiodori Chimudaka no Amawari Official Site [現代版組踊 肝高の阿麻和利 公式サイト] (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ "Ryukyu History Drama "Amawari the last hero" [琉球歴史ドラマ「阿麻和利 THE LAST HERO」]｜RBC Ryukyu Channel [RBC 琉球放送]". RBC Ryukyu Channel [RBC 琉球放送] (in Japanese). 2024-10-29. Retrieved 2025-03-28.