Momoto-fumiagari
| Momoto-fumiagari 百度踏揚 | |
|---|---|
Tomb of Mitsubatabuki and Momoto-fumiagari | |
| Princess of Ryūkyū | |
| Born | Unknown |
| Died | Unknown 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) was a princess of the first Shō dynasty of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.[1]: 677 [2]: 35
Name and tradition
"Momoto-fumiagari" was 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 her death.[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]
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]
Early life and family relations
Momoto-fumiagari was the eldest daughter of Shō Taikyū, who was the sixth king of the first Shō dynasty, and of his queen, the daughter of Gosamaru (Aji of Yuntanza and then Nakagusuku). She also descended 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)
Biography
Momoto-fumiagari first married Katsuren Aji, Amawari. He was a young man of peasant descent who rose to the rank of aji and controlled the gusuku of Katsuren. His power was such that the king married 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 discovered Awamari's intention to march upon Shuri to overthrow Shō Taikyū. She ran from Katsuren Gusuku with Uni-ufugushiku, one of the king's loyal vassals, who carried her on his back to Shuri so she could warn her father of the danger that her husband represented.[6][7]
According to tradition, upon arriving at Waniyama (和仁屋間) Beach (Nakagusuku, Okinawa), they spotted a large number of torches coming their way from Katsuren, showing that Amawari had already sent an army to prevent Momoto-fumiagari from warning her father. Momoto-fumiagari sang a sacred song, and a strong rain put the torches out, causing confusion among the pursuers.[7][9]: 60–61 [a]
When they finally arrived at Shuri, the king, scandalised that his daughter was wandering at night with a man who is not her husband, first refused to let her in. He only had the doors opened when she threatened to hang herself on one of the trees of the Akatauchiyau-nu-utaki sacred site. After telling the king about her husband's intentions, Momoto-fumiagari began singing several sacred songs in order to protect the kingdom.[7][b]
Shō Taikyū then gave the command of Shuri's armies to Uni-ufugushiku, who defeated Amawari.
After the battle, Momoto-fumiagari married Uni-ufugushiku, to whom the king gave 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, fell into disgrace and was assassinated after retreating into a cave on the slopes of Chibana Castle.[4]: 41
Most of Momoto-fumiagari's brothers 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 took 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 was 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]
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. Afterwards, 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 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 Momoto-fumiagari's second spouse 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
- 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]
Notes
- ^ 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]
- ^ 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]
References
- ^ Okinawa dai hyakka jiten ka na kara n 沖縄大百科事典 下 ナ〜ン [Great Encyclopedic Dictionary of Okinawa]. Vol. 3 Na-N. Okinawa Times. 1983.
- ^ Ōshiro T. [大城立裕] (1980). Okinawa rekishi sanpo, nankai wo ikitai mō hitotsu no nihonshi 沖縄歴史散歩 南海を生きたもう一つの日本史 [Historical strolling in Okinawa, another Japanese History in the Southern Seas]. Sogensha.
- ^ a b c d e Arashiro T. [新城俊昭] (2008). Ryūkyū・okinawashi: okinawa wo yoku shiru tame no rekishi kyōkasho 琉球・沖縄史 沖縄をよく知るための歴史教科書 [History of Ryūkyū and Okinawa: History Manual in order to Understand Okinawa]. Kōbō Editions Tōyō Plan. ISBN 978-4-938984-56-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g E de wakaru ryūkyū ōkoku: rekishi to jinbutsu 絵で解る琉球王国 歴史と人物 [The Ryūkyū Kingdom explained with illustrations: History and Historical Characters]. JCC Editions. 2011.
- ^ a b c Hokama, S. [外間守善], ed. (2015). Omorosaushi jō おもろさうし 上 [Omorosaushi 1]. 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). 中山世譜 [Chūzan Seifu]. Vol. 5.
- ^ a b c d e f Tei Heitetsu [鄭秉哲], ed. (1745). Kyūyō 球陽. Vol. 2.
- ^ Okinawa ken seishi kakei daijiten 沖縄県姓氏家系大辞典 [Great Dictionary of the Genealogies of the Clans of Okinawa Prefecture]. 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. 1992.
- ^ a b Shin'yashiki K. [新屋敷幸繁] (1976). Ryūkyū rekishi monogatari 琉球歴史物語 [Stories of Ryūkyū History]. Gekkan Okinawa.
- ^ a b c 夏姓家譜(内嶺家) [Genealogy of the Uchimine House of the Ka Clan]. tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ Shimaoka S. [嶋岡晨] (1992). Ryūkyū ōchō, monogatari to shiseki wo tazunete 琉球王朝 物語と史蹟をたずねて [The Ryūkyū royalty, questioning stories and historical remains]. Seibido Editions.
- ^ Nanjō City [南城市], ed. (2011). "Dai go shō rekishi bunka hozon katsuyō kuiki no hōkōsei" 第５章 歴史文化保存活用区域の方向性 [Chapter 5 Guidelines for the development of the historical and cultural preservation and utilisation areas]. Rekishi bunka kihon kōsō・hozon katsuyō keikaku hōkokusho 歴史文化基本構想・保存活用計画 報告書 [Report on the Masterplan and Conservation and Utilisation Plan for History and Culture] (PDF). Nanjō City. p. 187.
- ^ Nakayama T. [中山俊彦] (1992). Tamagusuku-son fusato shi 玉城村 富里誌 [History of Fusato in Tamagusuku Village]. Tamagusuku Village.
- ^ 百十踏揚の墓(ももとふみあがりのはか) [The Tomb of Momoto-fumiagari]. Nanjō City Hall 南城市役所 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ 肝高の阿麻和利とは [Concerning Chimudaka no Amawari]. 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.
- ^ 琉球歴史ドラマ「阿麻和利 THE LAST HERO」 [Ryukyu History Drama "Amawari the last hero"]. RBC Ryukyu Channel RBC 琉球放送 (in Japanese). 2024-10-29. Retrieved 2025-03-28.