On the Palace of the Sea-God

Abstract

Niruya or Niraikanai, a paradise on the sea important in the beliefs of the Okinawans as well as for the islanders south to the Takara strait, has detailed resemblanses to the Japanese tradition of Ryugu (Dragon Palace), called in old days Tokoyo no Kuni or Watatsumi no Kami no Miya (Palace of the Sea-god). The first syllable ni of Niruya means "a root", such as we find in Okinawan words as nidukuru which means the stock family of a village. The Ne no Kuni (Country of the Root) must have been the Japanese name for Niruya, but it has no more the meaning of a sea paradise. According to Ryukyuan traditions, there is an eternal fire beyond the eastern horizon on the sea where the sun is born, and fire, rice-seeds and rats were brought from Niruya. Life itself seems to have been believed to be a gift therefrom. The author is inclined to see in these folk beliefs of such "sea-peoples", a tendendy for the the Ryukyuans and the ancient Japanese to put their paradise not in the west, but in the east and beyond the sea. The author describes such Ryukyuan folk-tales as "Monkey's Liver", "Visit to the Palace of the Sea", "A Flower-vender and the Dragon-god", "God of the Drift-wood", and the August Dance on Okinawa and Amami-Oshima. All of these have some connection with Niruya, comparing them with Japanese data, the author refers to the possibility of solving certain problems of the origin and ancient relatives of the Japanese. He urges upon ethnologists the necessity to continue comparative studies along this line, in order to acquire new materials concerning the migrations of our ancestors.