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    Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess
    Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess
    Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess
    Ebook128 pages59 minutes

    Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess

    By kosaku matsukubo

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    About this ebook

    Once upon a time,there was a fisherman named Urashima Taro, who rescued a turtle from children who were torturing it on the beach. Taro was rewarded by a visit to the Palace of the Sea Goddess, known as Ryugu Jo (Ryugu Palace), down at the bottom of the sea, because the turtle that he rescued was actually a young princess living there.
    Although this story about Ryugu Jo is an ancient Japanese legend,
    Even though the sun had sunk below the horizon, it was still indirectly illuminating the sky, so it was still light at the “21st Century Beach” in Nago City in Okinawa, (the modern name for the Ryukyus)
    I was walking along with my second daughter, who was five years old at the time. The waves were gentle, so in the shallow part we could see to the bottom. We came upon an Akaeso (Red Lizard Fish, Synodus ulae) with a juvenile Gingameaji (Big Eye Trevally, Caranx sexfasciatus) in its mouth. Just as I was thinking I should have brought my camera, my daughter started walking toward the fish, splashing through the water and shouting, “Hey, stop that!” The Lizard Fish was so surprised that it released its prey and swam away as fast as an arrow.
    Holding the still-alive Gingameaji on the palm of her hand, she told it, “Don’t get caught again.”
    Once released back into the sea, I thought the lucky fish would quickly swim away, but instead, for a while it swam unsteadily round and round her as she stood by in the shallow water. I supposed it couldn’t swim straight due to the injury suffered from being bitten by the Akaeso, but my daughter interpreted its behavior differently.
    “The Gingameaji is thanking me!”
    Now I am really sure the origin of “Ryugu” is the Ryukyus!
    44 small and heartful stories that a sea life and people of Okinawa weave,like this.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisherkosaku matsukubo
    Release dateMay 31, 2012
    ISBN9781476352589
    Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess
    Author

    kosaku matsukubo

    Japanese. Nature photographer and Writer. The proud field is a sea life and reptiles and amphibians.

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      Book preview

      Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess - kosaku matsukubo

      Glimpses of the Palace of the Sea Goddess

      By Kosaku Matsukubo

      Translated and Edited by Katherine Muzik and Ayako Fujita

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      The small stories that sea lives and people of Okinawa weave.

      Copyright 2012 Kosaku Matsukubo, Katherine Muzik, Ayako Fujita

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this eBook. We hope you love it.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoiment only.This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people.If you like to share this book with another person,then please purchase an additional copy for this purpose.If you're reading this book and did not purchased it,or it was not purchased for use only,then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authos.

      Table of Contents

      Once Upon a Time…

      Chapter 1 Travel to Ryugu Jo

      Chapter 2 A Fish Still Etched in My Memory

      Chapter 3 Protest Songs

      Chapter 4 Bivouac

      Chapter 5 Revenge

      Chapter 6 Fast as a Bullet

      Chapter 7 Tourist Attractions

      Chapter 8 A Strange Description

      Chapter 9 Ryugu in Daily Life

      Chapter 10 Being a Kid Again

      Chapter 11 A World without Borders

      Chapter 12 Regulars

      Chapter 13 Another Point of View

      Chapter 14 Things I’ve Lost in the Sea

      Chapter 15 A Perfect Souvenir

      Chapter 16 Settling Down

      Chapter 17 Tourist Ambassador

      Chapter 18 Unconscious of Forward and Backward

      Chapter 19 Lazy Animals at Work

      Chapter 20 Chain of Life

      Chapter 21 Pain into Pleasure

      Chapter 22 Break Time

      Chapter 23 Jewel-like Water

      Chapter 24 Breathing Capacity

      Chapter 25 Hiroshima Style

      Chapter 26 Labor Relations

      Chapter 27 Tom Thumb

      Chapter 28 Loss of a Guardian Angel

      Chapter 29 Midnight Date

      Chapter 30 Spanish Dancer

      Chapter 31 Speedsters

      Chapter 32 Feeding styles

      Chapter 33 Therapist

      Chapter 34 Reminder

      Chapter 35 Compassion

      Chapter 36 Embraced by the Universe

      Chapter 37 A Sign of Courage

      Chapter 38 Backfired Message

      Chapter 39 A Footpath to Ryugu

      Chapter 40 A Dive Buddy

      Chapter 41 Another Glimpse of Ryugu

      Chapter 42 Concealed Weapon

      Chapter 43 Sanshin Player

      Chapter 44 Sublime Connection

      Once Upon a Time…

      …there was a fisherman named Urashima Taro, who rescued a turtle from children who were torturing it on the beach. Taro was rewarded by a visit to the Palace of the Sea Goddess, known as Ryugu Jo (Ryugu Palace), down at the bottom of the sea, because the turtle that he rescued was actually a young princess living there.

      Although this story about Ryugu Jo is an ancient Japanese legend, it is easy to imagine that just as in the legend, the Ryukyu Kingdom might also have been regarded as a kind of Utopia by people living in the more northern areas of Japan. Here in Okinawa, (the modern name for the Ryukyus) there is a dazzling and lively marine world, well-worth bearing the name Ryugu’s Palace. Since long ago, the seas not only nurtured splendid marine life, but also comforted the people on land and enabled them to live there peacefully.

      I live in Nago, a busy modern city located on Okinawa’s main island. Yet, hidden here beneath all of its noisy city bustle, ancient and quiet middens (shell mounds, known in Japanese as Kaidamari), have recently been excavated.

      These kaidamari have been found in strata dating from about 2300 to 1300 years ago (including the Japanese Yayoi Period, 300 BC to 300 AD and Kofun Period, 300 to 700 AD). They include attractive seashells such as Gohoura (Strombus spp., Pacific Conchs) and numerous kinds of Imogai (Conus spp., or cone shells). Ornaments made long ago from these same kinds of southern seashells have been found way up north, in the ruins of ancient Japan, especially its western part. These separate findings indicate quite certainly that people in Okinawa and those in ancient Japan were actively carrying on trading activities with each other!

      The ways that marine organisms live are enormously different from one another. Each creature has its own unique story to tell. By spending time by the sea, and personally meeting up with fascinating marine life, we can find terrific experiences to share.

      This book was written to give a voice to their fascinating and unique stories, each still being told in the seas of Okinawa. (The spectacularly large and wonderful animals, such as the Whale Shark and Manta Ray which inhabit waters just off shore, in fact do not appear here in these stories.) But, instead, this book features the curious and canny organisms that can be found in the tidelands and mud flats, where you yourself can walk at low tide and come upon them, and in addition, it features those inhabitants you can meet rather easily while swimming in the shallow sea wearing just a simple mask and snorkel. Even though each individual story may seem small, in fact, each one plays a crucial role in maintaining our marvelous watery kingdom, Ryugu Jo.

      A juvenile Gingameaji (Caranx sexfasciatus, Big Eye Trevally) with juvenile Matsukubos (Homo sapiens, Human beings).

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