Residents wish for safe navigation and a good season’s fishing at Sanguwacha in Uruma

Residents wish for safe navigation and a good season’s fishing at Sanguwacha in Uruma

Lifting a hand-made portable shrine loaded with fish, participants wished for the prosperity of the Island in Henza, Uruma on April 10.


April 11, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

For three days from April 9, which is March 3 on the Chinese calendar, Sanguwacha was held on Henza Island in Uruma City. Residents prayed for safe navigation and a good season’s fishing. On April 10, Todaiyu and Nanzamooi were held to kick off the season with a prayer for ocean safety, a good season’s fishing, and the good health of the islanders.

At a sacred square called Chonohama, kaminchu (sacred women) sang a song to devote Lethrinus nebulosus to noro or female oracles. Women stuffed the fish with grains and then held them to the sky. When the women started to dance, residents and spectators rushed to release the shutter to them.

The Nanzamooi event was led by the standard-bearer, who stated, “For the celebration of a good catch”.

Junior high school students carried a hand-made portable shrine with loaded with the fishes. They paraded for about 700 meters along the coastline to the rock Island of Nanza. Tomio Matsuda, the head of the residents’ association, came ashore to pray for a great catch of fish, facing the direction of Nirai Kanai, a mythical place in the Ryukyu culture.

(English translation by T&CT)

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