Us Official Photographs

Boating Race Off Okinawa

OKINAWA, RYUKYU RETTO BOATING RACE--AN ANNUAL EVENT - The costumed boatmen seen in the water have just completed a racing contest in the China Sea off Okinawa, and are being greeted by native children who someday will take their places at the oars. They compete annually on June 10 on the anniversary of a stirring event in Okinawa's history. As the story goes, a king several centuries ago had three daughters whom he asked a simple question: "Which is the most treasured." The eldest daughter said, "You, our King, are the most treasured." The second daughter put the finger on her own husband while the youngest, and by far the wisest, said "the soil is the most treasured." This angered the old man on the throne, so he banished the third daughter to a lonely island in the Ryukyus. A drought occurred, and the King began to wonder if what his youngest daughter had told him wasn't true after all. He sent a boat, similar to the ones used in the anniversary event, to fetch the daughter home but a storm broke and the wise girl was lost at sea. This happened, according to legend, about 300 years ago and the Okinawans have been paddling out into the blue China Sea each anniversary since then.