Oni Ogusuku
- Other Names: 大城賢雄 (Ôgusuku or Ufugusuku Ken'yuu)
- Japanese/Okinawan: 鬼大城 (Oni Oogusuku / Uni Ufugushiku)
Ôgusuku Ken'yû, also known as Oni Ôgusuku ("Demon" Ôgusuku)[1] was a local warlord on Okinawa Island, the successor to Shô Taikyû (who went on to become king at Shuri) as lord of Goeku gusuku and the surrounding magiri; he is also known as a master fencer, general in King Shô Taikyû's armies, and/or attendant to royal princess Momoto Fumiagari, who he later married.
Momoto Fumiagari was a daughter of King Shô Taikyû, and wife of Amawari, lord of Katsuren gusuku. Ôgusuku served as a general in the royal army or as one of the princess' attendants at Katsuren; when, in 1458, the two discovered that Amawari was plotting against the throne, they escaped and revealed his schemes to the Court. The affair ended later that same year in the fall of Katsuren, and Amawari's capture and execution, after which Ôgusuku married the newly widowed princess.
A new dynasty took the throne in 1469, however, and sometime shortly afterwards, as part of efforts to eliminate opposition from retainers potentially still loyal to the previous dynasty, Oni was killed.
References
- "Momoto Fumiagari." Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia 沖縄コンパクト事典. Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.
- "Momoto Fumiagari." Suitenrô. JCC Co., Ltd., 2013.
- Gallery labels, Yonashiro Museum of History, November 2016.
- Gregory Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, University of Hawaii Press (2019), 116.
- ↑ Though the Japanese term "oni" is typically translated as "demon," in Okinawa it was often granted to figures of great power without any suggestion of wickedness or otherwise negative implications.
