When a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at Shuri Castle, he brought a gift for the king, a necklace decorated with a figurine of a shisa-dog. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. At the Naha Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a sea dragon who ate the villagers and destroyed their property.
One day, the king was visiting the village, and one of these attacks happened; all the people ran and hid. The local noro
had been told in a dream to instruct the king when he visited to stand
on the beach and lift up his figurine towards the dragon; she sent the
boy, Chiga, to tell him the message.
He faced the monster with the figurine held high, and immediately a
giant roar sounded all through the village, a roar so deep and powerful
that it even shook the dragon. A massive boulder then fell from heaven
and crushed the dragon's tail. He couldn't move, and eventually died.
This boulder and the dragon's body became covered with plants and
surrounded by trees, and can still be seen today. It is the "Gana-mui
Woods" near Naha Ohashi bridge. The townspeople built a large stone shisa to protect it from the dragon's spirit and other threats.[6]
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