A Founder’s Quest: Kanashumei Julia’s Mission to Revive Okinawa’s Royal Legacy

My name is Julia, and I was born in the United States but grew up in Okinawa, a place that is a blend of cultures, histories, and traditions. My heritage is a tapestry of American and Okinawan threads, with my mother’s lineage tracing back to the kings of the Ryukyu. Despite such a royal lineage, our connection to the past was diluted over time, especially since the tradition of passing down the legacy through male heirs faced a discontinuation in my great grandmother’s era. The royalty in the Ryukyu Kingdom had distinct roles, with men leading politics, traditional arts including music and dance, and women preserving spiritual rituals and spiritual dances. Unfortunately, with few written records on how the women conducted the rituals and dances, much of this knowledge is nearly lost to history. The dance I have been mastering was for men, not for women. <a href="https://medium.com/@tidana555/a-founders-quest-kanashumei-julia-s-mission-to-revive-okinawa-s-royal-legacy-3d15df18dda9">Click Here</a>