Posted on 01/16/2021 11:25:16 PM PST by nickcarraway
A bronze statue of a Mexican queen has been erected on an island in southwestern Japan, and the volunteers who donated the statue hope that it will become a new landmark and help revitalize the island.
The approximately 3.5-meter-tall statue set up near the island's high-speed boat depot comes from a legend that has been passed down for generations on Shimanoura Island, a remote island in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture.
According to the culture division of the city's education board, in a document related to the Nobeoka clan in the late Edo period, there is a description of a crew on a bonito fishing boat pulling out of the water a roughly 2-meter-long wooden box found drifting off the coast of Shimanoura Island on July 24, 1846. Inside the box were a human skull with long hair in braids, shoes, a piece of blue cloth, and buttons. It is said that the contents of the box were subsequently buried on a small island nearby.
Residents say that a researcher who surveyed the island about 100 years ago said that the box might be the coffin of the queen of Mexico, which was in the midst of a civil war at the time, and the legend spread from there.
To take advantage of this legend in livening up the area, a group of citizens, including Koji Tanihira, 74, head of the Nobeoka Tourist Association, who was born in Shimauramachi, made a plan to donate a statue of the queen of Mexico to the island. Ultimately it was made by Nobeoka-based metal parts processing company Showa, and was provided by Takao Kurogi, 87, chairman of the company.
At the unveiling ceremony held on Jan. 8, Tanihira said, "I hope that the statue of the queen will become a symbol of and revitalize the community."
Isamu Iwatani, 72, the ward mayor of Shimauramachi, said, "We are grateful. I would like to link this statue to the promotion of the island."
Mexico had a couple of empresses, but did it ever have a queen?
All in an effort to attract tourists.....
The dates suggest it might be a daughter of General (”Emperor”) Augustin Iturbide, who had himself declared emperor in 1822. Can’t be his wife, the “Empress” Ana Maria, because she lived until 1861.
There’s some place in Japan that claims to be the burial site of Jesus, so this is small potatoes (or rice balls if you will).
If they expect Mexican immigrants to come there, it might take a while.
Revitalization plan might have been thought through a little longer, and with considered specificity.
They should build a wall.
My friend lives out in Miyazaki. Great surfing. Used to be the vacation hotspot in the 80s until Japanese started going to Hawaii. There’s a dozen dead hotels sitting on prime real estate by the ocean.
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