Case file · Folklore / legend
Tametomo's escape to the islands
Legend says the exiled archer Minamoto no Tametomo, said to have died around 1170, escaped to Hachijō-kojima and on to Ryukyu, where he fathered the first king, Shunten.
1170 CE · 33.13, 139.69 · status: legend
The account
Tametomo is honoured as guardian of the Hachijō islands. The Ryukyu royal history Chūzan Seikan (1650) adopted the Shunten story, tying the Ryukyu dynasty to Japan.
The sceptical view
Historians see the Ryukyu link as a later political legend; Tametomo most likely died in exile on Izu Ōshima.