Hidari Gomon is a common symbol of Okinawa and it was once the Royal crest of Ryukyu Kingdom in Okinawa. In Japanese it is called the Hidari mitsudomoe and is a common design element in Japanese family emblems and corporate logos. The Hidari Gonon is the primary traditional symbol of Okinawa. It is unclear who used the symbol first but it has special significance to the Okinawan people especially those practicing the ancient art of Okinawan Karate.
The Koyasan Shingon sect of Buddhism which came from China to Japan uses the Hidari Gomon as a visual representation of the cycle of life. Others believe that the symbol is Shinto related because in Shinto mythology the symbol is often used to signify the structure taking place between three worlds. Such worlds include heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.
One explanation is that the Okinawan folktale where they interpret the "Hidari Gomon" as representing loyalty, heroism, and altruism to a proud island people and their descendants. They believe it to be expressed through a past full of struggle and hardship, but also a willingness to face the difficulties the ahead no matter what the cost.
According to the story the origin of the Hidari-Gomon takes place in feudal Japan, when the feudal lords and their private armies of samurai fought fiercely for land ownership. It was during a time of constant war in Japan. During these wars, Okinawa was defeated and dominated by the lord of Kagoshima, who imposed conditions on the Ryukyuan people. He proclaimed without exception that the people should go unarmed and that those who were found carrying weapons should be executed. Also, as a tribute of war, he proclaimed that Ryukyuans should submit an annual tax of rice to Kagoshima.
For many years the Ryukyu people religiously fulfilled the terms of the lords agreement. At the time rice was plentiful and no one went armed because a way of fighting had been developed in Okinawa which did not require the use of weapons. We now know this as Karate. Karate was developed because the Ryukyuan King did not want his people to be defenseless and he began secretly sending members of his guard to China, where he knew various forms of bare-hand fighting were being taught. Gradually, karate was being formed, the weapon was the body of the fighter, and it did not conflict in any way the terms imposed by the lord of Kagoshima.
Everything was fine until a great drought occurred in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which caused a shortage of rice throughout the islands. This cause extensive poverty and hunger among the Ryukyu people and prevented the kingdom from being able to make the payment of rice to Kagoshima. Seeing the suffering of his people the Ryukyu King decided to send a delegation to Kagoshima with a message reporting the sad situation of his people and asking at the same time to forego the rice tax that year. This in the Kings mind was surely a reasonable request as there wasn’t even rice for those farmers who planted it.
The King’s envoy left the kingdom escorted by three unarmed samurai guards and was received by the lord of Kagoshima, who was outraged by the audacity of the Ryukyuans. Not only did they not bring the rice, but they had the guts to still come and ask him to excuse their debt. The Lord of Kagoshima then ordered his Samurai to kill the messenger. One of the lord’s samurai came towards the envoy with his spear but the three unarmed Ryukyuan guards were able to easily defend against the attack. This surprised the Kagoshima Lord who considered his samurai to be invincible warriors. As other samurai came to assist in the capture of the Ryukyuan guards, the envoy tried to reason with the lord by explaining further that the people in the Ryukyu Islands were starving, trying to make him understand the pain and suffering of the Ryukyuan people.
The lord ordered the immediate execution of the three guards by having them thrown into a huge caldron of boiling water used for extracting oils for fuel. They struggled in front of him and the envoy where they screamed out, pleading not for their own lives but for the lives of the Ryukyuan people. Hearing their screams for him to save the Ryukyu people even as they were boiling to death moved the Kagoshima lord. It caused him to finally open his mind to the suffering of the Ryukyu people. When he finally realized the extent of the of the Ryukyuan people’s plight he expressed solidarity to those people, and not only accepted their excuses for not paying tribute but had his men carry a cargo of rice to the islands to ease the hunger and suffering of the island people. In return for his generosity he requested that the masters of the art of Karate come to Kagoshima to teach his men the fighting techniques he had observed defeat his warrior. The value and courage of those three Ryukyuan warriors initiated a new period of relations between the two kingdoms and eventually led to the cooperation and friendship of both peoples.
Later, back in the Ryukyu Kingdom, the envoy described the death of three warriors to the King. The King after hearing the story of the Ryukyu guards deaths had up the Hidari-Gomon drawn up to symbolize their heroic action. The symbol is said to portray the three Ryukyu warriors spinning around in the pot giving their lives for the greater good of the people. The symbol has since become the symbol of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a symbol which can now be found just about everywhere in Okinawa. Many Karate dojos have also incorporated its use into the symbols they use to represent their particular style of the ancient Okinawan art of Karate
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