Furuttiibana (whale)

Furuttiibana (Dama: ފުރުޓިބަނަ) ("black lotus") was a large dark-colored whale that was spotted off the coast of Asidama and surrounding waters numerous times in the fifth century CE. Active over a period of over fifty years, Furuttiibana was named both after the King of the newly united kingdom Furuttiibana I as well as its dark-colored skin. First sighted in 454 CE, the same year of Furuttiibana I's coronation, it was dubbed a "living sign of favor from the ancestors."

Name
The whale was given the name Furuttiibana by the High Priest of the city of Yan, Udun Kaŋnuirabi, upon hearing tale of the whale from Dama sailors. It is said that, having known that the coronation was occurring simultaneously in Angadu, that Udun declared the sight of such a creature to be a good omen for the King's rule as well as a sign of the ancestors' favor.

History
Furuttiibana is mentioned in the writings of the sixth century Dama historian Kanyu Uciciburu, both in The Histories and The Celestial Accounts. According to Kanyu, Furuttiibana measured 13.8 meters long and 4.6 meters wide. It is not possible to confidently identify which species to which the whale belonged. It may have been a Sedic beaked whale, or perhaps an unusually long dwarf Osamian hunchback whale. Furuttiibana being a Sedic beaked whale is supported by its size and supposed lengthy lifespan. On the other hand, identification as a dwarf Osamian hunchback whale is supported by its geographical location, as the waters off of Asidama are much closer to the equator than those in which the Sedic beaked whale is normally spotted. Its black coloring also lends more likelihood to its being a hunchback, although rare specimens of melanistic Sedic beaked whales have led some to argue that such a creature would not be impossible.

The whale was first spotted in the year 454 CE by the crew of a Dama sailing vessel off of the northern shore of the big island of Kuguni. According to legend, the whale, its skin as black as pitch, surfaced and studied the ship and its crew for some time. It then began blowing steam (likely just air) from its blowhole and issued a deep bellowing cry. The whale then submerged as quickly as it had risen, offering a fin in parting. The crew is said to have returned to Yan and relayed the events of the encounter. By some accounts, the people of Yan heard the great trumpeting of the whale from shore, but most accounts including this detail date from several centuries after its having occurred, leaving many historians skeptical. Whatever the case, this tale fell upon the ears of the city's high priest, Udun Kaŋnuirabi, who sought the sailors out and had them relay the tale to him. Upon hearing the tale firsthand, Udun declared that the sighting of the creature was a good omen and a sign of favor from their peoples' ancestors, having occurred simultaneously as King Furuttiibana I's coronation miles away in Angadu.

Extra days of feasting and celebration in Yan and surrounding areas were declared by Udun in response, allowing the legend to spread rapidly. It is said that some sewed banners depicting the great black whale which were flown in the streets and from buildings. Word of the creature soon spread, both among noble and common classes. It is said that, upon hearing news of the whale sighting and subsequent celebration, King Furuttiibana I endorsed the legend and claimed that the whale had been in his dreams the night before the coronation itself. In doing so, he turned what had been a local occurrence into a cause for national celebration. King Furuttiibana I declared a ten-year moratorium on the hunting of whales (referred to as Great Fish, or King's Fish following the declaration) as well as mandating that a yearly, week-long festival occur celebrating his coronation and the sighting of the whale. He also adopted the visage of a great black whale as the symbol of his house, which remains a symbol of the Dama royal family today.

For over fifty years following this seminal appearance, sightings of the whale abounded both off of Asidama's coastline and by ships sailing in its waters. Indeed, so many sightings were reported that, in the year 479 CE, King Furuttiibana I declared that sightings of the beast were required to be certified by a member of the priesthood in order for a festival to be declared. This move proved to be very unpopular amongst the Dama people, and King Furuttiibana I revoked the declaration only three years later. The last reported sighting of the whale was in 507 CE, six years after the death of King Furuttiibana I. His son, Furuttiibana II declared the sighting to be an omen that, not only was he favored by the ancestors, but that his father had joined with them fully. This sighting produced the last spontaneous Whale Festival, although the annual one mandated by Furuttiibana I continues today.

Legacy
The most extensive documentation of purported sightings of the whale can be found in the works of Kanyu Uciciburu. According to Kanyu, the whale was sighted a total of thirty-seven times between 454 and 479 CE. Of these occurrences, seventeen were certified by the kingdom's priesthood, although all of them resulted in some level of celebration. Today, the Whale Festival in Asidama is celebrated every year in early Summer, and is considered to be among the greatest of Dama cultural holidays. Festivities include singing hymns at one's local temple, eating and drinking with family, and parades including floats and banners depicting the whale. A black whale continues to be a chief staple among symbols of the Dama royal house; in 1998, then-Crown Prince Gushi (now King Angadu) somewhat scandalized the national news media of Asidama by getting a tattoo of a black whale on his right arm. Despite breaking with the tradition that members of the royal family should not receive tattoos, Uchināguchi claimed that the tattoo was to honor his ancestors and his house.

Furuttiibana was mentioned in Salian historian Colm Mongan's Our Sea: The History of the Salian Sea and Surrounding Bodies (1889). Mongan believed the whale to be a Sedic beaked whale which was a "stranger and wanderer" based on its description and being outside of its native range. In the commentary written by Keelan Rogers, Rogers interpreted Mongan's passage on the whale as suggesting that the whale was fictional. Angered by this suggestion, Mongan wrote on Furuttiibana that "either Allfather Ayek prepared a whale specifically for this end, or it was no beaked whale at all."