Who Is Tekona of Mama (Figure of Legend) (Mama no Tekona)?

Tekona of Mama (Mama no Tekona) is a beautiful maiden from an old legend of Mama in Shimōsa Province, today's Ichikawa City in Chiba Prefecture. The legend says many men loved her and that, tormented by their attention, she drowned herself. Poems about her appear in the Man'yōshū, Japan's oldest poetry anthology.

In Episode 7, "The House Amid the Thickets," an old man named Urumanoo tells this legend at the end of the story. The faithfulness of Miyagi, who died while trusting and waiting for her husband, is set beside the sad old tale of Tekona, leaving a deep, lingering impression on Katsushirō and the reader.

Ichikawa City has a small temple hall dedicated to Tekona, and the area is still known as the place of her legend.