Kyoto Imperial University took bones from a Ryukyuan royal tomb, descendants sued for them, and the university gave them to the village in 2025 on condition they never be buried

Mumujana, "the tomb of many lords," is a cave tomb on a cliff above Unten port in Nakijin, Okinawa. It holds lacquered coffins and the bones of local lords of the 1400s and their families. In the early Shōwa era two researchers from Kyoto Imperial University, Kanaseki Takeo and Miyake Sōetsu, removed skulls and bones for study^†. Kanaseki's share went to National Taiwan University, which returned remains to Okinawa by 2019^†. In 2018 descendants, including descendants of the Ryukyu royal family, sued Kyoto University for return of the remains. They argued that they were the keepers of the ancestral rites. The Kyoto District Court dismissed the claim in April 2022. It found that the bones had been taken and that some plaintiffs were royal descendants, but held that they were not the persons entitled to conduct the rites. On 22 September 2023 the Osaka High Court dismissed the appeal. The presiding judge added that remains taken from indigenous peoples should be returned to their homeland and urged talks. In December 2024 the university and the Nakijin village board of education signed a transfer agreement. On 21 May 2025 at least 26 sets of remains arrived in 15 containers. The conditions: no burial, and preservation as research material. They are held in the storage room of the Nakijin Village Historical and Cultural Center.