Masaki Village is a village near the Masaki Shrine.
Background
One version of the Masaki Family Crest
The Masaki Village was originally founded by descendants of Katsuhito (Yosho) Masaki and his first wife, Kasumi, the niece of Juraian First Empress Funaho (who is also Yosho's mother, making Kasumi his cousin). The Masaki members on Earth use a slightly different spelling than the known royalty on Jurai. They remove the "tree radical" from the "masa" character so it is reads "正木" instead of "柾木."
As Juraian descendants, the residents are gifted with abnormally long lives, and as some residents go into space, receive body enhancements and return, they could live for thousands of years and have an abnormal physiology that Earth doctors would not understand. For these reasons, the Masaki family normally have to keep themselves apart from the rest of society. It's not impossible to work in other locations and the Masaki children go to normal schools, but there has to be care in how it is done. Katsuhito has a relationship and understanding with the local school. Those like Nobuyuki who work and live in larger cities have to disguise their real appearance, as normally they retain their youthful appearance well into old age.
The children of the village have their alien heritage kept from them until they come of age (at 18, unless they deduce it earlier or find out by accident). At that time, they have to make the decision to either remain on Earth or journey into space. Most of the members of the village do end up working at the Galaxy Police, the Academy, or Jurai. There are many empty homes in the village, whose owners are simply living in space at the moment. Although they have never been shown, there are Masakis that go into space and never return.
Some marry regular Earthlings, their heritage is sometimes kept secret from the spouse until it can't be disguised anymore.
The village is dominated by women, at around a 3-1 margin.
As Yosho's survival has not been made public, those that are allowed into space do so on the understanding that they are descendants of Funaho, who had genetic ties to Masaki, the sister of the first emperor of Jurai. Pure Earthlings are not normally let into space.
The family of Seina Yamada and the Yamada Store are in the neighboring town. When Seina made friends with Kai and Kiriko, the village of tough and hardy residents could handle the problems that come with his bad luck and are very understanding of it. If Seina had not gone into space, it would have been likely that he would be allowed to move into the village (Tsukiko planned to marry him) because they figured only they could stand it.
See Earth Masaki Family in the Family Tree for more information!
