Nature, Ritual and Society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands (Japan Anthropology Workshop Series)

281 Pages·2006·1.83 MB·English

by  Arne Røkkum

Nature, Ritual, and Society in
Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as stepping
stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis between Japan and the
outside world. Integral to this viewpoint is a comprehensive understanding of the
inhabitants of these islands, including their culture, beliefs, and mores.
Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands contains original ethnography
which explores the mind of the islanders, their relationship with the natural
world, their social relationships, and the rituals which represent and give expres-
sion to these relationships. This book is based on extensive original research,
and includes participant observation. Village priestesses in the southern Ryukyu
Islands verbalize a sense of connectedness with the landscape through their
prayers. Rather than interpreting this oratory as an example of symbolic ormeta-
phoric construction, however, the author guides the reader toward a moreconcrete
experience of the effect induced by the ornate words. This approach allows the
authentic voices of the Ryukyu Island worlds to speak for themselves, and also
sets the work in the wider context of anthropology, Japanese studies, and Pacific
island studies. This book strings together issues of mind, society and nature and
captures the exact moments when impressionistic views of nature are composed
into stylized utterances.
This study will be of great interest to the general anthropological readership
interested in theoretical advances through fieldwork, as well as to Asian studies
scholars.
Arne Røkkum is a professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of
Ethnography, University Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. He
has conducted fieldwork among the Izu and Ryukyu islanders of Japan and
among the Bunun and Yami of Taiwan. He is the author of Goddesses, Priestesses
and Sisters: Mind Gender and Power in the Monarchic Tradition of the Ryukyus (Scandinavian
University Press, 1998).
Japan Anthropology Workshop Series
Series editor:
Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University
Editorial Board:
Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta
Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
Wendy Smith, Monash University
Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden
A Japanese View of Nature
The world of living things
Kinji Imanishi
Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and
Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and introduced by Pamela J. Asquith
Japan’s Changing Generations
Are young people creating a new society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
The Care of the Elderly in Japan
Yongmei Wu
Community Volunteers in Japan
Everyday stories of social change
Lynne Y. Nakano
Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Arne Røkkum
Nature, Ritual, and Society
in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Arne Røkkum
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2006 Arne Røkkum
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Røkkum, Arne.
Nature, ritual, and society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands/Arne Røkkum.
p. cm. — (Japan anthropology workshop series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Ethnology—Ryukyu Islands. 2. Ryukyu Islands—Social life and
customs. I. Title. II. Series.
GN635.R9R65 2005
306′.0952′29—dc22
2005004364
ISBN10: 0–415–35563–X
ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–35563–6
...the complete regeneration of sentiment is religion,
which is poetry, but poetry completed.
C.S. Peirce
Frontispiece Visitor Spirit, the Mayunganashi. Mask carved by Mr Arashiro Hiroshi, Ishigaki
Island. Photo by Ms Ann Christine Eek, University Museum of Cultural
History, Oslo.
Contents
List of figures and maps ix
Preface x
Acknowledgments xii
Linguistic note xiv
Introduction 1
1 Commuted landscapes and species 18
Primordial truths 27
Domesticated reigns 29
Sources of sentiment 32
Lasting images 43
Cultivated identities 46
Cultivated kinship 52
Fertilizing soils 60
A semantic ecology 64
Garlic and crabs 67
Parallel thought 75
Reproductive partnerships 83
2 Person and island 96
Fragments of desire 96
Acts of engagement 105
An animated ambience 106
An adulation of watery flowers 109
3 Cyclical lapses 123
Gendered events 123
An interstice of the year 129
viii Contents
4 Fateful exchanges 148
Acts of disengagement 148
Uncanny partnerships 152
Recipes for sharing and not sharing 160
Lingering debts 163
An evil spirit of the sea 168
An evil spirit of the soil 177
An encounter with a root force 186
Preparing for a stately journey 194
The final moment: body for body 209
Elegies for a departed priestess 213
Conclusion 219
Glossary 228
Notes 235
Bibliography 250
Index 261
Figures and maps
Figures
1 Higawa (Ndimura) village, Yonaguni (Dunang) Island 3
2 South Ryukyuan house plan 7
1.1 Stone altar 19
1.2 A view into the courtyard of an Origin House 19
1.3 Sister Goddess 21
1.4 Compound plan: the typical version 24
1.5 Compound plan: the inverted version 24
1.6 Mortuary altar 25
1.7 Sounding an end to cold season restraints 39
1.8 Treating an ancestress with rice beer 51
1.9 House shrine-alcove 54
1.10 A formal welcome 54
1.11 Fishes of life 86
1.12 Fertilizing action 90
2.1 A celestial meal 98
3.1 A protective amulet 131
3.2 Welcoming an exorcizing agent 132
3.3 Presentations to a visitor 133
4.1 Taboo rope shielding a house compound 150
4.2 Protective spider conch upon a toilet door 153
4.3 Preparations for a hearty meal 157
4.4 A dismembered animal sacrifice 165
4.5 Collecting bones of the dead 189
4.6 Dealing with a Soil Host 191
4.7 Soul-catching action 199
4.8 A lighthearted exit 201
4.9 A heavenly messenger 209
Maps
1 The Ryukyu Islands 3
1.1 Spirit trails of Yonaguni (Dunang) Island 18