Okinawa: A People and Their Gods. Robinson
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Carelessness or openness to failure or danger on ones "bad luck" year: every 12 years from the first year of birth.
To the believer kami are very real. I had occasion to observe a devout middle-aged Okinawan woman who came to the Sonohan Utaki Stone Gate, just outside the site of the ancient castle at Shuri. Arriving with a friend she had come to pray for a sick child who was hospitalized at Shuri. The ceremony was short, lasting a total of not more than 10 minutes. Upon approaching the stone censer in front of the shrine she squatted upon her legs. Three white strips of paper were placed on top of the censer; on this paper she carefully placed five small bundles of black charcoal sticks. In front of the censor and to each side of it she put two small bottles of rice wine. An offering of what appeared to be paddies made of cooked rice was placed between the wine bottles. After placing the offering, the woman clapped her hands twice, folded them before her, bowed her head and began to offer prayer. This was punctuated from time to time with the head being raised, and the hands being lifted with the palms up. After talking with me for a few minutes, the woman's friend joined her, moving to her left side and to the rear about two feet. She too offered prayer, remaining in place until her friend concluded the ceremony. Following the closing prayer, wine was poured over each bundle of charcoal, the remaining elements were wrapped up and departure was made without any further action. When I asked the mother's friend if the mother was confident that the kami would help her child, she smiled and said, 'yes.' Of interest was my brief conversation with a young man who had driven the women to the shrine. When I asked him what the women were doing he said he did not know. He then got into the car, turned on the car radio and turned to some music which he sat enjoying.
Ritual sites, such as the Sonohan Utaki Stone Gate, are called ugwanju (prayer place), the central object of which is a censer. Four types of prayer places are found on Okinawa: national sites which were formerly important in state religion (Seefa Utaki is one example), community sites (the shrine at Awa is an example), kin group sites (tombs and national sites), and household ritual sites (the ancestral shrine and hearth are primary ones).
THE PLACE OF ART AND MUSIC
Europe is noted for its great heritage of Judeo/Christian art and magnificent churches. In European culture the colors are rich, the buildings are distinctive, and the music has endured from generation to generation. Even a brief survey of most Christian hymnals will reveal the influence of Europe and American religious practice. One will look in vain for this kind of development in Okinawa; here one finds a simplicity of both style and color and a total lack of spiritual public singing in worship. So far as I can determine there has been little development of religious mythology in art, no production of pictures of religious heroes and no creation of sacred scriptures peculiar to an indigenous religion. One Buddhist temple, the Enkan-chi, once contained some Buddhist scriptures donated by the king of Korea. This temple was destroyed by the Satsuma in 1609 and with it the scriptures. But aside from the Omoro-Soshi (a 22-volume anthology of ancient verses), practically no religious writing of antiquity exists.
There is good reason for this lack of material. The wars of the past have destroyed valuable property ; the Second World War raged around Shuri, leaving practically nothing. Then too, Okinawan religion, both indigenous and foreign has been largely "caught" not taught. It is a part of the fabric of the Okinawan way of life. This reflection of culture is very evident in the lack of bright colors and the simplicity of dress by the kami-people, who are the clergy of Okinawa.
ACCOMMODATION OF FOREIGN RELIGIONS
Okinawan thought, uneffected by the Greek insistence upon rationality, does not seem bothered by the lack of an organized, systematic religious belief. It neither possesses nor encourages the development of a systematic or dogmatic theology. This in no way implies a lack of faith. Faith in kami-spirits is the key to both the folk religion of Okinawa and its more contemporary form of religious expression which has been influenced by Shintoism and Buddhism from Japan, and Toaism and Confucianism from China.
I think it fair to say that the accommodation of foreign religions has come largely because religion in the Far East is experienced as a way of life, not an academic subject to discuss. As Japan, China, and Korea have influenced the social fabric of Okinawan life, religious influence has come as a part of the total impact.
Not to be minimized is the deliberate attempt on the part of the Japanese government from the time of its annexation of Okinawa (1879 to 1945) to instill a pro-Japanese cultural bias on the one hand and a distaste for Okinawan culture on the other.
LACK OF UNIFORM RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
Formerly, communication with members of other villages was discouraged; marriage outside the village was forbidden. The word "shima" often used in the naming of villages means "island." This attitude toward others outside the village and outside the kin group has not encouraged the free exchange of ideas, religious or otherwise.
One should not be surprised to find differences in religious practices not only from one area of Okinawa to another but from village to village.3 Any description of religious practice is a general one; for accuracy one must study each specific village or area. The reader would find it interesting to compare and contrast the various modes of religious practice and utilization of religious symbols throughout Okinawa Shima.
Chapter 2
NATIONAL
RELIGIOUS HERITAGE
CREATION OF OKINAWA
In traditional Okinawan thought, the creation of Okinawa Shima is synonymous with the creation of the world. Three sources contain the stories of this mythological genesis. The oldest, Omoro Soshi, is an anthology of ancient verses; it contains songs which were collected from a.d. 1531 to 1623 and relates information on the historical, religious, political, economic and cultural affairs of Okinawa. A second document, Ryukyu Shindo-ki, was written by a Japanese monk, Taichu Shonin, and published in 1638. Chuzan Seikan, a third source, was compiled in 1950 by an Okinawan statesman, Haneji Tomohide; it is a more elaborated version than the Ryukyu Shindo-ki.
According to Taichu a pair of sibling-deities, Shinerikyu (a male) and Amaikyu (a female), were directed by a higher kami to create the first land and the first people; this beginning in time is known as the "age of heaven" or "kami time," and these first people as "heaven people." Out of obedience to the higher kami, the two deities descended from heaven and created Kudaka shima. Without benefit of sexual intercourse three offspring were created: a first son (the first ruler), a daughter (the first priestess), and a second son (the first farmer). Some authorities1 are convinced that in the mythological creation story of the first people there is an account of the basic institutions of ancient Okinawan life: political rule, agricultural life, and female religious authority.
In the second account, Chuzan Seikan, both deities descended from heaven and "carried stones and earth to the edge of the sea and planted trees to keep back the waves." After many generations a grandchild, Tenteishi, was born. Tenteishi divided mankind into five classes. His first son became the first ruler; the second son the first noble; the third son the first farmer. The first daughter became the first high priestess and the second daughter the first village priestess. According to mythology the Tenteishi dynasty lasted twenty-five generations, ending in A.D. 1187.
Following the creation of Kudaka Shima (the Okinawan "Garden of Eden") these first people are purported to have crossed the water and settled in the area of Seefa Utaki. Seefa Utaki sits on a high ridge in the Chinen district, overlooking Kudaka Shima. With the development of a water shortage,