Okinawans

By Ian Skoggard

Ryukyu, Liu-Kiu, Liu Ch'iu, Loochoo.

The Okinawans inhabit the Ryukyu Archipelago, a chain of 170 islands, stretching in a 1200-kilometer arc from Kyushu, Japan to Taiwan. The islands range in form from large volcanic islands to small flat coral reefs. Warmed by the northward flowing Black Current (Kuroshiwo), the climate is subtropical and humid. The islands are subject to torrential rains and frequent typhoons. Amami Oshima Island is one of the wettest with an average annual rainfall of 3086 mm., the heaviest rainfall occurring from March to June. Okinawa is the largest island, 135 km long and 28 km wide. The island of Okinawa and all islands south comprise Okinawa Prefecture and those north of Okinawa are part of Kagoshima Prefecture.

In 1998 the population of Okinawa was 1.31 million. This figure does not include the approximately 300,000 Okinawans who live in Japan proper and the 300,000 who live overseas. Naha is the capital and largest city with a population of just over 300,000. Ninety percent of Okinawans or 1.5 million live on Okinawa Island.

Japanese and the Ryukyun languages sprung from a common parent language around 1300 years ago. The Ryukyun dialects are 62 to 70 percent cognate with the Tokyo Japanese dialect. The ability to speak and understand standard Japanese and the local dialect varies by generation. Okinawans under twenty years of age speak only standard Japanese. Those between twenty and fifty understand the local dialect, but speak Japanese, whereas those over fifty may understand standard Japanese, but speak only the local dialect. The major Ryukyun dialects and places where they are spoken are as follows:

• 1) Northern Amami-Oshima (northern Amami-oshima Island)

• 2) Southern Amami-Oshima (southern Amami-oshima Island)

• 3) Kikai (Kikai Island)

• 4) Kunigami (central and northern Okinawa Island, Iheya, Izena, Ie-jima, Sesoka islands)

• 5) Miyako (Miyako, Ogami, Ikema, Kurima, Irabu, Tarama, Minna islands)

• 6) Central Okinawan (southern Okinawa Island, Kerama Islands, Kume-jima, Tonaki, Aguna islands, and islands east of Okinawa Island)

• 7) Oki-no-erabu (Oki-no-erabu Island)

• 8) Toku-no-shima (Toku-no-shima Island)

• 9) Yaeyama (Ishigaki, Iriomote, Hatoma, Kohama, Taketomi, Kuroshima, Hateruma, and Aregusuku islands)

• 10) Yonaguni (Yonaguni Island)

• 11) Yoron (Yoron Island)

The earliest prehistoric site in the Ryukyus is Yamashito-cho, which dates back to 32,000 BP. Other later sites are Pinzu-abu (25,800-26,800 BP) and Minatogawa (16,600-18,250 BP). The Minatogawa people are considered the direct ancestors of the Okinawan people and according to some scholars are believed to have migrated north from the Sunda Shelf along what was then the Ryukyun peninsula, before the end of the last Ice Age (12,000 BP). A Paleolithic Yaeyama culture found in the central and southern half of the Ryukyus has strong affinities with Indonesian and Melanesian cultures. On the island of Okinawa, the Yaeyama culture is overlaid by the Neolithic Jomon culture, which is found throughout Japan proper.

References to the Ryukyus as the "Islands of the Eastern Seas" or "Southern Isles" are found in seventh century historical records of China and Japan. The southern sea route between China and Japan passed by the Ryukyu Islands, which became a temporary refuge for shipwrecked sailors, as well as travelling ambassadors and priests. Okinawa became a permanent home also for officials and nobles banished from the Japanese court. Okinawa myth points to a great cave on Iheya Island as the ancestral home of the Okinawan people and to Kudaka island just east of Okinawa as the place where the gods introduced agriculture, the "five fruits and grains." Wet-rice cultivation spread to the Ryukyus between the 10th and 12th centuries. The 12th and 13th centuries witnessed the rise of fortified villages and conflict among local chiefs (AJI), which eventually led to the consolidation of power into three major kingdoms in 1310, and the unification of the whole island under the First Sho Dynasty in 1416. Although a minor kingdom with poor resources, Okinawa became a wealthy trading entrepôt, transshipping cargo between Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Okinawans looked to China as the center of civilization and sent tributary delegations to the Middle Kingdom on a regular basis. The court adopted Chinese manners and dress. The ruler Sho Shin (1477-1526) abolished feudalism and established a Confucian state, which included a hereditary social system of nine ranks and 18 grades. The AJI were not allowed to carry arms and had to take up residence in the capital. Students were sent annually to Beijing and Chinese teachers, artisans, and traders lived in a special section of the Okinawan port of Naha, where they had a great influence on Okinawan architecture, law, ritual, and dietary custom. The period between 1400 and 1550 is often called the Golden Age of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In 1609 the Japanese warlord Satsuma invaded Okinawa because Okinawa did not support the Shogun Hideyoshi's planned invasion of Korea. He also wanted control of Okinawa's overseas trade. Okinawans maintained their tributary relationship with China, even though they had become a vassal state of Japan. This pretense was kept up for the next 300 years. Beginning in 1724, the AJI were allowed to settle in the countryside in an effort to alleviate overcrowding in the capital. In the nineteenth century various Western powers made calls to Naha and signed treaties, including the American Commodore Perry in 1853. Fearful of these foreign intrusions, the Meiji government officially annexed Okinawa in 1871 and abolished the kingdom in 1879. The Meiji government imposed a program of assimilation, especially forbidding the use of Ryukyun language. During this period many Okinawans emigrated overseas (nearly 200,000 between 1920 and 1940) to such places as Hawaii, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Philippines, Taiwan, New Caledonia, and Micronesia. In 1945, the last battle of World War II was fought on Okinawa. Lasting 3 months, the "Iron Typhoon" claimed the lives of 150,000 Okinawans and left 90 percent of the population homeless. Okinawa remained under American occupation until 1972 when it reverted back to Japan. In order to counteract pressures for reversion and prolong their military occupation, the Americans adopted a program of Ryukyu-ization, in which they encouraged the use of Ryukyun language in schools and on the radio, and funded historical research favoring an indigenous perspective. The United States still maintains a large military base on the island. Tensions continue to exist between Okinawans and Japanese over such issues as ethnic versus national identity, diversity versus homogeneity, and local versus central control.

Fifty of the 110 islands in Okinawa Prefecture are inhabited. The largest and most populated island is Okinawa. The most common type of village is called SHIMA, or "island", and ranges in size from 50 to 200 closely built homes surrounded by fields. These villages are the oldest type of settlement found on the island and are found in the valleys. In upland country one finds dispersed homesteads (YAADUI), whose occupants are the descendents of nobles who were permitted to settle the countryside after 1724. String-like settlements along highways are a phenomenon of post-war Okinawa.

In 1960 half of Okinawan population practiced farming, however, by 1990, this proportion dropped to below ten percent. A quarter of the land on the island of Okinawa is cultivated. The main crop on Okinawa is sweet potatoes followed by soybean, rice, and sugar cane. Sugar cane is a cash crop first introduced to Okinawa in 1623. Wheat, millet, barley, and Irish beans are important crops on other islands. Favorite fruit and vegetables are wax melon, green beans, muskmelons, bananas, eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkins, and cucumbers. Okinawans also raise rabbits, goats, swine, horses, and bullocks. Fishing is a major occupation of coastal villages. Principal fish are bonito, sea turtle, seabream, whitefish, and globefish. A typical Okinawan meal consists of boiled sweet potato, miso soup, a vegetable, and noodles.

Many of the above vegetables are grown for sale in urban markets. The major commercial activities on Okinawa are food processing (sugar and pineapples), oil refining, and tourism (over 4 million tourists visit Okinawa annually.) Other commodities produced and exchanged on the islands are tobacco, firewood, charcoal, fish cakes, dried bonito, seaweed, and sea salt. Other economic activities include tuna fishing, cattle raising, raising silk cocoons, making tea, tanning, limestone quarrying, and distilling.

Okinawa is famous for its colorful batique cloth, called BINGATA. In years past bingata kimonos were worn by Naha's upper class. The oldest surviving piece of bingata cloth is dated to the 1470s. Tsubaya pottery and lacquerware were also famous Ryukyun manufactures and trade goods. Today, the Japanese government is attempting to establish Okinawa as a "Multimedia Island" (MMI), a center for research and development of CD-ROM and Internet technology.

For centuries the Okinawans commanded a profitable entrepôt trade between East and Southeast Asia. Some of the most profitable exports were textiles, dyes, lacquerware, fans, colored silks, paper, porcelains, gold, copper, grains, fruits, and vegetables. In the first half of the 20th century Okinawa produced sugar for export.

In general, women work in and around the home and men in the fields. Women's work includes childcare, maintaining the house and surrounding grounds, doing laundry, preparing foods, taking rice to mill, hoeing sweet potatoes, and feeding pigs. Men plant and transplant rice, prepare the rice field, harvest rice, and build and repair houses. Men weave baskets and mats. In fishing villages, men catch the fish and maintain boats and gear. Women sell and distribute the fish. Major occupations are agriculture, fishing, wood gathering, and stonecutting.

Meiji land reforms of 1899-1903 introduced the Japanese system of private property and put an end to Okinawa's communal land tenure system. Prior to land reform, villagers had the right of cultivation but not of ownership. Village elders redistributed the land every two to ten years according to an allotment system (JIWARISEIDO) in which every member of a family young and old, male and female, received shares.

Okinawan kinship is complicated by two distinct systems, one a commoner, household-based system (UJI) and the other a noble, genealogy-based system (MUNCHUU). The latter was keyed to a founding ancestor and observed strict patrilineal rules; whereas the former was cognatic and bilateral, which permitted various choices for heirs to the estate. Commoners lived in SHIMA villages with only three to four descent groups. The nobles lived in upland villages, some having as many as 90 descent groups. Noble genealogies were registered in the capital. The development of a new class system over the last 100 years has favored the munchuu system, which has absorbed the commoner uji system. The destruction of many genealogies during the war and loss of family members has complicated this process. Okinawans attribute half of their illnesses to irregular descent lines, which shamans busily try to rectify in a flurry of "munchuu-making".

In Okinawa's past, the noble and commoner class each used a different set of kinship terms. Today there are three distinct kinship terminological systems that correlate with kinship, household, and village structures. The same kin term such as "OTTOO" (father) can be found in more than one system. The first system is egocentric and bilaterally symmetrical. Persons are classified by sex, generation, and relative age. The second system distinguishes between ego and age groups senior to ego. It also distinguishes between community leaders and ordinary persons. Socioeconomic status is relevant here. In the third system, kin terms are used in combination with the household name, such as HAMPATA N CHOONAN, "the heir of the Hampata household." The branch houses of younger brothers and collateral kin are built around the main house (MUUTUYAA) and are named in relation to the main house, such as "Little Hampata", "East Hampata", or "Behind Hampata". The use of Japanese terms, which distinguish between the nuclear family and extended kin, have become more common and may reflect a nuclearization of the Okinawa family.

Beginning in the mid-1700s, it was part of official policy to restrict movement of peasants, village endogamy was law and the penalty for marrying outside the village was equivalent to a year's wages in fines. In the past, women married as young as 13 and 14 years old. A diviner was consulted for a propitious wedding date. Since the 1890s, the Japanese have discouraged endogamy and young people today consider it barbaric; nevertheless a large percentage of marriages (four-fifths in the village studied by Tanaka in 1972) continue to be transacted in this way. Tanaka attributes this to a long tradition of mutual aid practiced among village households. Marriage involves a betrothal ceremony (UBUKUI) and exchange of a bride price (INJOOJING). On the wedding day the wedding party first visits the bride's house and offers her family gifts. Then everyone returns to the groom's house for a ceremonial exchange of drinks. The groom and bride then celebrate separately with their own friends and reunite the next day. In the countryside, families may forgo the wedding ceremony. Residence is virilocal.

The household (YAA) is the basic social unit and source of identity in Okinawan society. One can only be a member of one household and family members who leave the house are struck from the household roll. Households have their own names, which are used as terms of reference for individuals. The household has one vote at village level politics. The household is also an economic and ceremonial unit. Households have their own fields to cultivate and members participate as a household in village ceremonies and communal work groups. Households consist of a couple, their unmarried children, and in the case of the oldest son, his father and mother. Ceremonially each family keeps a set of ancestral tablets and worships deceased members of the household. A family is considered connected to the ancestors through the house lot.

The first son succeeds to the head of the house. If the first son emigrates, the second son can replace him as a temporary head. If there are no male heirs, a daughter may succeed to the household head and then pass the estate onto her oldest son. Inheritance occurs at retirement or death of the father. The first son receives about 50-60 percent of the land and the rest is divided up among younger brothers. Because of land scarcity there is pressure on younger brothers to emigrate or move to the city and engage in another profession. A daughter's inheritance comes at marriage and consists of such goods as a kimono, chest, mirror, pillow, and futon.

Growing up, children have a close relationship with parents and especially grandparents. Although children are given a lot of leeway, they are severely scolded for serious offenses and can be sent out of the house or tied up. Respect for education is deeply rooted. There are nine years of compulsory schooling after which schooling is limited. After graduating from school, young people usually join a youth organization, which they stay in until 30 for men and until marriage for women. Youth group members get together for music and dancing. They also work on cleanup and repair projects, or on farms. Young men tend to hang out with each other, in clubs or gangs, and get together with women their age to drink, sing, and dance at informal "rowdy houses" (YAGAMAYAA). Only 28 percent of Okinawan young men and women go to college (compared to 44 percent for the rest of Japan.) Institutions of higher learning are Okinawa University, Kokusai University, and the University of the Ryukyus, which are all on the island of Okinawa.

Each village is usually subdivided into neighborhoods or wards (KUMI). Kumi members cooperate in labor exchanges for harvest, house construction and repair, and government labor details. In the past class divisions existed between a commoner class (HAKUSOO) of farmers and merchants and an upper class (YUKATCHU) of gentry and nobility. The gentry lived in villages separate from the commoners and had little contact with them except in an official capacity. The Japanese abolished the landlord class and all class divisions, however, the pride of having noble origins still lingers in upland villages. In the shima villages, prestige is accorded the direct descendents of the founding household (NIIYAA), or root house. Today a great emphasis is placed on education in part because it is an avenue for upward mobility. Teachers, doctors, and government officials are all highly regarded.

The hereditary fiefs of the AJI became administrative districts (MAJIRI) under the centralized Shuri government, which then appointed district officers. The district was comprised of several villages (MURA) and was the land-distributing unit in the system of communal land tenure. Most districts remained intact under the Meiji government. Today districts and villages are called "son" and "ku" (or "aza"), respectively. Most of the islands except for the larger ones comprise a district. Naha is the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The chief functions of the district government are to collect taxes and keep records including household registrars (KOSEKI) and land registers. The district mayor (SONCHO) is elected to a four-year term. Other departments include General Affairs, Economy and Finance, School Affairs, Agriculture and Industry, Public Welfare and Social Affairs, and Land Affairs.

Members of a community were bound together by customary exchanges of labor and goods that occurred at times of harvest, house building, birthday ceremonies, and funerals. The close and cooperative relationship that exists between 'true' relatives who live together in the same wards and neighborhoods creates a homogenous and relatively peaceful community. The individual's obligations to village and family curbs inappropriate behavior as do the threat of ridicule, censure, and ostracism. Police are highly respected and have the authority to settle minor disputes. They deal with problems of juvenile delinquency, petty theft, drunkenness, and prostitution.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Okinawa was beset by constant warfare as petty kingdoms vied for even greater power and control. Remarkably this period was succeeded by an era of total peace when the island was unified under one kingdom and all warriors disarmed. The nobility then settled down to a quiet life of luxury and ease supported by a profitable long-distance trade and a serf-like peasant class. Early travelers from the West commented on a society of no arms and no violence. However, the AJI did take up martial arts and karate originated on Okinawa. In the Japanese era, Okinawans suffered from discrimination by Japanese who considered them backward. Tensions continue to exist between Okinawans and Japanese and between Okinawans and the 50,000 American military personnel and their families who still live on the island's 39 US military bases. In 1995, 85,000 Okinawans demonstrated in downtown Naha following the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen.

The Okinawans believe in supernatural entities called KAMI of which there are five categories. There is the supreme heaven kami, and those for the sea, sun, and water. Next are the place kami who dwell in such places as the well, hearth, paddy, and toilet. Occupational kami include the tutelary spirits of carpentry, boat building, and blacksmithing. Ancestral spirits (FUTUKI) are an important link between the living and the supernatural realm. The final class of kami includes living persons, such as the village priest, who manifests a kami spirit. Kami have the capacity to alter, supervise, and influence life events. They form a reciprocal relationship with humans, which humans maintain through ritual. Kami and ancestors must be notified of all life cycle events, including graduation from high school. Misfortune is viewed as an impaired relationship with the supernatural, resulting from the neglect of ritual or prayer, damaging a sacred grove, disrespecting the ancestors, etc.

Okinawa's religious practitioners are almost all women. Women lead in the religious realm whereas men are political leaders. In the past, neighborhood, village, kin group, and nation each had a head priestess (NORO), usually the wife of the hereditary political leader. The noro preside over all ritual acts, including fertility rites, rain-making rites, installation rites, ancestral rites, hearth rites, travel rites, house construction rites, and boat-launching rites. A psychosomatic disorder called TAARI, which involves weakness, loss of appetite, auditory and visual hallucinations, and disturbing dreams usually precedes a calling to the priesthood. Other practitioners of the supernatural are sorcerers (ICHIJAMAA) and diviners (SANJINSOO); the latter are usually men. Diviners use horoscopes and diving sticks, and consult books of signs to determine propitious dates for house building, marriage, bone washing, and tomb building.

The major public celebrations are based on the lunar calendar and are occasions to honor the dead and give thanks. The two most important holidays are the Lunar New Year and the Festival of Oban (O-Bon). New Year's is both a private and public affair. A family recounts its past bad deeds and vows to do better. Special offerings are made to the ancestors and gods at the family altar. It is a time for extended family reunions and families visit the place of the first ancestor of the village. There is much feasting and drinking among neighbors and relatives in the village. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the family visits and prays at the family tomb. The Festival of Oban on the fifteenth and sixteenth of the seventh lunar month is a ghost festival, when the spirits of the dead are welcomed back to their earthly homes for a couple of days and then shooed quickly back to the afterworld. Lanterns light up doorways to show ghosts the way and prayers and offerings are made to them. Other holidays include the Festival of the Full Moon (fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month, hereafter 15/6), Chrysanthemum Day (9/9), a rice cake festival (8/12), the spring equinox festival of Higan (15/2), the Doll Festival (3/3), Boys' Day (5/5), and a thanksgiving festival (15/5).

Okinawa's peak time as an independent kingdom was from the twelfth to beginning of the seventeenth century. This era produced Okinawa's greatest work of literature, the 22-volumn "Omoro Soshi," a compilation of songs that were transcribed between 1532 and 1623. The earliest song dates back to 1260. The SANSHIN is a famous Okinawan 3-string instrument and is used to accompany singing and dancing. There are three types of Okinawan dance: court dance, semi-classical dance, and folk dance. The most famous of Okinawa's poets are the 17th and 18th century women poets Yoshiya Chiruu and Un'na Nabii.

Bad winds (YANKAJI) and retributive spirits are sources of sickness. Illness can also result from loss of one's soul (MABUI) or essence (SHII), due to sorcery (ICHIJAMA), or by offending the ancestors and other spirits. Shamans (YUTA) preside over curing rites and attempt to retrieve lost souls. Other medical practices include the use of herbal remedies for digestive disorders, bloodletting, and salt for purification. Bush doctors (YABUU) practice moxibustion (use of burning punk on meridian points on the skin), acupuncture, and prescribe herbal remedies. Okinawa has modern medical facilities, although it is difficult extending medical care to remote islands. The use of the Internet has been helpful in this regard. In 1999, the Remote Medical Care Assistance Information System for Isolated Islands and Remote Areas in Okinawa Prefecture was set up and includes a diagnostic support Intranet and Internet system, tele-radiology (remote radio-imaging diagnosis), and tele-pathology (remote pathological imaging diagnosis) instruments.

Burial takes place within a few hours of death. The ancestors are notified by burning a large bunch of incense. The family then notifies the mayor, neighbors and relatives. A policeman is summoned to determine the cause of death and do the necessary paper work. The body is washed and dressed in the deceased's best clothes. Mourners arrive with small gifts of money. The body is placed flex-position in a simple wooden box-shaped casket. Close neighbors help serve tea, candy, and cake. A professional wailer is hired. The casket is placed in the village funeral palanquin and the funeral procession makes it way to the family tomb. There is much wailing and weeping along the way and at the gravesite. The mourners pray and burn incense and the casket is placed in the tomb. Sandals, a cane, a paper umbrella, a lantern, flowers and memorial tablet are some of the things left at the tomb door for use by the deceased. The funeral is followed by a 49-day mourning period, which involves a series of seven memorial rites at the tomb held every seven-days. Memorial observances are held every first, third, seventh, twenty-fifth, and thirty-third anniversary of death. After the thirty-third year the deceased joins the ranks of ancestors and is no longer mourned as an individual. Bone washing occurs one to three years after burial.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Okinawa file is strong on kinship, religion and history, although there are no English studies after the 1972 reversion. Glacken (1953, no. 1) has written the 'classic' ethnography of Okinawan village life based on research in three villages. However, his study is weak on the family system, in spite of a lengthy discussion on the subject. Subsequent works by several authors make up for this deficit (Matsui 1987, no. 16; Newell 1988, no. 17; Oda 1987, no. 15; Itoh 1979, no. 11; Omoto 1980, no. 18), especially Tanaka (1974, no. 22). Akamine (1983, no. 4) discusses the systems of social organization in two different locales prior to the imposition of a patrilineal descent system. Religion is another area for which Okinawa stands out, especially the predominance of female religious specialists. Lebra provides a comprehensive discussion of Okinawa religion (Lebra 1966, no. 13) and shamanism (Lebra 1982, no. 14). Sasaki (1981, no. 20) writes about shamanism and spirit possession. The three major historical studies in the file include Hall's journal of the first British visit to the island of Okinawa (Hall 1840, no. 9), Kerr's comprehensive history of Okinawan with an emphasis on foreign relations (Kerr 1958, no. 12), and Sakihara's study of the Okinawa song poems (Sakihara 1987, no. 19). Pitts et al. (1955, no. 3) examine the impact of the United States occupation on Okinawa society and culture. Christy (1993, no. 7) provides a study of Okinawa identity under Japanese rule. Taira (1997, no. 21) writes a politicized account of Okinawa identity, making a claim for Okinawa uniqueness, one deserving of nation-state status. Haring (1969, no. 10) has translated a 1896 Japanese magazine article on Okinawa society and customs that conveys the Japanese attitude towards their 'backward cousins.' The Maretzkis (1963, no. 2) provide a culture and personality study of Okinawans. Two articles (Akimichi 1984, no. 6; Akimichi & Ruddle 1984, no. 5) discuss fishing practices and rights, and Combs (1980, no. 8) writes about an Okinawan folk dance.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in the file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by Ian Skoggard in February, 2001. We thank Linda Angst for preliminary suggestions for sources to include in the file.

• Acupuncture-757

• ANJI (AJI)-territorial lord-631

• BUNKE-household branch-592

• CHUCHOOREE-lineage-613

• FUJO-village priestess-793

• ICHI-MABUI-soul of living person-774

• JIWARI SEIDO-land reform-423

• JURI-hostess, singer, dancer, prostitute-548

• KAMIDARI-mental disturbances associated with spiritual possession-154, 787

• KAMI-spirits-776

• MANNA-spell, formula-778

• MANNASAA-person who uses magical spells in curing-791

• MOAI-mutual loan association-452

• MOGUSA-moxicautery-757

• MUNCHU-consanguineous descent group-614

• NEYA-founding household-554, 592, 621

• NORO (NURU)-priestess-756, 793

• OMORO-song-533, 5310

• OTAKI-sacred grove-778

• RYOTEI-restaurant-brothel-548

• SHII-supernatural forces within a person-778

• SHIJI-supernatural power-778

• SHINI-MABUI-ghost-775

• TAARI-personality disorders associated with shamanism, see KAMIDARI-154

• UJI-patrilineal sib among commoners-614

• YAA-household-592

• YABUU-medical practitioner-759

• YAGO (YAANAA)-house name-552, 592, 613

• YUTA-medium, shaman-756, 791

Glacken, Clarence J. Studies of Okinawan Village Life. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. 1953.

Kerr, George H. Okinawa: The History of an Island People. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle. 1958.

Lebra, William P. Okinawan Religion: Belief, Ritual, and Social Structure. University of Hawaii Press. 1966.

Pitts, F. R., W. P. Lebra and W. P. Suttles. Post-War Okinawa. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. 1955.

Rabson, Steve. Assimilation policy in Okinawa: Promotion, resistance, and "reconstruction". Japan Policy Research Institute, Occasional Paper #8. 1996 .

Tanaka, M. Kinship and Descent in an Okinawan Village. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms. 1974