著者

金城 朝永

出版者

日本文化人類学会

雑誌

民族學研究 (ISSN:00215023)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, no.2, pp.88-100, 1950

---

The name of Ryukyu (Luchu) first appeared in the Sui-shu (History of the Sui Dynasty). Some scholars considered that the Ryukyu mentioned here was another name for Okinawa, while others insisted that it was Formosa. Tan Shidehara, ex-President of Formosa University, criticized these ideas and concluded that it might be a colony of the old Ryukyuans in the southern part of Formosa, explored by the Chinese in early times. If his assumption is true, we may be able to reconstruct the culture and customs of old Okinawa through their colonial phase in Formosa. A no less interesting problem is raised by the legend of the Japanese hero and archer, Tametomo, who is said to have sired King Shunten, the first ruler (1187-1237 A.D.) of Okinawa according to the authorized history of Okinawa. This legend indicates the existence of a close connection between medieval Okinawa and Japan. The Yumiharizuki, a novel adapted from the legend, by Bakin Takizawa in the later years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, exerted a powerful influence upon the Japanese. There were not a few who having read the novel while young, made a visit to the legendary land. Another work on Okinawa of note during the Tokugawa period was the Nantoshi (Notes on Southern Islands), published in 1719, by Hakuseki Arai, a statesman and noted scholar of Chinese classics. After the Restoration of Meiji (1867), the Ryukyus were formally annexed to Japan in spite of Chinese protest, many Japanese came to Okinawa and wrote historical and geographical reports on the islands. As most of them were concerned with Japanizing the Okinawans, they stressed the concept of similar racial and cultural origins of the Okinawans and the Japanese, as well as the existence of close connections between them from early times. It was about half a century until the Okinawans themselves participated in research on their country. Among them, three of the most famous are Fuyu Ifa who devoted his life to the study of the Omorososhi (Collection of old songs of Okinawa), Anko Majikina, author of the History of Okinawa for IO centuries, and Kwanjun Higaonna, editor of the Nanto-Fudoki (Geographical Dictionary of Okinawa). Among the Japanese scholars who were interested in things Okinawan and not only supported but also instructed students in the field of Okinawan studies, are Kunio Yanagita, founder of Japanese Volkskunde, and Shinobu Orikuchi, noted poet and excellent folklorist. Both of thein visited Okinawa about 1920 for the research in folk religion and old customs, and made many contributions to the study of similarity between Japan and Okinawa. Yanagita organized the "Nanto-Danwa-kai." (Southern Islands Coversazione) and edited the "Rohen-sosho" (Fireside Series) in which are contained several works on Okinawa. With the moving of Ifa from Okinawa to Tokyo, the "Nanto-Danwa-kai" was reorganized by the Okinawans in Tokyo and named "Nanto-Bunka-kyokai" (Southern Islands Culture Association) which was the predecessor of the present "Okinawa-Bunka-Kyokai" (Okinawa Culture Association), now the only organ for studies on Okinawa in Japan. Before the war, in Okinawa, the "Okinawa-Kyodo-Kyokai" (Association for Studies on Okinawa) was established centering around Majikina, then President of the Okinawa Library, where there existed a collection of more than three thousand books on Okinawa. All of them were destroyed in air-raids. Since the end of the war, the Okinawans at home have been too preoccupied with their daily livelihoods and with the reconstruction of their war-devastated islands to resume studies on their own country. Members of the "Okinawa-Bunka-Kyokai", conscious of their mission to foster research on their culture, hold lecture meetings once a month and publish a bimonthly mimeographed organ.