contributor
26,975
edits
Changes
From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search→Sacred Spaces
[[File:Gana-mui.JPG|right|thumb|320px|The central space at [[Gana mui]], an ''[[utaki]]'' in [[Naha]]'s Oroku neighborhood.]]
[[File:Noro.jpg|right|thumb|400px|A museum display recreating a traditional ''[[noro]]'' ritual. Okinawa Prefectural Museum]]
[[File:Miruku.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The deity [[Miruku]] coming ashore from ''[[nirai kanai]]'' during a festival, bringing ''[[yugafu]]'' (good fortune), as represented in a museum display at the [[National Museum of Japanese History]]. Also seen here are a ''[[shisa]]'' (lion) and ''[[hari]]'' (dragon boat), welcoming the deity.]]
[[Buddhism]], [[Shinto]], [[Confucianism]], and Chinese folk religion (e.g. [[Tenpi]] worship) were all introduced into the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]] in the premodern period, and had considerable impacts upon local religious beliefs and practices, particularly among the [[scholar-aristocracy of Ryukyu|elites]], and particularly in the central region of [[Okinawa Island]]. However, Ryûkyû is also home to its own native/indigenous religion, a set of animist beliefs and practices likely growing out of similar or shared origins with Japanese Shinto.
[[Buddhism]], [[Shinto]], [[Confucianism]], and Chinese folk religion (e.g. [[Tenpi]] worship) were all introduced into the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]] in the premodern period, and had considerable impacts upon local religious beliefs and practices, particularly among the [[scholar-aristocracy of Ryukyu|elites]], and particularly in the central region of [[Okinawa Island]]. However, Ryûkyû is also home to its own native/indigenous religion, a set of animist beliefs and practices which many suggest likely grew out of similar or shared origins with Japanese Shinto, though others argue strongly that such ideas have colonialist and Orientalist origins and work to deny or erase Ryukyuan distinctiveness.<ref>Aike Rots, "Strangers in the Sacred Grove: The Changing Meanings of Okinawan Utaki," ''Religions'' 10:298 (2019), 8.</ref>
The ''[[Ryukyu Shinto ki|Ryûkyû Shintô ki]]'' ("Record of the Ways of the Gods in Ryûkyû") written by the Buddhist monk [[Taichu|Taichû]] in [[1605]] indicates that Ryûkyû's native religion takes two deities, ''Shinerikyo'' and ''Amamikyo'' as the creator deities. They created the lords, ''[[noro]]'' (priestesses), and common people, as well as the new storm gods ''Kisomamon''. [[Writing]], specifically the "[[sexagenary cycle|ten stems and twelve branches]]," was given to the people by Heaven.<ref>The term used for "Heaven" or "Heavenly Beings" here is 天人, which in certain contexts could also refer to the Chinese people, or the Chinese emperor. See, for example, the [[Tenshikan]], a hall for hosting envoys from the Chinese emperor, or, literally "Heavenly envoys." Such an interpretation would also align with the [[Sinocentric]] notion of the Chinese emperor as the source from whom civilized culture emanates.</ref><ref>Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, ''Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû'' 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 52-53.</ref>
The native religion does not have a set name. Though some use terms such as "''nirai kanai'' worship," this really only refers to one aspect of the complex of spiritual/religious traditions and beliefs. Some use the term "Ryûkyû Shintô," either seeing it as an innocent term referring to the "Ryukyuan way of the gods," or, as native Japanese-language speakers and Japanese citizens raised in a heavily Japanese-influenced environment, simply thinking of it as the Ryukyuan version of (or equivalent of) Shinto, though many scholars and indigenous activists rail against this notion, calling the application of Japanese terms and categories to Ryukyuan culture a colonialist imposition - a rewriting of Ryukyuan history and culture to subordinate it to Japanese categories and understandings.<ref>Rots, 8-9.</ref>
The ''[[Ryukyu Shinto ki|Ryûkyû Shintô ki]]'' ("Record of the Ways of the Gods in Ryûkyû") written by the Buddhist monk [[Taichu|Taichû]] in [[1605]] indicates that Ryûkyû's native religion takes two deities, ''[[Shinerikyo]]'' and ''[[Amamikyo]]'' as the creator deities. They created the lords, ''[[noro]]'' (priestesses), and common people, as well as the new storm gods ''Kisomamon''. [[Writing]], specifically the "[[sexagenary cycle|ten stems and twelve branches]]," was given to the people by Heaven.<ref>The term used for "Heaven" or "Heavenly Beings" here is 天人, which in certain contexts could also refer to the Chinese people, or the Chinese emperor. See, for example, the [[Tenshikan]], a hall for hosting envoys from the Chinese emperor, or, literally "Heavenly envoys." Such an interpretation would also align with the [[Sinocentric]] notion of the Chinese emperor as the source from whom civilized culture emanates.</ref><ref>Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, ''Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû'' 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 52-53.</ref>
==Sacred Spaces==
==Sacred Spaces==
Like mainland Japanese Shinto, the native Ryukyuan religion is centered in large part around naturally sacred spaces. In Ryûkyû, these are called ''[[utaki]]'', and most often take the form of sacred groves of trees, rock outcroppings, or clearings amongst the trees. While some are marked off by stone walls and gates, others simply feature small stone markers at the center of the site. [[Sefa utaki]] in southern Okinawa is considered the most sacred on the island, though [[Sonohyan utaki]] on the site of [[Shuri castle]], being associated with the king, is also a highly sacred site. Certain islands and peaks are also sacred, [[Kudaka Island]] being perhaps one of the most important. Finally, as in many Pacific Islander religions, there is a belief in a land of the gods somewhere across the sea, from which sacredness emanates. In Ryûkyû, this land is called ''[[nirai kanai]]''.<ref>"[http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-42520-storytopic-121.html Nirai kanai]," ''Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia'' 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.; Videos and exhibit displays, "Minzoku" (Folk Customs) exhibit, National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, Chiba. Viewed July 2013. </ref> [[Miruku]], a Ryukyuan form of the Buddha Maitreya (J: ''[[Miroku]]''), is said to come from ''nirai kanai'' bringing ''[[yugafu|yugafû]]'' (good fortune); this is reenacted in numerous island festivals, with a villager often dressing as Miruku and paddling to shore from the sea.
Like mainland Japanese Shinto, the native Ryukyuan religion is centered in large part around naturally sacred spaces. In Ryûkyû, these are called ''uganju'', and include sacred springs, small roadside altars, home altars, and sacred sites known as ''[[utaki]]''; ''utaki'' most often take the form of sacred groves of trees, rock outcroppings, or clearings amongst the trees. While some are marked off by stone walls and gates, others simply feature small stone markers at the center of the site. [[Sefa utaki]] in southern Okinawa is considered the most sacred on the island, though [[Sonohyan utaki]] on the site of [[Shuri castle]], being associated with the king, is also a highly sacred site. Certain islands and peaks are also sacred, [[Kudaka Island]] being perhaps the most important. Finally, as in many Pacific Islander religions, there is a belief in a land of the gods somewhere across the sea, from which sacredness emanates. In Ryûkyû, this land is called ''[[nirai kanai]]''.<ref>"[http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-42520-storytopic-121.html Nirai kanai]," ''Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia'' 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.; Videos and exhibit displays, "Minzoku" (Folk Customs) exhibit, National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, Chiba. Viewed July 2013. </ref> [[Miruku]], a Ryukyuan form of the Buddha Maitreya (J: ''[[Miroku]]''), is said to come from ''nirai kanai'' bringing ''[[yugafu|yugafû]]'' (good fortune); this is reenacted in numerous island festivals, with a villager often dressing as Miruku and paddling to shore from the sea.
In the [[Amami Islands]], villages often had an open space known as a ''myaa'' (みゃー) in the center of the village, within which a hut known as an ''ashage'' or ''toneya'' was built to serve as a site for various ceremonial or spiritual activities performed by the villagers, or by the ''noro'' (priestesses) of the village on their behalf. It was also a place where preparations for festivals and other larger ceremonies could be conducted, and where fires could be safely started and managed, away from homes. Though most ''ashage'' or ''toneya'' were traditionally straw-thatched huts, many villages today use modern concrete ''kôminkan'' ("public hall") buildings for this purpose.<ref>Gallery labels, "Ashage," Amami Nature and Culture Center, Amami Ôshima.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49490488858/sizes/l/]</ref>
Amami is also home to sacred mountains known as ''kamiyama'', linked to villages by narrow paths known as ''kami michi'' (spirit paths, or gods' roads). A typical ''kami michi'' may have been about one meter wide. It was traditionally believed that gods came from across the ocean and down the mountains in the 2nd month (of the [[Japanese calendar|traditional lunar calendar]]) each year to reside for a time in the village, returning in the 4th month.<ref>Gallery labels, "Kamimichi," Amami Nature and Culture Center, Amami Ôshima.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49491198797/in/photostream/]</ref>
==Religious Hierarchy==
==Religious Hierarchy==
Women were traditionally believed to be more spiritually powerful than men, and men more spiritually vulnerable. As a result, the most prominent and significant religious figures in the kingdom were priestesses. Though organized somewhat more loosely in earlier times, in the late 15th century, King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] formalized the priestesses into a kingdom-wide hierarchy, linking them more closely to the royal court; though still quite powerful, the religious establishment thus represented somewhat less of a political threat.
Women were traditionally believed to be more spiritually powerful than men, and men more spiritually vulnerable, an idea or belief system known as ''onarigami'' or ''unarigami''. As a result, the most prominent and significant religious figures in the kingdom were priestesses. In local communities, too, it was typically women who performed rituals and ceremonies, including for the spiritual protection of the community. Though practices differed across the archipelago, local priestesses (''[[noro]]'') often wore white robes, necklaces of large stones (sometimes including ''[[magatama]]'' beads), and sacred headdresses or lei-like necklaces made from vines.<ref>Gallery labels, "Unarigami," Amami Nature and Culture Center, Amami Ôshima.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49491199252/sizes/l/]</ref>
This new hierarchy was headed by the ''[[kikoe-ogimi|kikoe-ôgimi]]'', typically the king's sister, who was responsible for providing spiritual protection for the king and kingdom, and overseeing some of the most important royal rituals. She also oversaw the entire hierarchy of priestesses, and along with the king was in charge of appointing women to become priestesses within the hierarchy.<ref>George Kerr, ''Okinawa: the History of an Island People'', Revised ed., Tuttle Publishing (2000), 111.</ref> Directly below the ''kikoe-ôgimi'' were the ''[[Oamushirare]]'', three high priestesses who each oversaw one-third of the ''utaki'', and one-third of the ''[[noro]]'' (priestesses) of the kingdom. Beneath them, then, were the ''noro'', each of whom oversaw the ''utaki'' and spiritual affairs of a village or ''[[magiri]]'' (district); each village or ''magiri'' typically had several ''noro''. Shamanesses called ''[[yuta]]'' were significantly less powerful, but were also not strictly overseen within the hierarchy.<ref>Plaque on-site at former site of ''Kikoe-ôgimi udun'', just outside Shuri Middle School, at 2-55 Tera-chô, Shuri, Naha.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9444382739]; Plaques at reproduction of a noro's house, Okinawa Furusato Mura, Ocean Expo Park, Nakijin.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/15456827940/sizes/h/].</ref>
Though organized somewhat more loosely in earlier times, in the late 15th century, King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] formalized the priestesses into a kingdom-wide hierarchy, linking them more closely to the royal court; though still quite powerful, the religious establishment thus represented somewhat less of a political threat. This new hierarchy was headed by the ''[[kikoe-ogimi|kikoe-ôgimi]]'', typically the king's sister, who was responsible for providing spiritual protection for the king and kingdom, and overseeing some of the most important royal rituals. She also oversaw the entire hierarchy of priestesses, and along with the king was in charge of appointing women to become priestesses within the hierarchy.<ref>George Kerr, ''Okinawa: the History of an Island People'', Revised ed., Tuttle Publishing (2000), 111.</ref> Directly below the ''kikoe-ôgimi'' were the ''[[Oamushirare]]'', three high priestesses who each oversaw one-third of the ''utaki'', and one-third of the ''noro'' (priestesses) of the kingdom. Beneath them, then, were the ''noro'', each of whom oversaw the ''utaki'' and spiritual affairs of a village or ''[[magiri]]'' (district); each village or ''magiri'' typically had several ''noro''. Shamanesses called ''[[yuta]]'' were significantly less powerful, but were also not strictly overseen within the hierarchy.<ref>Plaque on-site at former site of ''Kikoe-ôgimi udun'', just outside Shuri Middle School, at 2-55 Tera-chô, Shuri, Naha.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9444382739]; Plaques at reproduction of a noro's house, Okinawa Furusato Mura, Ocean Expo Park, Nakijin.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/15456827940/sizes/h/].</ref>
==Deities==
==Deities==
A great diversity of deities or spirits are worshipped additionally in many Ryukyuan communities, in ceremonies, rituals, and festivals which differ, sometimes quite considerably, from place to place. "Visiting spirits," known as ''raihôjin'' (来訪神) in Japanese, form a particularly prominent portion of these celebrations and ceremonies. Miruku, discussed above, is perhaps the most widely-known and widely-worshipped of these "visiting" deities. Others include:<ref>Gallery labels, Okinawa Prefectural Museum.</ref>
A great diversity of deities or spirits are worshipped additionally in many Ryukyuan communities, in ceremonies, rituals, and festivals which differ, sometimes quite considerably, from place to place. "Visiting spirits," known as ''raihôjin'' (来訪神) in Japanese, form a particularly prominent portion of these celebrations and ceremonies. Miruku, discussed above, is perhaps the most widely-known and widely-worshipped of these "visiting" deities. Others include:<ref>Gallery labels, Okinawa Prefectural Museum.</ref>
*the ancestral ''[[angama]]'' spirits (''ushumai'' the grandfather and ''nmii'' the grandmother) of [[Ishigaki Island]], who visit every house on [[Obon]], presenting ''[[hanagasa]]'' dancers
*the ''[[ashibigami]]'' spirits of mountain and sea which visit communities in [[Yanbaru]] and nearby islands
*the ''[[ashibigami]]'' spirits of mountain and sea which visit communities in [[Yanbaru]] and nearby islands
*the ''boze'' of [[Akuseki Island]] (in the [[Tokara Islands]]) - enacted by villagers in large masks and grass skirts wielding long muddied staffs, who bring an energetic finale to each year's [[Obon]]
*the ''boze'' of [[Akuseki Island]] (in the [[Tokara Islands]]) - enacted by villagers in large masks and grass skirts wielding long muddied staffs, who bring an energetic finale to each year's Obon
*the ''[[fusamara]]'' of [[Hateruma Island]], who are covered in leaves and wear large cartoonish masks made from gourds, and who parade through the town praying for rain.
*the ''[[mayunganashi]]'' of Ishigaki Island, dressed in sedge hats and straw coats, who wield ''[[rokushakubo|rokushakubô]]'' staffs and go around to each house bringing fortune for the new year
*the ''[[pantu]]'' of [[Miyako Island]], figures covered in mud who visit each home and drive away evil or bad luck
*the ''[[pantu]]'' of [[Miyako Island]], figures covered in mud who visit each home and drive away evil or bad luck
*ancestral ''[[uyagan]]'' spirits welcomed in the Miyako Islands
*ancestral ''[[uyagan]]'' spirits welcomed in the Miyako Islands
