Research Issues in the Culture and Society of the Amami Islands Sueo KUWAHARA
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KAWAI, K., TERADA, R. and KUWAHARA, S. (eds): The Islands of Kagoshima Kagoshima University Research Center for the Pacific Islands, 15 March 2013 Chapter 2 Research Issues in the Culture and Society of the Amami Islands Sueo KUWAHARA 1. Introduction and seen to cause of discrimination. As a result, agoshima Prefecture comprises an area of using dialect in school was strictly forbidden, as Ksouthern Kyushu and a number of islands. educators were concerned that if school students The majority of these islands are located to the could not speak standard Japanese well they south and comprise the northerly part of the Nansei would be discriminated against and/or be social- chain, which extends from Kyushu over one thou- ly-maladjusted and lose self-confidence if they sand kilometers down to the Ryukyu Islands of later moved to reside in urban centers in mainland Okinawa Prefecture. The Nansei Islands com- Japan. Anecdotal evidence suggests there were prise four sub-groups, the Osumi, Tokara, Amami some Amamians who lived in urban centers who and Ryukyu Islands, the first three of which are often listened to shimauta records in private, so part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Six of the Osumi as not to attract attention to their difference, and Islands and seven of the Tokara Islands are in- many felt that they could not reveal their identity habited. The Amami Islands, which are located in openly in mainland Japan. However, around the the southernmost part of Kagoshima Prefecture, 1980s, the ‘otherness’ (and uniqueness) of Amami comprise eight inhabited islands located between culture came to be regarded very differently. This Amami-Oshima Is. and Yoronjima Is., over a dis- cultural difference became regarded as a valuable tance of two hundreds kilometers. There is a clear asset. The success of Okinawan musicians on the boundary between the Amami and Tokara Islands national music scene and the popularity of shi- in terms of both flora and fauna and folk culture mauta in Amami in the 1990s were of importance (SAMESHIMA 1995, SHIMONO 1986). Together with in changing views of Amami culture. However, it the Ryukyu Islands, the Amami Islands are part of was Wadatsumi no Ki, a nationwide hit for Amami a semitropical region home to many coral reefs and singer Chitose HAJIME in 2002 that was epoch- distinct plants and animals. Recently, the value of making for Amami, allowing its music culture to biodiversity in Amami has become apparent, and be acknowledged nationwide. For Amami people, a move towards gaining registration as a World too, it was a landmark event because they came to Natural Heritage region is underway. Amami is rediscover the value of their own culture and to be also a culturally diverse region, with significant able to have self-pride as Amamians. differences in aspects of local dialects and folk cul- It is important to consider Amami culture and ture not only among the islands but also amongst society today with regard to what researchers have villages on the same island. revealed about its unique attributes. These analy- Amami culture, which has been influenced by ses can inform discussions regarding the future both Ryukyu and mainland Japan, is quite unique, development of Amami as it strives towards World and the dialect, cosmology, religious beliefs and Heritage listing. traditional performing art forms such as folk song (shimauta) and August dance (hachigatsu odori) 2. Studies of Amami have been studied as forms highly distinct from espite the islands’ socio-economic under- those of mainland Japan. Until the 1970s, these Ddevelopment and distance from more devel- differences were primarily regarded as negative oped areas, Amami has produced many profes- 5 Kagoshima University Research Center for the Pacific Islands sionals who have gone on to work in fields such few more villages in northwest region of Amami- as administration, medical services, academe, the Oshima Is. called Uken, and from there, he finally legal sector and business. The islands have also came back to Naze by boat. Thus he made a trip produced several excellent local historians and around half of Amami-Oshima Is., during which folklorists. About six thousand articles, reports and he conducted field research on annual events, folk books on many regional topics are listed in a book tales, and a female priest called noro. The results of entitled Amami Kankei Shiryo Mokuroku (Amami this trip were documented in the book mentioned Data Catalogue) (IRISA 1994). The volume merits above. The reason that YANAGITA became interested mention here as it documents the extensive re- in Amami and Okinawa was that he was attempting search that has been undertaken on Amami Islands, to find the affinity between mainland Japan and the a region with a population of only 110,000. southern islands. In particular, he thought that the The first written record of Amami culture and study on Amami and Okinawa would contribute in society is Nanto Zatsuwa “Miscellaneous stories revealing not only the origin of the folk culture of of South Island,” which was written in the mid- mainland Japan, but also the question of where the 19th century by Sagenta NAGOYA, a young and tal- ancestors of present-day Japanese came from. ented samurai. He was punished by banishment to YANAGITA’s book Kainan Shouki acted as an ex- Amami-Oshima Is. on a charge of political con- ample for local historians and folklorists, and there spiracy and lived in exile there for five years from have been a series of studies done by them since 1851. He left more than three hundred illustrations then. Among them, Amami Oshima Minzokushi with short descriptions about the nature and folk “A monograph on the Folklore of Amami-Oshima culture of Amami. This work, describing plants Is.” by Yuko SHIGENO (1927) and Eikichi KAZARI’s and animals, work and entertainment, religious Amami Oshima Minyo Taikan “General Survey on beliefs, and the daily life of Amami people, pro- Folk Music of Amami-Oshima Is.” (1933) were vided a valuable record and is regarded as the most especially important accounts of Amami folk cul- important ethnographical account of pre-modern ture and gave an overview of folk songs. Shomu Amami. NOBORI’s book Dai Amamishi “Grand History of The academic study of Amami is generally per- Amami” (1949) described Amami history from ceived to have commenced with Kunio YANAGITA, ancient to modern times, and also all aspects of the founder of Japanese Folklore studies, who Amami culture from family, kinship, and religious published Kainan Shouki “Notes on the Southern worship to folk performing art, and is considered Islands” in 1925, based on his trips to Okinawa to be a classic of Amami studies.1 and Amami-Oshima Is. YANAGITA came to Amami- By contrast, the first anthropological study Oshima Is. on his way back from Okinawa, his in Amami was not undertaken by a Japanese but initial destination (UENO 1983a: 8). In Amami- by Douglas HARING, an American anthropologist Oshima Is., he started his trip southward from from Syracuse University in New York, who was Naze, the capital, to Koniya, a port at the south- in the region in 1951-52 during the period of US ernmost point of Amami-Oshima Is., by crossing occupation. HARING came to Japan and Okinawa a steep mountain route called Santaro Pass on as a member of the Pacific Science Board of the foot. Then, he took a boat to Kakeroma Is., where National Research Council (NRC) in Washington he visited a few villages. After that, he visited a D.C. The purpose of the NRC was to conduct 1. See also SAKAGUCHI (1921), IWAKURA (1943), NOMA (1942), KASHIWA (1954), SAKAE (1960), EBARA(1973), TABATA (1976), etc. Also each town or village has a historical and folkloristic monographs on an each town or village. For example, Naze-shishi Hensan-iinkai (1968), Kasari-choshi Shippitsu-Iinkai (1973), Tatsugo-choshi rekishi-hen hensan-iinkai (1988), Setouchi-choshi hensan-iinkai (1977), Sumiyo- sonshi hensan-iinkai (2002), Yamato-sonshi hensan-iinkai (1981), Kikai-choshi hensan-iinkai (2000), Tokunoshima-choshi hensan-iinkai (1970), Wadomari-choshi hensan-iinkai (1984), China-choshi hen- san-iinkai (1982), Yoron-cho kyouiku-iinkai (1988), etc. 6 The Islands of Kagoshima academic research in Okinawa and the Miyako, Academic Societies” were the first to come and Yaeyama and Amami Islands between 1951 to conducted fieldwork for two years in and their re- 1952. HARING was sent to Amami from September search outcome was published as Amami: Shizen 1951 to March 1952. He conducted anthropologi- to Bunka “Amami: Nature and Culture” in 1959. cal research there for a half year, and went back to Twenty years later, Kyugakkai Rengo undertook the US after a brief stay in Tokyo. The purpose of further field research in the Amami Islands. The his research in Amami-Oshima Is. was to inves- changes in nature and society in the twenty years tigate and make a report about the socio-cultural between were investigated in detail and the sec- and economic situation of the people in Amami- ond book, called Amami: Shizen, Bunka, Shakai Oshima Is. to the US military government office in “Amami: Nature, Culture, and Society,” was pub- Okinawa. He went round Naze City and its neigh- lished in 1982. In this way, extensive social re- boring villages and some other villages in north- search was carried out and intensive research docu- ern Amami-Oshima Is. almost every day by a jeep mentation of folklore practice was also published. with his interpreter and assistant, and conducted a Stimulated by Kyugakkai Rengo’s field study, participatory research on a family dinner, a party, a many Japanese anthropologists actively pursued meeting, a concert, hachigatsu odori, a festival, a fieldwork throughout the Amami Islands from im- religious ceremony and a funeral.