Robinson - Okinawa: A People and Their Gods

Chapter 1

SOME
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS
OF OKINAWA RELIGION

KAMI

From time immemorial the people of Okinawa seem to have believed in kami; it is a basic expression of their ancient folk religion. Kami is an animistic concept that all things living and dead possess a spirit; they may dwell, therefore, in all things animate or inanimate. As superhuman forces they possess the power to either help or hinder human endeaver. There are many kami, each independent from the other; it is necessary, therefore, to be in bad grace with only one kami to experience unfortunate consequences. Kami are deities, but the line between man and kami is as vague as the concept of kami itself. Nevertheless, since kami are seen as the source of divine intervention in human life, they function as gods for the believer.

Kami act in various ways: they supervise, influence, alter, or inform. They may also be organized in categories and arranged according to rank. According to one writer the heaven or natural phenomena kami is the highest. This is the kami who is said to have ordered two sibling-kami to create Kudaka Shima and populate the island. This kami is not to be confused with the Judeo/Christian God of Creation. Next in rank are the place or location kami. These are the kami of the well, pigpen, hearth, or paddy. Third in rank are the occupational or status kami. It is believed that every person has a kami that determines his spiritual status. Kami-persons (kaminchu) are thought to possess the highest spiritual status because of the kami that has possessed them. Status kami (saa) can be neither acquired nor rejected. One's status, it is believed, may be determined by a yuta or a fortuneteller; but since most religious offices are inherited, this tends to be determined by birth.

Ranking fourth, but by no means unimportant, are the ancestral kami (futuki). The last category is that of the kami person (kaminchu) who, despite human responsibilities (by some as a wife and mother), assumes a semi-devine status when she dons the white kimono and functions as a priestess. Both priestesses and yuta are commonly considered to be kami persons, although there is some question concerning the latter.

Since kami may be present in all things, their number is almost without end. Among the most influential kami in every day life are the hearth/fire kami (fii nu kang/kami); ancestral kami (futuki); life sustaining kami (mabui); remote ancestor kami (chiji), whom one serves and who offer guidance; ghosts (majimung); and a male spirit who lives in the Indian banyan reet (kijimunaa). In addition to these there is thought to be a nonpoisonous snake called "akamataa," who is said to possess the power to transform himself into a handsome young man with the power to seduce women. Those who fall prey to his charms are said to give birth to snakes. At least one shrine has been built in celebration of his defeat, the Kannondo Buddhist temple, at Yabu Village; this temple was originally built about 400 years ago.

AUTHORITY FOR KAMI FAITH

In traditional Okinawan thought there are two sources of knowledge: empirical, which is available to everyone; and supernatural revelation, which is limited to kami-persons. Kami-persons are instructed through hearing or dreaming, while being bodily possessed (completely or partially), or during a waking vision at which time the kaminchu is in full possession of her senses. In the latter experience the individual is a spectator or participant in something which he both hears and sees. Since this instruction is revelatory in nature, formal training is rejected as being not necessary; actually, training for the religious office is acquired through association with other priestess and yuta are considered to be divinely conferred. This is balanced in the thinking of the ordinary person by consultation with several kaminchu and the acceptance of the most reasonable opinion.