Shamanism As a Symbol for Okinawan-ness: Identity Politics in Japanese Films and Literature Depicting Okinawa

E/B Ina Hein and Isabelle Prochaska-Meyer “40 Years Since Reversion: Negotiating the Okinawan Difference in Japan Today”Department of East Asian Studies/ Japanese Studies, Univ. of Vienna

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In recent years, increasing number of films and literature describing Okinawa raises the topics of shamans including Yuta and its shamanistic culture as a representation of the “essence of Okinawa” and the “typicality of Okinawa.” It is mentioned that such revaluations of shamanistic culture as a representation of the ethnic identity is closely related to the “revival of shamanism,” and the phenomenon of “religious revival”. This is because shamanism has a function of having “anti-authoritarian and anti-institutional mechanism.”