Ryukyuan culture (琉球の文化, ''Ryūkyū no bunka'') are the cultural elements of the indigenous

Ryukyuan people The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...

, an ethnic group native to

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

and parts of

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

in southwestern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The cultural elements of the Ryukyuans are far from a unified entity, with different islands having their own distinct subculture and practices. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the Tokara and

Ōsumi Islands The is an archipelago in the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu Archipelago, and are the northernmost group of the Ryukyu Islands, The chain extends from the southern tip of Kyushu to Yakushima. Administratively, the group belongs within Kagoshima Prefecture ...

are of Yamato Japanese descent, akin to the inhabitants of mainland Japan.

Music

There are many styles of music exclusive to the Ryukyu Islands. The most popular one is arguably the genre of eisa from the

Okinawa Islands The are an island group in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and are the principal island group of the prefecture. The Okinawa Islands are part of the larger Ryukyu Islands group and are located between the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture to the ...

. It typically incorporates dancing, taiko drums and the three-stringed

sanshin The is a Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyuan musical instrument and precursor of the mainland Japanese (). Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings. Origins The sanshin is believed to have originated fro ...

(Okinawan

shamisen The , also known as or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually b ...

). In the

Amami Islands The The name ''Amami-guntō'' was standardized on February 15, 2010. Prior to that, another name, ''Amami shotō'' (奄美諸島), was also used. is a Japanese archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is part of the Ryukyu Islands, and is sout ...

of Kagoshima, a musical style known as shima-uta has gained recent popularity in mainland Japan as a result of its usage by contemporary singers. Besides eisa and shima-uta, there are many more traditional styles of Ryukyuan music, many of which cannot be found in mainland Japan. The musical culture also differs heavily between each island group. For example, eisa is not popularized in most of the Amami Islands (with the exception of Yoron and Okinoerabu). The Amami Islands also have their own version of the Okinawan sanshin, differing in both material and sound. Today, traditional Ryukyuan music still maintains a heavy presence in the Nansei Islands. New genres have also been created by mixing folk music with modern instruments and techniques.

Languages

Traditionally, the Ryukyuan people spoke the

Ryukyuan languages The , also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. Ju ...

, a sub-branch of the

Japonic language family Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan () is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and significant progress ...

. Conservatively, there are six Ryukyuan varieties in total: the Okinawan,

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and Municipalities ...

, Miyakoan, Yaeyama,

Yonaguni , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. The island is administered as the Towns of Japan, town of Yonaguni, Okinawa, Yonaguni, Ya ...

and Amami languages. They are not mutually intelligible with

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, nor with each other for the most part.

Origins

When the

Yayoi people The were an ancient people that immigrated to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD) and are characterized by the existence of Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1 ...

migrated to the Japanese archipelago from

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, they likely brought over the

Proto-Japonic Proto-Japonic, also known as Proto-Japanese or Proto-Japanese–Ryukyuan, is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed language ancestral to the Japonic languages, Japonic language family. It has been reconstructed by using a combination of int ...

language. Between the 2nd and 9th centuries, Japonic speakers inhabited the Ryukyu Islands. While the exact time frame is unknown, the Proto-Japonic language split into

Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial. Old Ja ...

and Proto-Ryukyuan during the first millennium AD. There are two theories regarding the origins of Proto-Ryukyuan: # Proto-Ryukyuan was already diverging as a distinct entity from Proto-Japonic even before its speakers arrived in the Ryukyu Islands. # Proto-Ryukyuan diverged from Proto-Japonic after Yayoi migrants arrived in the Ryukyu Islands. Regardless of theory, the speech of the Ryukyuans continued to develop separately from that of the Japanese mainland.

Usage

When the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

was an independent nation, the Ryukyuan languages were widely spoken among its people. However, after the

Ryūkyū Disposition The , also called the or the annexation of Okinawa, was the political process during the early years of the Meiji era, Meiji period that saw the incorporation of the former Ryukyu Kingdom into the Empire of Japan as Okinawa Prefecture (i.e., one ...

occurred in the 1870s, the kingdom was annexed into the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

. From there, the Ryukyuan languages saw a steady decline as a result of assimilation policies. These policies were often aggressive, with

dialect card A was a type of card used in a punishment system of Japanese regional schools in the post-Meiji period to promote the Tokyo dialect of Japanese in favor of other Japanese dialects and other Japonic languages. A student who spoke in dialect would ...

s (方言札, ''hōgen-fuda'') being issued to students who spoke Ryukyuan rather than Standard Japanese. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the discrimination against the Ryukyuan languages heightened. Thousands of Okinawan speakers were killed for "spying", as the Japanese soldiers were unable to understand them and thus were suspicious. The Ryukyuan languages continued to decline even after the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

and into the American occupation period. Today, Ryukyuan languages mainly persist among elderly inhabitants, with the majority of younger Ryukyuans being monolingual in Japanese. As a result of language mixing between Standard Japanese and a Ryukyuan substrate, new varieties of Japanese have arisen in the Ryukyu Islands. In Okinawa, this is known as Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi (Okinawan Japanese). In

Amami Ōshima , also known as Amami, is the largest island in the Amami Islands, Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa. It is one of the Satsunan Islands, all of which belong to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 712.35 ...

, it's called Ton-futsūgo (Amami Japanese). In 2009,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

included the Ryukyuan languages in its atlas. The Yaeyama and Yonaguni languages are classified as "severely endangered", whereas the other 4 Ryukyuan varieties are "definitely endangered".

Cuisine

The cuisine of the Ryukyu Islands are a diverse collection of regional foods, and have been influenced by other cuisines as a result of trade during the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom. There have also been recent additions to local Ryukyuan cuisine as a result of American military presence. Popular dishes include goya champuru,

rafute Rafute is a pork belly dish in Okinawan cuisine, from the island of Okinawa, Japan. It consists of skin-on pork belly stewed in soy sauce and brown sugar. The dish is related to '' kakuni'' and Dongpo pork. It is traditionally considered to help ...

and

taco rice is a popular example of modern Okinawan cuisine. It consists of taco-flavored ground beef served on a bed of rice, frequently served with shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato and salsa. Charlie's Tacos, serving tacos in shells made from ...

. In the Amami Islands, a chicken-based soup known as keihan rice is popular throughout

. The historical staple food of the Ryukyu Islands was the

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

Religion

The traditional beliefs of the Ryukyu Islands are known as the

Ryukyuan religion Ryukyu may refer to: * Ryukyu Islands, a volcanic arc archipelago * Ryukyuan languages * Ryukyuan people * Kingdom of Ryukyu (1429–1879) * Ryukyu (My Hero Academia), Ryuko Tatsuma, a character in the animanga series ''My Hero Academia'' See als ...

, an animistic faith with influences from

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and other eastern religions. Practices are mainly centered around deity and ancestor worship, with different rituals being performed. These rituals are generally performed by women, as they are believed to be spiritually stronger than men. This can be reflected in the hierarchy of the Ryukyu Kingdom, where priestesses held considerable power. In the Ryukyuan religion, it's said that the Ryukyu Islands were formed by creation goddess

Amamikyu , or , is the creation goddess of the Ryukyu Islands in the Ryukyuan religion. Name Amamikyu's name comes from the reading of the Chinese characters 阿摩美久 or 阿摩彌姑, which were most likely written ad hoc for the Okinawan pronunciati ...

, who bore three children. The first son became the king, the first daughter became the head priestess and the third child became the first farmer. These 3 children are said to be the ancestors of the Ryukyuan people. In addition to Amamikyu, there are many other gods for specific actions or objects. Much like Shinto in mainland Japan, Ryukyuan beliefs still maintain a ceremonial presence in the region.

References

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