Learning from the Utah of Ishigaki Island--Urbanization and the Crossroads of Spiritual Culture (1980s)

Learning from the Utah of Ishigaki Island--Urbanization and the Crossroads of Spiritual Culture (1980s)

The 1980s was a time of accelerating economic affluence in Japan, but at the same time a spiritual vacuum and the dilution of local culture were becoming increasingly serious. In particular, traditional beliefs and communal ties were rapidly disappearing as rural areas depopulated and the concentration of population in urban areas accelerated. In such an era, the existence of a folk medium called "yuta," who took root on Ishigaki Island, was not merely a religious phenomenon, but was attracting attention as a spiritual pillar of the community.

Yuta are miko (priestesses) who communicate with ancestral spirits and deities that have existed on Okinawa Island and the Sakishima Islands since ancient times. As a link between this world and the spirit world, yutas have been able to help people with their anxieties and struggles in areas where medical treatment and government administration cannot penetrate. Especially on Ishigaki Island, the yuta was not just a fortune teller, but a trusted member of the community and an indispensable presence at important milestones such as funerals, construction, and marriages.

In the 1980s, psychopathology and social isolation began to attract attention in urban areas, and "mental care" became a requirement in medicine, but on Ishigaki Island, the yutas were responsible for such care. In this report, through the words of the yuta actually interviewed, the rituals, and the interactions with the counselors, a communal prescription for "invisible problems" that cannot be dealt with by modern medicine was presented.

The author also mentioned the increasing commercialization of the presence of Utah in the tourism industry, and from the perspective of "consumption of traditional culture," he sounded the alarm about how urbanization is transforming spiritual culture. In the midst of the Okinawa boom and growing spirituality, the Utah culture was also facing a crisis in which its original function was being diluted by the outside world's gaze.

This report reaffirms the value of "invisible relationships" and "communal support" that we are forgetting through the figure of the yuta, and highlights the importance of the spiritual soil that has been devalued on the back of economic growth.