Man and Crabs in Yaeyama Folk Song: Crab-species Identification and the Folkzoological Background

Abstract

The Yaeyama Islands have been called the province of poetry and song since ancient times. The islands are a treasury of folklore that has attracted many scholars for many years. The islands are rich in folk songs that deal, humorously or ironically, with the small animals living near human habitats. Among the innumerable songs about crabs in particular, the ' amparunumidagaama yunta' song is most popular. Amparu is a mangrove tideland located about 10 km northwest of Ishigaki City and is a paradise for coastal fauna and flora. The song describes the morphological appearances and behavioral characteristics of 15 species of small crabs at Amparu, and personifies them in a manner unique to the genre of yunta songs in the Yaeyama Islands. There is still some uncertainty about the identities of the crabs in the song. To try to identify the species, we studied the folkzoological context of the song in the vicinity of Amparu on Ishigaki Island.