Tug-of-war in Tonaki village, Shimajiri, Okinawa is held annually on the 25th day of the 6th lunar month with Kashiki festival. It is the purpose of this paper to consider the expected roles or functions in Kashiki tug-of-war from the two contexts that of inside and of outside of Tonaki village. Because of tourism movement in recent years, many tug-of-war festivals in other Okinawa villages are now following to solar calender. However, Tonaki village keeps to take place Kashiki tug-of-war according to the lunar calender even though the new event "Tonaki festival", which was created to promote tourism, was added. And also the village gives his prior attention to home-grown people in Kashiki tug-of-war. From these aspects, Kashiki tug-of-war seems to be maintained in some sort of 'closed' context for insiders. In other words, despite promotion of tourism, Kashiki tug-of-war is being "not for sale" for the tourists. Tonaki villagers not only dodge the expectations of tourists and of ex-home-grown people, but also take advantage of those expectations into their context to maintain their traditional value or tradition itself in the modern world.
