Age Grade System in Okinawan Villages : A Case Study of Matsubara, Miyako Island

Abstract

In the study on Okinawan village structure, the research on kinship organization and cult-religious organization has been highly developed since the 1960's as researchers undertook full scale investigations based on intensive field work in Okinawa. Consequently, various aspects of social and cultural systems have been revealed by those analyses. But on the other hand, it may be true that still today some social facets of the Okinawan village have been overlooked. In this paper I will analyze the character of the age grade system in Okinawan villages, based on a case study of Miyako Island. The study of this field has not been investigated fully either in collecting data or in functional-structural analysis. In retrospect, in the history of studying social organization and the ethnographical reports dealing with it, we can summarize the features of the age grade system in Okinawan villages as follows ; (1) Though age groups or age grade systems do not necessarily exist pervasively in all of the Okinawan villages at least in modern times, from a historical view, age divisions have been one of the most important factors in the social institution on Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, when they were under the control of the old taxation system (Jinto-zei) . And it has been known that there were some age grade system villages functioning in the Okinawan Islands. (2) At the present it is in the Miyako and Yaeyama regions where a considerable number of various age groups have been established. In many cases the age divisions of these groups correspond to the divisions of the old taxation. So historically we can suppose that there was a relationship between them. (3) As for the connection between age groups or age grade systems and the whole structure of the villagese, it is still hardly clear. But according to a report by Prof. Uematsu, both religious and political organizations are regulated or adjusted by the order of the age grade in Aragusuku Island, and she wrote that Aragusuku is quite likely the ideal type of an age grading village. (4) It is in Miyako Island that age groups are notably established at the present time. But as most studies of age groups have been associated with the studies of cult organization in this region, recognition of those groups as the age grade system in the social structure has not progressed. In such a situation, I have been investigating Matsubara village in Hirara city since 1972. In Matsubara the male age grade system was maintained until the 1950's. The males who were from 7 years to 50 years old belonged to the respective age groups in accordance with their ages. Age groups consisted of Kodomo Nakama (7-15) , Sunka (17-40) and Nigazumi (42-50). Moreover, Sunka was further divided. Kodomo Nakama had some roles in a few regular annual rites. In contrast, Sunka carried out political and economical roles (in the secular sphere) in the village organization, Nigazumi performed the religious part (in the sacred sphere) . Thus, Matsubara had been totally integrated by such an age grade system. As for the establishment of this system, it must be considered that the system was connected with the character of the productive structure, social stratification based on the status of households, and of kinship organization. Since the 1960's, the age grade system in Matsubara has been disorganized because of demographic changes, namely, almost all of the young and middle generations have begun to leave the village rapidly, and Sunka could not maintain itself initially as a group. Today the function of Nigazumi is retained by only a few members.