6　「巫者の平和学」試論――死者の感受と沖縄からの平和祈念

抄録

Folk practitioners of the Okinawa Islands pray for peace. In the world view of Okinawa, the dead are now alive in the after world. Such a world is thought to be near to the everyday living world in Okinawa. The activities of folk practitioners make one of the introductions to the new peace studies. Folk practitioners can feel the presence of those fallen from the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. They pray for the world peace from the point of view of the pain experienced by those killed.

We must endeavour to construct wisdom for peace, by way of the idea, that we, humankind, include our own death. The numerous dead along with their pain from the war are vital reminders for us of the importance to perform peace keeping activities and peace studies, now and the future. In this essay, three case studies of folk practitioners and their activities for peace are presented. As a conclusion, this paper insists that we must reconsider the importance of religious prayer in relation to peace, as we try to combine them with common peace keeping activities within our peace studies. Folk practitioners modestly tell us, that if we remove the idea of death, from our wisdom,we cannot truly investigate peace studies anymore. This is a strong philosophical message to all of us.