A number of festivals, manners and customs, and religious practices of Chinese origin are still prevailing in Okinawa. The author has been engaged since 1966 in research into some of those customs and practices which are apparently more or less related to Taoism. An attempt has been made to determine to what degree they are associated with those customs, etc., of China. A large part of the research done before 1974 has already been published, so the remainder, including the result of the research of 1975 is presented here. However, the research concerning religious practices of Chinese origin is not included here because space forbids. The areas covered are a part of each of the following islands of Okinawa : Iheya-shima, Izena-shima, Okinawa-honto, Miyako-jima, Ikema-jima, Irabu-jima, Kohama-jima. Kuro-shima. Taketomi-jima, Yonaguni-jima. Just behind the front gate of every house in Okinawa, there is something like a wall made of stones or block of some kind. This is called "himpun" in many parts of Okinawa-honto. This construction is still commonly found in those areas as in the areas previously researched by the author and even newly built houses usually have one. Though different names are given to this construction in different areas, Okinawa-honto, Miyako, and Yaeyama areas have a similar structure. Though it is commonly said to be built there so that the inside of the house is protected from the eyes of outsiders, some people and Yutas consider it to be a protection against devils. Since, in Fu-chien, China, too, a similar construction is built of wood and regarded as having a talismanic value, the assumption is that it is from China. As it is believed in Miyako and Yaeyama areas that it came from Okinawa-honto, it is suspected that this structure originated in Fu-chien and was introduced to Okinawa-honto first, then diffused to Miyako and Yaeyama. Another thing to be found in Okinawa is Shih-kan-tang, as it is locally called. This is a stone pillar of talismanic value built at the corner of an intersection or where a narrow passage meets a main street. Usually, the Chinese 石敢当 (pronounced Shin-kan-tang) are carved on its face and some have animal faces designed above the characters. In Amoi, I have heard, it is transformed into a stone lion figure. In Okinawa in all three areas, it is built exactly at the same location and with the same intention as in China. However, Miyako and Yaeyama areas (some parts of Miyako excluded) have fewer of them than Okinawa-honto. It is suspected that in these two areas it was combined and fused with the local belief in a god of stone. The first people to take up this custom in Okinawa seem to have been Sanjin-so's (who professionally told fortunes by the sun) , for they are in possession of Chinese books on the construction of Shih-kan-tang. Also, the people in Miyako and Yaeyama areas believe this custom was brought from Okinawa-honto. What is different from China is that Shih-kan-tang is quite rarely, if ever, worshipped here in Okinawa. The third custom found in Okinawa is the writing of the Chinese characters 天官賜福紫微鑾駕 (pronounced Tun-kuan-tzu-fu-tzu-wei-luen-chia) or 紫微鑾駕: (pronounced tzu-wei-luen-chia) on the ridge beam for the ceremony of setting up the framework of a house. These characters serve as a spell to guard against evils and to envite good fortune-ideas closely related to Taoism. In Formosa this custom was widely observed as late as the period of the Japanese Occupation. In Okinawa-honto this started early in the eighteenth century but was followed only by a small portion of the natives living in tile-roofed houses. It seems that Yuta and Sanjinso had something to do with this custom. It is understood that it came to Miyako and Yaeyama areas years later.

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The purpose of this essay is to describe and analyze different usages of Okinawan kinship terminology. I do this on the assumption 1) that kinship terms are polysemic ; 2) that different meanings of a term must be defined in relation to various contexts in which the terms occur ; 3) that terminological analysis must be "componential" : i. e., terms must be defined and analyzed not independently, but in relation to other terms which compose a single system ; 4) that different meanings of terms may constitute plural systems of terminological usages ; and 5) that these systems, though utilizing morphologically identical terms, may be structurally distinct. The notion of polysemy and its theoretical framework is best explained in the first three chapters of Scheffler and Lounsbury's 1971 monograph. Methodologically, I followed the analytical procedures developed by Goodenough (1967 and 1968) , particularly in carrying out the analysis of genealogical usages. The terminological data were obtained between August 1969 and December 1970 in an argicultural village in Motobu County, Okinawa, Japan. The paper demonstrates the following : 1) Depending upon the kind of persons (kin vs, non-kin) involved, and upon the manner of identification (reference vs, address) , I could identify four distinct terminological systems : Reference terminology pertaining to kin (System Ia) , Address terminology pertaining to kin (System Ib) , Address terminology applicable to non-kin (System II) , and Sociocentric terminology in which all the members of the community are referentially identified (System III) . The terms in each system occur in distinct synactic contexts. 2) The terminological analysis reveals that each system, despite the utilization of morphologically identical terms in more than one system, is structurally distinct from the other systems in that the configuration of classificatory principles are unique in each system. 3) System Ia is egocentric, bilaterally symmetrical, and bounded. Since the terms for the kin types of the system are generationally and lineally exactly differentiated, the system as a whole takes the form of several concentric circles with the ego at the center. "Step-kin" are terminologically equated with the consanguineal kin to whom they are married, but "m laws" are not. 4) The terms of System lb apply to the same kind of kin as System la. The system is,. therefore, bounded. It is also egocentric and bilaterally symmetrical. However, the system divides people into two major groups : those who are older than ego, and the others. The first group is addressed with kinship terms, and the second group by the addressee's personal name without honorific suffix. Kinship terms for the first group are "classificatory" in that a few primary terms are "extended" to identify more distantly related kin by neutralizing the principle of lineality. Thus, the system as a whole tends to be generational. In contrast to, System la consanguineal kin "step-kin" and "in-laws" are terminologically undifferentiated in this system. 5) System II divides non-kin into "leaders" and the others. The latter consists of those senior to ego who are addressed with so-called kin terms, and the rest who are addressed with their personal names. "Kin" terms utilized in this system are those which denote (in System la) parent's father, parent's mother, elder brother, and elder sister. They specifically do not include any term relating to the parent-child relationship, the basic unit of authority transmission in this society. In choosing among various forms of terms, ego can, in this system, consciously or unconsciously express, or manipulate human relationships around him.

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The eel is an interesting creature from the standpoint of biology, that is, its migration, its geographical distribution, its transformation of sex and so on. And because of its mysterious life, many legends and beliefs concerning the eel also have been originated and transmitted all over the world since ancient times. What interests the author is the ethnographic information that some ethnic groups don,t eat eels at all in Formosa, Micronesia, the Philippines and so on, with relation to totem ,animal and ancestor worship. Although we can hear a lot of folklore concerning eels in Japan, a non-eel-diet taboo is almost always told with Buddhist Kokuzo-Belief. The folk-explanation is that an eel is the messenger or the favorite food of Kokuzo-Budhisattva (akasa-garbha) and therefore should not eat it. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the development of an interrelationship between eels and Kokuzo-Budhisatta and to analyse several aspects of a non-eel-diet taboo in the historical ,context. Japanese folktales around the eel are classified according to the following items : (a) An eel as the messenger of a Kami (god) or of Buddha. The deities usually represented being that of Suijin (a water deity) , Mishimamyojin (三島明神) , Konpiragongen (金比羅宮) or Kokuzo-Bodhisattva. (b) An eel which transforms itself into a man, usually a monk. This eel usually represents the guardian spirit of a pond or river. (c) A one-eyed eel. These always possess magical powers. (d) An unusual or mutated eel and its activities. (i. e. a red, yellow or white eel an eel having large ears.) (e) The origin of a place name after an eel ; i. e., eel-mound, eel-wamp, eel-abyss, eel-paddy, etc. An overview of these folk tales leads to the following concept : People in early times thought the eel was a water deity itself, or the messenger of a water deity who was the guardian spirit of a pond, marsh, river, deep or lake. The eel inspired apprehension among these primitive folk due to its strange appearance and activities. Also in Japan, there is some evidence which indicates that the eel may be a mythical ancestor. The belief that spiritual creatures in water bodies may change into a one-eyed eel, which indicates the tenement of a god, is an idea promulgated by the late Kunio Yanagita. In another legend, the eel appears in a deluge in which the eel is transformed into a monk who warns the populace of approaching disaster and consequently saves them from catastro-phe. Kokuzo-Bodhisattva beliefs have included the mitigation or avoidance of disaster since the Nara Period. One particular Kokuzo sutra, which prevailed widely among temples practicing Kokuzo beliefs in Japan, portrays Kokuzo-Bodhisattva as an itinerant priest who displays his ability to avert disaster more effectively than any other Bodhisattva. Shingon Sect priests (当山派修験) , as proponents of this Kokuzo belief, have connected this belief with that of the eel and its appearance during innundation. The aforementioned information is the product of research data obtained from Tokurenji Temple (徳蓮寺) in Mie Prefecture. Tokurenji Temple belongs to the Shingon Sect and has tradition that the itinerant Kobodaishi (a founder of the Shingon Sect) stayed at this temple at some point in its early history. Many "Ema" (small wooden tablets with an optative phrase and a suitable picture) are dedicated to this temple and most of them are pictures drawn with a catfish and an eel. we can guess that the catfish was added at a later date because of the synonimity of its name and the name of a skin disease "namazu" and the folk-connection of the catfish to the cure of the disease.

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