When we discuss the problem of how to recognize the world around us, regional differences have a definite significance. On understanding of this problem is also of value in the case of reconstructing the spacial order by using the data of a small village. the purpose of this paper is to take up the case of a religious village. Hasuge of Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, and clarify the space construction formed by Hasuge villagers. In Edo era, Hasuge has been the village of shugenja, the practitioners of shugendo. Shugendo is a Japanese mountanious religion which took the form of a sect near the end of Heian era when Japan's ancient religious practices in the mountains had come under the influence of various foreign religions. Shugenja, the practitioners of shugendo, who retreat into the mountains where they practise various ascetic rites for a number of days, then they go back to the place where ordinary people are living, where they exhibit supernatural powers by making devinations, exorcisms and so on. The role of shugenja is to act as a mediating bridge between "this world" and "the other" through which their supernatural power may be transmitted. As the character of shugenja would implicate, they are supposed to be a group which live in liminal places ; the border of mountanious district and level land, the land at the edge of the water, the boundary with sacred taboo quality, etc. Hasuge, near Nakatsu river, is located on the edge of Tanzawa mountains and Nakatsu level land. This space construction helped make them the mediator between "sacred" and "profane". The present villagers in Hasuge are not shugenja, because sects of shugendo was prohibited by Meiji government in 1872. But, it seems to me that a continuity of their function still exists from the view point of the space construction. In order to make it clear, it is neccessary to classify the space in Hasuge village through the analysis of ethnographical data and historical documents. On the operational level, we divide the space construction in Hasuge village into two parts ; inner world and outer world, and, first, we'll illustrate the character of the inner world. The space of the inner world in old Hasuge village consisted of three areas. They are the following. 1) a religious area, tax free land 2) a reclaimed rice-field where villagers are responsible for the payment of taxes 3) a rice-field where commander-in-chiefs in Edo era made an offering toward shugenja Of the three areas, let us consider the "religious area" as being looked upon as the central part by villagers, and classify it into two areas ; a holy place and a settlement. Historical geographical documents writes that the holy place is located in a mountanious district, the western part, and the settlement is located in a valley, the eastern part. These locations and their designations retain their original connotations to the present-day. It may be noted that the implication of this orientation is important to the space construction. Villagers who live in Hasuge, have the idea that the western part is "sacred", but that the eastern part is "profane". By giving a detailed account of the space construction, we can discover a fundamental axis from southeast to northwest. Since the path that villagers climb up to worship the Hasuge shrine in a holy place, goes from southeast to northwest, and Mt. Hasuge is represented by a sacred snake that coiled up from the southeast to the northwest, villagers seem to believe that a point in the nothwest is superior to one in the southeast.

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The aim of this paper is to discuss the change of terminology of Southwest Santo by means of comparing the data of DEACON, who engaged in his field work in 1920's, and of GUIART, whose field work was in 1950' s. Analysing the data of DEACON, R. LANE maintains that there exists a patrilateral prescriptive alliance in Southwest Santo. So we take up the theme of patrilateral prescriptive alliance in Chapter I. The dispute about it has lasted since NEEDHAM'S paper in 1958. He asserted that the patrilateral prescriptive alliances cannot exist in theory. His assertion consists of two grounds. One is that the patrilateral system is not workable from the point of alliance. The other is that it is bilateral from the point of terminology. In the first section of Chapter. I, what the diagram of prescriptive alliance represents is reexamined and in the second section, in contradiction to NEEDHAM'S assertion it is demonstrated that the patrilateral system can be workable from the point of alliance. In the third section, however, it is certified that it is bilateral from the point of terminology. Being bilateral, the patrilateral system is a unique one which is different from the two-section system in terms of both terminology and alliance. From this point of view, the terminology of Southwest Santo in 1920's is analysed in Chapter II. In the first section it is shown that though the terminology of Southwest Santo is not a patrilateral prescriptive terminology, the former is similar to the latter. By the way, when we discuss the change of prescriptive terminology, we cannot but examine the "evolution theory" of NEEDHAM. He argued the change of terminology from the point of the separation of category. But in the second section of Chapter II it is argued that we should also take into account the fusion of category when we argue the change of terminology. In the third section it is intended to show that the terminology in 1920' s has developed from a two-section terminology. We will find a clue to this intention in the vagueness of DEACON'S report. Although in his most complete list of terms the equation MBS=FZS appears, in his early rough list MBS=S≠FZS appears. This shows that he found MBS=S≠FZS in his early field work but later he revised it to MBS=FZS because he might notice a misusage of terms resulting in the former equation. But "the misusage of terms" is often a sign of change Considering this, we may say that MBS=FZS, which was peculiar to the previous system, has been changing to MBS=S=FZS. Moreover the present system is prescriptive and has some differential characteristics of two-section terminology. In Chapter III the terminology in 1950's reported by GUIART is analysed. It is reported that there is a unique category, vunuk(=line) , in Southwest Santo in 1950' s and even those who have remote relations with ego are classified into "mother's line" or "father's line". The "line" is neither a clan nor a moiety. In the first section, how the "line" Is expressed in the terminology, is argued. The terminology in the 1950' s is neither prescriptive nor lineal, and we find MBS=S≠FZS in it but not MBS=FZS by this time. In the second section we argue how the terminology of the 1920's has changed to that of the 1950' s, taking account of the fact that MBS=FZS has changed to MBS=S≠FZS in the first place.

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If TORIGOE'S reconstruction of Okinawan religious history is correct, when a ritual is performed at present at an "utaki" (sacred grove), the dominant role must be performed by a "nuru" priestess. The purpose of this essay is to reconsider that part of TORIGOE'S thesis by means of an example taken from northern Okinawa. Field work was carried out from June to October 1973 in the villages of Nakao, Oyakawa. Taira, and Kawakami in the rural outskirts of Nago City. The chief priestess of Nakao village known locally as the "Nakao Nuru" also acts as chief priestess for the other three villages. In dealing with this case, therefore, the author decided to treat all four villages as the Nakao nuru's "cult area". In Kawakami village there is a priestess who ranks next below the Nakao nuru known as the "Kawakami nuru". The existence of the "Kawakami nuru" complicates the analysis of this case to a certain extent ; however, other than this one point, the factors involved are the same as in other areas. Although we refer to these four villages as being in the Nakao nuru's "cult area", she does not preside over all of the annual village rites in all four of the villages. For this reason, the author focused on the Nakao nuru's pattern of participation in various annual village rites, and classified them into the following five categories. 1) Rites which in Nakao village are presided over by the Nakao nuru, but which are presided over by other priestesses in the other villages. 2) Rites in which the entire cult area is divided into two sections, one section taken care of by the Nakao nuru, the other by the Kawakami nuru. 3) Rites in which the Nakao and Kawakami nurus jointly preside over in sequence at the ritual sites (kami-asagi) in each of the four villages. 4) Rites in which participants from all four villages are assembled at one place, and presided over by the Nakao nuru. 5) Rites in which priestesses from outside the cult area assemble at ritual sites within the area, and are performed jointly with this cult area's priestesses. In this "cult area" TORIGOE'S thesis finds no support when re-examined in light of each of these five categories. There are two possible reasons why TORIGOE'S thesis does not fit the facts in this case. First, he relied mainly upon historical material (ryukyu-koku yuraiki) when working-out his reconstruction. Secondly, nuru, at the present time, may roughly be divided into two general types ; one type of nuru is responsible for a single-village "cult area", the other type of nuru Is responsible for a multi village "cult area". But TORIGOE does not distinguish between the two different types. This second point is a crucial pillar without which TORIGOE'S reconstruction cannot stand. However, not only TORIGOE'S, but almost all scholarly writings on this subject up to the present time have made the same mistake. Which ritual specialist presides over ceremonies at the village "utaki" (sacred grove) is a fundamental aspect of the village cult in the mainland Okinawa island group. If the two different types of nuru are not distinguished, further research on mainland Okinawa cult organization will be hopelessly confused. Future researth should necessarily be based upon this distinction between the two nuru types, and should be concerned with the roles and status of the various priestesses.

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