The Island of Hateruma 波照間島 is located m the southernmost part of Ryukyu archipelago and therefore is the most southern of the whole Japanese area. This island has been researched by many Japanese and foreign anthropologists, whose conclusions have had an important role in larger studies of Ryukyuan culture. This paper proposes to interpret the symbolism through the analysis of myth and ritual. Myth in Hateruma is divided into two categories, the myth of Brother-Sister (Bigiri-Bunari) Founders who appeared from a cave, where they survived a flood which took the form of a downpour of burning oil, and the myth of the origin of grains. We shall focus on some impl ications in the myth of the Brother-Sister Founders and examine the correspondence between myth and society. Socially the Bigiri-Bunari principle forms the basis for the Utsizamari kingroups that decide a range of members in the economic behaviour pattern. Religiously the center of gravity of this relationship is located distinctly in the Bunari, the sister. Anthropologists have pointed out the impotance of this phenomenon and called it "spiritual predominance of sister". The Bigiri-Bu,tari relationship in Hateruma is also extended to the division of the island into a western (Bunari) and an eastern (Bigiri) part, resulting a spiritual of the Iri (western) over the Ari (Eastern) in the legends and rituals. But there is not only the dualism, but also the tripartition in view of the number of original villages, sacred areas and impotant priestesses. A coexistence of dualism and tripartition traces back to a histotical document of 1713. Generally speaking, dualism shifts to tripartition and vice versa by the impact of social dynamics and conflicts. The place of Mishiku located northwest of Fuka village, near the coast, played an important role in the myth. The Movement from northwest to southeast in it still forms the fundamental axis of symbolism. It is to be noted that, in the houses, the male sides being the south and the east are superior to the female sides being the north and the west, but, in religious affairs, the female sides being the south and the east are superior to the male sides being the north and the west. The pair of northwest-southeast relationship in natural direction coinciding with those of compasses, will be that of west-east relationship in a folk direction shifting 30°-45°from a natural direction, because Simazsi in the northwestern part of Hateruma is in the islander's conception very west and as such connected with cape Takana in the southeastern edge of the island as the very east. However, it seems to me that the monistic thought also exists at the back of spacial dual symbolism. Islanders have a thought of admiration to the eastern holy land overseas. In the festival celebrating the harvest of millet and wet rice, the song welcoming an invisible boat of deities, loaded with seeds of crops and the fertilizing power (Yu, 世) from the holy far away to the east, has been chanted. Concerning rituals, it is important that the worship of the Dead (Uyap'situ) and the Deities ( Uyan) be strictly separated. The rituals of worship of Deities are classified into three categories according to functional units, one at the village level, another at the house level, and the third at a special functional level. As the dates of rituals at the village level are determined by pristesses and some religious functionaries accoring to the Sexagenary Cycle 干支 diffused from china, the implications of this folk taoism can be seen.
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